Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on March 13 confirmed his government is holding talks with the Trump administration, in the latest sign that the communist-run nation is open to signing a possible historic economic deal with the United States.
Díaz-Canel made the announcement in a video broadcast on national television and he also spoke in a subsequent press conference, where he addressed Cuba’s energy needs amid a U.S. oil blockade, saying no fuel has entered Cuba in three months. He said the talks with the U.S. have reached initial phases only.
“These conversations have been aimed at seeking solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences that exist between our two nations,” Díaz-Canel said.
Still, the rare public remarks from the Cuban leader could potentially lead to Cuba’s biggest economic opening since the state seized and enacted sweeping nationalizations to the economy in 1961 in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. It comes amid escalating pressure from President Donald Trump to force a change on Cuba that could have implications for Americans’ ability to travel to and do business on the Caribbean island.
Cuba’s top diplomat in Washington told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview that Havana was engaged in “serious” and “sensitive” negotiations with the U.S. government. She declined to say how far along the talks may be while stressing the Cuban government has been a reliable partner.
“The dialogue with the U.S. is a process,” Lianys Torres Rivera, the Cuban government’s chief representative in Washington, said on March 13.
USA TODAY previously reported that the Trump administration is preparing an economic deal with Cuba that could be announced soon, though the details of the prospective deal and exact timing are not known.
Díaz-Canel was handpicked by Cuba’s former leader Raúl Castro − the brother of Fidel Castro, who led the 1959 revolution that toppled the Cuban government − as his successor.
“In accordance with the consistent policy upheld by the Cuban Revolution − and under the leadership of the Army General as the historic leader of our Revolution (referring to Raul Castro), as well as my own, and with the collective endorsement of the highest governing bodies − Cuban officials have held talks with representatives of the United States government,” Díaz-Canel said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his aides have reportedly been in secret talks with Raul Castro’s grandson, Raul “Raulito” Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who is close to his grandfather. The White House has declined to comment on the reports but senior administration officials have not denied them.
Díaz-Canel also confirmed that Cuba’s government will release 51 people from the island’s prisons in the coming days as part of a Vatican-brokered deal. Cuba’s foreign ministry announced that move on March 12.
It was not immediately known whether any high-profile political prisoners would be among those released. There are an estimated 1,214 political prisoners currently held in Cuban jails, according to the non-profit group Prisoners Defenders.
“The significance of the gesture will be measured in who is involved,” said Michael Bustamante, of the Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.
Though the prisoner release is a sign of Cuba’s commitment to engage in talks, it’s yet unclear what the U.S.’s goals for the island are and whether Cuba is willing to meet them, said Emily Mendrala, former deputy assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs in the Biden administration.
“Most pressing, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate,” she said, “and the Cuban people are suffering.”
A White House spokesperson reiterated that U.S. officials are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal, which Trump has said he believes “would be very easily made.”
Cuba is a failing nation, the spokesperson said, whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela and with Mexico ceasing to send them oil.
Trump has signaled he wants Cuba to “make a deal” and he is prepared to use Washington’s leverage on Cuba, saying of the country that it may face “a friendly takeover. It may not be a friendly takeover.”
Cuba is the third country after Venezuela and Iran that Trump has pressured to reform either economically, politically or militarily. Cuba has faced acute fuel shortages and rolling blackouts across large parts of the island as the Trump administration has instituted a de facto blockade of oil imports.
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a trade group that has been dealing with Cuba since 1994, said that Trump’s White House has a “two-track” approach to engaging with Cuba’s government.
He said “track one” is commercial, economic and financial and “track two” is political, but that “changing the system is not that important. How the system behaves is important.”
Kavulich added that Cuba’s “standard operating procedure” is “to do only as much change as is necessary to lessen or remove a problem, keep in place the change until the situation is manageable, and then begin to claw-back what changes had been made in the first place.”
He said that may no longer be workable with Trump in the Oval Office.