Cuba confirms talks with US as crisis deepens

Cuba on Friday confirmed that talks have taken place with United States officials as the Caribbean country continues to face an economic crisis and intense pressure from Washington to abandon its communist policies.

“There are international factors that have facilitated these talks,” President Miguel Díaz‑Canel said in a video broadcast on national television.

“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences ‌we have between the two nations,” Díaz‑Canel said, adding that the talks with the U.S. were led by him, along with former president Raúl Castro and some members of his Communist Party. He did not specify who participated on behalf of the United States.

In the video, the grandson of Raúl Castro, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, appears seated behind Díaz‑Canel.

Media reports say the Trump administration has been having high‑level, secret conversations with several people in Raúl Castro’s inner circle, similar to discussions held with Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro before he was captured in a military raid earlier this year.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump himself has said on several occasions that Washington was holding talks with Cuban representatives, but Friday’s announcement marks the first official confirmation from Havana.

Following Maduro’s capture in a U.S. operation earlier this year, Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sold crude oil to the island, worsening the frequent blackouts and fuel shortages facing Cubans.

Díaz‑Canel said Friday that “this is a very sensitive process that is being approached with responsibility and great sensitivity,” acknowledging that the critical situation on the island “has to do with the energy blockade” imposed by the United States.

“It is a situation for which we have been preparing in advance,” he said, noting that “it is most brutally manifested in these energy issues… (and) this causes anguish among the population.”

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“Right now in the country there are tens of thousands of people waiting for surgery that cannot be performed due to the lack of electricity,” Díaz‑Canel said, noting that healthcare had been particularly hard hit.

Díaz‑Canel added that Cuba, which produces about 40 per cent of its petroleum, has been generating its own power, but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand. He said the lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result.