Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker. Photo: NBC News.
During an interview with the US mainstream media, NBC News’ Meet the Press program, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that he will not resign from his position. In response to journalist Kristen Welker’s question about whether he would resign to “save his country,” the Cuban president replied that “surrender does not exist in the revolutionary vocabulary.
He emphasized that his mandate comes from the Cuban people, not from foreign powers. “In Cuba, those who hold leadership positions are not elected by the US government, nor do they have a mandate from that government,” he remarked, adding that he would only leave the presidency if the Cuban citizens considered him incapable of representing them.
“We have a free and sovereign state… we enjoy self-determination and independence,” the president said. He also asked Welker whether the question about his resignation was authored by her or by the US State Department.
Regarding the diplomatic aspect, the Cuban president reiterated his willingness to negotiate with the United States. “We can negotiate, but without US pressures or intervention attempts on the table,” he emphasized.
The president’s statements come in a pressure scenario, marked by an intensification of the six-decade-long US blockade against Cuba and constant threats of intervention coming from US President Donald Trump.
At the United Nations’ International Conference on Coercive Measures, Díaz-Canel recently decried that the US blockade has caused critical situations in the healthcare system, affecting surgeries and vital treatments due to the lack of electricity.
Additionally, he stated that the fuel shortage has caused a near-total paralysis of public and private transportation. This has simultaneously affected businesses and food production, negatively impacting the supply of basic goods.
What the president described is a direct result of the executive order signed by Trump on January 29 of this year. This measure empowers Washington to sanction countries that supply oil to Cuba, leading to a fuel shortage in the country.
To justify his executive order, Trump had declared a national emergency by considering Cuba an unusual and extraordinary threat to US national security. Amid Trump’s onslaught, international solidarity has manifested through statements, demonstrations, and the dispatch of humanitarian aid.
In this vein, at the end of March, the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived in Cuba carrying 740,000 barrels of crude oil, equivalent to 100,000 tons. The shipment is vital to alleviate the energy crisis.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
