Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told NBC News that he would not step down, rejecting a question from Kristen Welker about whether he would leave office if it meant “saving Cuba.” In an interview segment with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Welker asked Díaz-Canel about the scenario in a nearly five-minute clip that was broadcast Thursday, with the full interview scheduled to air on Sunday.
Before answering, Díaz-Canel questioned the premise of the question, asking whether it was coming from Welker or from the U.S. government. He then said that, in Cuba, leaders are not elected by the U.S. government and do not have a U.S.-government mandate, adding that Cuba is a “free sovereign state.”
Díaz-Canel said he became president not out of “personal ambition or corporate ambition or even a party ambition,” but because of a mandate from Cuban people. He said that if Cuban people decide he is not fit for office, he should not continue holding the position of president.
The interview came amid ongoing high tensions between Cuba and the United States, even as both sides have acknowledged talks without publicly sharing details. Díaz-Canel said the U.S. government has been pursuing a “hostile policy” against Cuba and said the United States has “no moral to demand anything from Cuba.”
He also argued the U.S. should recognize the cost of the policies on Cubans and said they have deprived Americans of a “normal relationship” with Cuba. In describing what Cuba wants from the talks, he said Cuba is interested in engaging in dialogue and discussing any topic without conditions, while he said Cuba is not demanding changes from Cuba’s political system in the same way the United States is demanding changes from the American political system.
Cuba has pointed to a U.S. energy blockade as a driver of its deepening woes, including shortages of petroleum that it said are affecting the island’s health system, public transportation and the production of goods and services. In late March, a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil arrived in Cuba, marking Cuba’s first oil shipment in three months, and Russia has promised to send a second tanker.
The interview also referenced the context of U.S. restrictions, including that while the Trump administration threatened tariffs in early January on countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, it allowed the Russian tanker to proceed. The AP report said Trump previously told the broadcaster that Cuba was “finished,” adding that it had “a bad regime” and “very bad and corrupt leadership,” and that whether it received a boat of oil would not matter.
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it consumes, and it stopped receiving key oil shipments from Venezuela after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then leader.