WASHINGTON — Cuba’s high diplomat in Washington says Havana is ready to enter diplomatic talks with america, reiterating the nation’s willingness to have interaction whilst tensions escalate with President Trump asserting that the island nation’s authorities might quickly collapse.
“We’re prepared to have interaction with the U.S. on the problems which can be essential for the bilateral relation, and to speak about these wherein we’ve got variations,” Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera, who leads Cuba’s mission in Washington, advised The Occasions on Wednesday.
Any dialogue would wish to respect Cuba’s sovereignty and its “proper to self-determination,” the ambassador stated.
“We’re positive that it’s attainable to discover a answer,” she stated.
Her feedback in a wide-ranging interview come at a very risky second for Cuba, which is underneath mounting financial stress after the Trump administration imposed an oil blockade that has choked off the island’s power provides.
The measures have deepened a humanitarian disaster and prompted Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to name for an “pressing” overhaul to the nation’s financial mannequin.
The state of affairs in Cuba worsened after U.S. forces eliminated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, permitting Washington to later reduce off oil shipments from Venezuela to its longtime ally. The Trump administration later pressured different suppliers, together with Mexico, to cut back deliveries.
“We’re doing our greatest, and we’re being very inventive, nevertheless it has a severe affect,” Torres Rivera stated of the blockade. “It’s a collective punishment in opposition to the Cuban folks.”
The White Home this week framed Cuba’s worsening financial and humanitarian circumstances as a possible opening to stress Havana into negotiations.
“The nation is clearly in a really weak place, economically talking, the individuals are crying out for assist, and the president believes and is aware of the Cuban regime needs a deal,” White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated throughout a information briefing Tuesday.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida) advised the Miami Herald on Wednesday that the Trump administration had been having secret, high-level conversations with a number of folks in former President Raul Castro’s inside circle, an identical method that was taken in Venezuela earlier than Maduro’s seize. (The operation to grab Maduro killed 32 Cuban officers stationed within the nation.)
Cuban President Miguel Díaz -Canel, fourth from proper, holds up a Cuban flag throughout a rally in Havana on Jan. 16, 2026, to protest the killing of Cuban officers in the course of the U.S. operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
(Ramon Espinosa / Related Press)
One other report by the USA As we speak this week stated the Trump administration was near saying an financial cope with Cuba that might ease journey restrictions, amongst different issues. A consultant with the Cuban authorities declined to touch upon the report.
The White Home has not specified what a deal might appear like. However Trump has stated america is serious about a “pleasant takeover” and has steered that the transfer would permit Cubans to go to the island, a spot that many Cuban exiles have frightened about returning to whereas the present regime is in place.
“It’s only a query of time earlier than a whole lot of unbelievable individuals are going again to Cuba,” Trump stated at an occasion final week.
A number of information retailers have reported that the Justice Division is inspecting attainable federal fees in opposition to officers inside Cuba’s authorities, a transfer that would immediate a change within the island’s authorities.
Torres Rivera stated she is conscious of the experiences however stated the “judicial accusations” are an “instrument of political coercion with none legitimacy.”
“It isn’t one thing we’re shedding sleep over,” she stated.
As for the potential negotiations, Torres Rivera didn’t present specifics however talked about restoring diplomatic ties considerably to how they existed in the course of the Obama administration.
“We’re neighbors,” she stated. “We’ve got widespread challenges, widespread threats, and we will talk about all that, and we will converse on the idea of respect for one another’s sovereignty and one another’s proper of self-determination. We’re prepared for that.”
President Trump has approached diplomacy with Cuba with a harsher tone.
“As we obtain a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re additionally trying ahead to the good change that may quickly be coming to Cuba,” Trump stated Saturday, one week after U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran and killed Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He added: “Cuba’s on the finish of the road. They’re very a lot on the finish of the road. They haven’t any cash. They haven’t any oil. They’ve a nasty philosophy. They’ve a nasty regime that has been dangerous for a really very long time.”
Trump stated that he has put Secretary of State Marco Rubio in control of main the talks with Cuba and that he believes a “deal can be made very simply with Cuba.”
Torres Rivera didn’t provide an opinion on Rubio being tapped to steer the negotiations. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants who got here to Florida three years earlier than Castro’s brother, revolutionary Fidel Castro, rose to energy in 1959. She reiterated that Cuba is “prepared to have interaction” in talks no matter who’s main them.
“We’re not speaking about individuals, we’re speaking in regards to the authorities and we’re prepared to have interaction with the U.S. to speak in regards to the essential points that we’ve got in bilateral relations,” she stated.
