President Donald Trump’s administration is unwilling to discuss commerce, diplomacy or any other issue that might help relieve the suffering caused by US sanctions, Cuba’s leaders say, as infant mortality and preventable deaths rise.
The two sides are unable to even settle on a basic agenda, she added.
“The channel for dialogue is at a complete standstill,” Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s top diplomat in Washington, said in an interview. “There are no negotiations.”
Torres Rivera also rejected accusations that Cuba poses a national security risk and uses its influence to foment anti-American dissent within the US and abroad. “Cuba wants a relationship of respect with the United States where we can talk about our shared priorities. Asked about the ambassador’s remarks, a US official described Cuba as a failed state that’s been mismanaged for years. In January, US commandos captured Cuba’s top regional ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and cut off the South American nation’s critical fuel supplies to the island. Trump then threatened any country that tried to send oil to the island’s government with punitive tariffs.
Cuba has repeatedly said that it’s willing to make economic changes — and unveiled a package of 176 free-market reforms earlier this year — but insists that its form of government and political leadership aren’t negotiable.
Despite Trump’s pressure campaign, which includes a de facto fuel blockade and squeezing foreign companies that operate on the island, the diplomat said her government wants a good relationship with its powerful neighbor. “Cuba is not a threat to the United States,” she said. The main impediment to better ties with Washington, the official said, is a ruling class in Havana that controls the island for its own gain. A State Department spokesperson said the Cuban government has been so far unwilling to agree to anything that would help its own people. The Trump administration will use all available tools to counter security threats and help the country recover, the spokesperson said.
