Cuba on Friday firmly rejected any suggestion that its political system or the president’s term could be negotiated with the United States, responding to reports that Washington wanted to remove President Miguel Diaz-Canel from power.
“I can categorically confirm that the political system of Cuba is not up for negotiation and neither the president nor any official position in Cuba is subject to discussion with the United States,” Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said at a press conference.
The island announced last week that it had entered talks with Washington as an oil blockade imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump has deepened the nation’s economic crisis. Trump has also asserted that he can do “anything I want” with Cuba, a sovereign neighbor.
Speaking to a group of foreign activists delivering humanitarian aid, Diaz-Canel said Cuba was preparing for potential U.S. “aggression.”
“We are not just crossing our arms. In the first place, we recognize that there could be aggression against Cuba,” Diaz-Canel, who has struck a more defiant tone recently, said.
He said on social media Tuesday that “any external aggressor will face an impenetrable resistance.”
USA Today, citing two sources with knowledge of Trump administration plans, reported before Cuba’s announcement that Trump was preparing an economic deal with Cuba that would relax some trade restrictions but include an “off-ramp” for Diaz-Canel.
The New York Times, citing four people familiar with the talks, later reported that the Trump administration was seeking to push Diaz-Canel from power with two years remaining in his presidential term and five years left as leader of the Communist Party.
Both reports said the U.S. proposal would leave untouched the family of former presidents Fidel and Raul Castro. Fidel Castro died in 2016 and Raul Castro, 94, remains highly influential eight years after handing the presidency to Diaz-Canel.
Such a deal would resemble what has happened in Venezuela, where the United States deposed President Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3. Rather than try to install an opposition government, the U.S. has cooperated with acting President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president who took power when U.S. forces removed Maduro in an early-morning raid.
Authority in Cuba is spread widely among senior Communist Party leaders, other government officials and the armed forces, unlike the concentration of power that characterized the Castro years from the start of the 1959 revolution until Diaz-Canel’s term began in 2018.
De Cossio, who has led the foreign ministry’s office on U.S. relations, declined to offer further details of the bilateral discussions, leaving unanswered questions about where and when they are taking place.
But he said there were plenty of topics of mutual interest, including trade between the two countries that has been severed by the comprehensive U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.
He also mentioned longstanding economic compensation each country seeks. Cuba has claims against the United States for damages caused by the embargo, while there are 5,913 claims from Americans whose properties were nationalized in Cuba after the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
“These are very complex issues that can be discussed, but they require dialogue,” de Cossio said. “They require sitting down and are legitimate matters.”
