MEXICO CITY — Cuba has begun direct talks with the United States in an effort to solve “bilateral differences” between the two countries, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said Friday.
The comments, broadcast nationwide in Cuba, are the first confirmation of bilateral talks between the Trump administration and Cuban government. The U.S. and Cuban governments have been fierce adversaries for almost 70 years, since Fidel Castro’s revolution toppled the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
What exactly the talks are about remains unclear, but the Trump administration — which has choked off oil supplies to the island, triggering a severe energy crisis — has been insisting that Cuba’s communist government must change.
Díaz Canel’s comments were deliberately vague, but clearly indicated that the nation’s energy-driven crisis — and President Trump’s insistence on a change — had brought Havana to the table. He insisted that the “sovereignty and self-determination” of Cuba would be respected.
“The aim of these talks is, in the first place, to identify which are the bilateral problems that need a solution,” Diaz Canel said. “And, on the other hand, find solutions for those problems that have been identified.”
From the perspective of Trump, the principal bilateral “problem” is an entrenched communist bureaucracy that has not adjusted to the modern era.
Cuban officials have long blamed the more than 60-year U.S. trade embargo for its economic woes.
The Cuban announcement comes 13 days after the U.S. attacked Iran and two months after U.S. forces, deployed by Trump, deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime Cuban ally, and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Speculation about a political transition in Havana has centered on a Venezuela-type scenario in which leadership viewed as antagonistic to Washington is somehow sidelined in favor of a Trump-friendly replacement.
Many Cuba-watchers have wondered who among the leadership could possibly emerge as kind of Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela. She has been following Trump’s dictates since the U.S. special forces raid on Caracas captured Maduro and his wife.
Rumors of direct talks between Cuba and the United States have been circulating for months, but neither Washington nor Havana had confirmed the talks until now.
On Tuesday, the Cuban ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera, told The Times that the Cuban government was “ready to engage with the U.S. on the issues that are important for the bilateral relations, and to talk about those in which we have differences.”
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have been insistent that the current government must change.
“It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover,” Trump told Latin American leaders gathered in Florida on Monday.
“It wouldn’t matter because they’re down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble,” Trump said.
Trump responded to the Cuban leader’s willingness to negotiate on Friday morning by amplifying a news article with the headline: “Cuba confirms talks with Trump officials, raising hopes for US deal.” He posted that on his Truth Social account.
Rolling blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, a lack of gasoline and other shortfalls have become everyday occurrences on the island, home to 10 million. Images of uncollected garbage rotting on Havana’s streets have been broadcast across the globe. A lack of jet fuel has bludgeoned the critical tourism sector.
“The status quo is unsustainable,” Rubio said last month. “Cuba needs to change… And it doesn’t have to be change all at once. It doesn’t have to change from one day to the next.”
In his 90-minute address, Díaz Canel said that discussions with Washington were based on “respect for the political systems of both countries, sovereignty and our government’s self-determination,” suggesting that from Cuba’s perspective, sweeping political changes in the Communist country were not being considered.
Michel Fernandez Perez, vice director of the Florida-based NGO Cuba Proxima, which pushes for democratic change in Cuba, said he believes leaders in Havana will agree to economic and other changes if it allows them to maintain some degree of political power.
Fernandez said most Cuban Americans are hoping for a full democratic transition in Cuba, where a range of political parties would be able to compete in elections, as well as a free market transformation.
But he said his group, at least, would support less sweeping changes as long as they improved the lives of people living on the island.
“If it means that Cubans live in less misery and have more opportunity, we would support that,” he said.
It is impossible to say what will happen in the negotiations, he said, because Trump is so unpredictable.
“It’s hard to predict what the United States wants or will achieve,” he said. “The [Trump] government is not guided by principals or laws, but the whims of the president and his personal desires and interests.”
McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.
