Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said former President Raúl Castro is involved in talks between Cuba and the United States, and the president described the effort as still early.
Díaz-Canel made the comments Wednesday in a videotaped interview with Spanish leftist leader Pablo Iglesias that lasted more than an hour and was shared by state media, according to the report. Iglesias, who produced the interview for his crowdfunded TV channel, Canal RED, was in Cuba as part of a delegation of roughly 600 activists from 33 countries that arrived the previous week to deliver humanitarian aid.
Díaz-Canel said the talks, which are being conducted by Cuba’s government collectively, are in the early stages. He described the diplomatic process as a “process of conversations that leads to an agreement” that, in his view, “is a long process,” adding that the first step is building a channel for dialogue.
He said the parties then need to develop shared agendas of interests and demonstrate intent to move forward, “truly commit” to the program, and base that commitment on the agendas developed through discussion. In his framing, the exchange is not simply a single round of meetings but a structured effort designed to establish both dialogue mechanisms and overlapping priorities.
The interview took place as tensions have increased between the two countries, with Díaz-Canel linking the broader diplomatic backdrop to Cuba’s worsening energy situation. The report said Cuba has been experiencing nationwide blackouts amid problems with a crumbling power grid, including two nationwide blackouts in the past week that left millions without electricity.
Díaz-Canel also addressed the role of U.S. policy in the environment surrounding any potential talks. The report said the U.S. has threatened tariffs on any country that provides oil to Cuba, and it described Trump as having recently said he would have “the honor of taking Cuba” soon. It also said the initial threats were later softened but that the blockade remained in place and that Cuba had not received any fuel shipments in the past three months.
In response to questions about whether there were communications between the governments, Díaz-Canel said his officials and those from the U.S. State Department “held recent talks,” according to the report. He did not provide details about the content of those contacts, but he said the conversation environment includes uncertainty and speculation about the leadership involved.
Asked about speculation regarding how Castro would figure into the overture, Díaz-Canel said the claims involved divisions within the revolutionary leadership, without clarifying who he was referring to. He then said Castro “is one of those who, along with me and in collaboration with other branches of the (Communist) Party, the government, and the State, has guided how we should conduct this dialogue process, if this dialogue process takes place.”
The Cuban president added that Castro is “the historical leader of this revolution, even though he has relinquished his responsibilities,” and he said Castro maintains a “prestige earned with the people” based on “historical recognition that no one can deny,” as the report described. The comments also recalled that Raúl Castro succeeded Fidel Castro as president and led talks with former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 that resulted in the reopening of embassies and the re-establishment of diplomatic relations.
The report also described warnings from the United Nations as Cuba’s energy system deteriorates. Francisco Pichón, the resident coordinator of the United Nations in Cuba, said that if the situation continued and Cuba’s fuel reserves were depleted, the United Nations feared “an accelerated deterioration with the possible loss of lives,” according to the report.
Pichón warned that the situation could provoke a “humanitarian crisis,” and the report said U.N. officials estimated it would require $94 million to address Cuba’s energy crisis and last year’s hurricane damage. The report said the crippled energy grid had been slated to cut off 96,000 people—around 11,000 of them children—from receiving surgeries and to disrupt vaccine schedules for 30,000 minors, while it said it had already cut around a million people who depend on water deliveries from trucks off from access to water.
The United Nations officials highlighted, the report said, both the need for fuel to enter Cuba and the potential of solar power to keep schools and hospitals running and to pump water for irrigation.