Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, launched a new challenge to the United States this Wednesday amidst ongoing negotiations between the two countries, which are taking place amid growing tension. The president, who also chairs the long-standing Cuban Communist Party, stated that dialogue with Washington can only proceed if the northern power respects Cuban conditions. “If the United States does not agree to negotiate on Cuban terms, there is no negotiation,” Díaz-Canel affirmed in a television program recorded in Havana’s emblematic Palace of the Revolution.
The communist leader made his position clear by stating that “our internal problems are not on the table for a conversation with the United States.” These statements come two days after it was made public that the U.S. government gave Cuba a two-week ultimatum in a secret meeting to release high-profile political prisoners. Washington specifically pushed for the release of artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and rapper Maykel Osorbo. Díaz-Canel confirmed in mid-March that officials from his government began talks with representatives of the Donald Trump Administration, amidst the economic debacle the island is experiencing.
The negotiations are taking place in opacity, although the Cuban regime has admitted to dialoguing with Washington after a series of rumors and speculations about this rapprochement. Díaz-Canel, however, tried this Tuesday to show that Havana holds the upper hand in these “dialogues” and affirmed that negotiation can only happen if its powerful counterpart accepts the terms set by the government of an island plunged into an energy and economic crisis that severely affects its population, cornered into survival.
The president expressed it as follows: “If the United States does not agree to negotiate on Cuban terms, there is no negotiation. A negotiation has to be built. First, we have to talk. First, we have to identify what we can work on together, and after that, we have to show the willingness to do it constructively. If one of the parties does not favor that dialogue, does not favor that conversation, wants to impose, it breaks the conversation, it breaks the negotiation.”
The Cuban advocated for what he calls “a condition of equality” at the table. “We have always started from that,” he said in the interview with the Brazilian program 20 minutos. “Respect for our political system, our sovereignty, and our independence, under the principle of reciprocity and respecting international law,” he added.
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The American newspaper USA Today published information a week ago about the imminence of an economic pact between both countries, which, the newspaper hinted, involved removing Díaz-Canel. Trump reacted to the confirmation of negotiations with the Cuban side without his traditional incendiary tweet: “Cuba confirms talks with U.S. officials, which increases hope for a deal.”
In addition to the economic aspect, the release of hundreds of political prisoners from the Cuban regime is fundamental for Washington. Washington has pushed for the release of Alcántara and rapper Osorbo, but this Wednesday the People’s Supreme Court (TSP) of Cuba dismissed artist Otero Alcántara’s appeal requesting his early release. The court, according to EFE, rejected the prisoner’s appeal, who was sentenced in 2022 to five years in prison for the crimes of “contempt, public disorder, and outrage against national symbols of a continuous nature.”
Díaz-Canel assured that Cuba would not accept a regime change in negotiations with the United States and said that conversations must develop with respect for the island’s political system. “Cuba has always been willing to dialogue with the United States Government, as long as it is from a position of respect for our political system, our sovereignty, our independence, without conditioning and on equal terms, because conditioning is not dialoguing,” he affirmed. And he concluded: “Imposing does not allow negotiation.”
