June 5, 2026
Translation: Walter Lippmann.
Miguel Díaz-Canel [Photo above] is the president of Cuba. He leads a country of just under ten million inhabitants, located 90 miles from Florida. Since the 1959 Revolution, Cuba has been a target of every US administration. But now the situation is particularly extreme and tense, to the point that some compare it to the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), following the tightening of the US embargo with energy cuts and secondary sanctions against companies that do business with Cuban state entities. This latest tightening of the screws, on May 1st, has meant that, as of this week, Visa and Mastercard payments can no longer be made in Cuba , as Spanish hotel companies like Iberostar and Meliá have decided to abandon their hotels on the island after several decades in the country.
The blockade imposed on Cuba is felt in the country’s daily life, in the power and water outages that disrupt communication, streets without traffic lights, uncollected garbage, roads without traffic, and hospitals unable to operate normally. And with each passing day, the situation becomes more critical, because it is another day of the blockade, the uncertainty weighs heavily, and the suffering intensifies for a population that sees the hottest months approaching without fans to help them through the night and forced to cook with charcoal.
In that context, the President of Cuba receives elDiario.es in a room of the Presidency of the Republic transformed into a garden evocative of the times of the struggle in the jungle, with plants and rocks brought from Sierra Maestra, designed by Celia Sánchez, a combatant of the Revolution commanded by Fidel Castro.
“Invading Cuba would cost Cuban lives, it would cost hundreds of thousands of Cuban lives, but it would also cost the invader great human losses in all kinds of cases,” the Cuban president stated regarding the hypothesis of a US attack that US President Donald Trump has threatened in recent weeks.
The interview with below Díaz-Canel below takes place on Wednesday afternoon, June 3, just hours before the Trump Administration ramped up pressure on Havana with sanctions against the Cuban president , his family, the Armed Forces, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, relatives of Raúl Castro and other people and entities in the country.
During our time in Cuba, we’ve been able to visit schools, hospitals, and rice fields, and we’ve seen firsthand how the blockade affects people, especially the most vulnerable. Given this situation, what can the government and you, as president, do to improve people’s lives?
The blockade today is brutal, criminal; it’s something the Cuban people don’t deserve. The most cruel aspect of the blockade is its duration—more than 60 years—and the greatest cynicism is how this blockade is accompanied by a narrative that tries to make the true culprit invisible and attempts to transform reality by blaming what they call the failed state. What we are experiencing is an accumulation of the blockade’s effects; we had other options to survive, progress, and work.
But after 2019, the blockade took on a different quality when the Trump Administration imposed 240 new measures: financial and oil persecution was intensified, and we were included on a list of countries that supposedly support terrorism, which cuts off all possibilities of accessing credit, and makes relations with financial agencies at the international level very difficult.
In the midst of all that, COVID-19 hit, and Biden, a Democratic administration, maintained the same tightened blockade. And now, this second Trump term has been extremely aggressive toward Cuba, especially in recent months.
Once the blockade against Venezuela was being implemented, when the military presence in the Caribbean was increasing to levels unprecedented in the last ten years, and Venezuela was blockaded, fuel shipments stopped. We’re talking about December of last year. Then came the entire media campaign to attack Venezuela, the kidnapping and extradition of the president and his wife to illegally try him in a US court.
And the first executive order arrives.
On January 29, Trump declared the energy blockade against Cuba, and on May 1, he signed another executive order that internationalized the blockade with the concept of secondary sanctions, where sanctions can be imposed on those who are going to have a relationship with Cuba and those who already have it: it is no longer only against American citizens or against American companies, it is against companies or citizens from anywhere in the world.
This accumulated escalation has also led to a policy that tends to seek suffocation in order to create a rupture within Cuban society, to provoke a social explosion and a pretext for intervention with a narrative that makes the true culprits invisible.
Let’s talk about food production: there are no fertilizers, no pesticides, no agricultural inputs, no fuel for farm machinery, no medicine for animals. We are using science and innovation, employing agro-ecological techniques, and we have to rely more on animal traction. And today we have planted a larger area of farmland than in the last 15 years.
But there’s less yield, production is more difficult, and transportation is also affecting us. For example, today we have a ship in port with more than 15,000 tons of rice; that’s enough to distribute three pounds of rice per capita to the entire population of Cuba this month. But now we have no way to immediately transport what’s due to each province because of logistical problems caused by transportation issues.
Today it is more difficult to find someone willing to sell us wheat for our daily bread, and to buy powdered milk for children on the international market.
Healthcare, one of the pillars of the country, is also being hit hard.
We have a robust healthcare system that has proven its effectiveness for years. We are able to share medical services with other countries and provide free medical training for students from around the world. Even American medical students have graduated in Cuba. And yet today, our hospitals lack the energy they need due to power outages.
Therefore, there is a waiting list for surgery of over 100,000 patients, including more than 12,000 children. Just look at the devastating impact of the blockade. Our doctors and nurses arrive in the mornings to fulfill their humanitarian duty to their patients, perhaps having had a very poor night’s sleep due to the power outages, or because, if they had electricity at home in the early hours, it was the only time they had to take advantage of the situation to get through all the chores they’ve been putting off. They also struggle to get around by public transport, as it’s limited due to the fuel shortage. But they arrive and attend to their patients.
All of this is having an impact on some health indicators.
We have always had an infant mortality rate comparable to that of the most developed countries. That infant mortality rate, which at other times was around four, even reaching 3.6 [per thousand live births], has now doubled, standing at just tenths above nine. And it remains a competitive rate internationally, but it is not the one we are used to.
We have programs for the care of children with cancer that are very effective but are limited by a lack of medicines or supplies, and therefore, the survival rate of those children suffering from cancer decreases.
In recent months, through enormous effort and by exporting medical services and biotechnology from our pharmaceutical industry, we have managed to produce a certain quantity of medications. Currently, we have approximately 50% of what we have produced in recent months that we have been unable to distribute to the most remote areas of the country, where these medications are intended, precisely because of logistical challenges caused by the fuel shortage.
Despite having medicines produced by us, they do not reach the population, which is affected by more than 67% in the basic list of medicines.
All of this also has a reflection in the economy, in logistics, in transportation, in production processes and in service processes.
Tourism has declined because the government has targeted and pressured travel agencies. Many agencies are withdrawing from the country against their will due to this pressure. Fuel shortages are preventing airlines from flying to Cuba and refueling their aircraft for the return flight. All of this has severely limited tourism, which was one of our main sources of income.
All of this leads to a contraction in the supply of goods and services available to the population, and inflation reduces the ability of our people to meet their needs. Wages lose purchasing power, and the relationship between wages and prices becomes severely unbalanced. This generates feelings of frustration and weariness among the population.
And how do you deal with that?
A key element is the shift in the energy mix. We are in the midst of an energy transition. Last year, we managed to increase the share of renewable energy sources from 3% to 10%, with over 1,000 megawatts of installed photovoltaic power plants generating more than 48% of the electricity during the day, and sometimes reaching 50%.
On the other hand, we have been recovering power that was not available in the thermoelectric plants with distributed generation [small installations] with more than 1,000 megawatts that could be generating electricity and reducing blackout levels, but they do not work because there is not the necessary fuel for that.
We have to rely on our domestic energy source, crude oil, and it powers our thermoelectric plants. This crude is heavy, and we’ve applied science and innovation to refine it. If we now increase domestic crude oil production, we can also generate surpluses for thermal power generation and other economic processes.
Furthermore, we are implementing the use of biomass and biogas. And we do not relinquish our right to acquire fuel on the market, which is very restricted because of enormous pressure. The enforcers of the U.S. government apparatus exert pressure every time they learn that a ship is coming with the intention of reaching Cuba.
Only one Russian ship has arrived in over five months, and for 15 days it changed the energy situation, proving that we are not a failed state. A failed state could not be surviving in this situation, nor could it demonstrate that when it has resources it can do things differently.
We have also introduced changes to our marketing methods. We have opened up fuel imports to the private sector. But the Cuban private sector has only been able, in recent months, to import around 27,000 tons of fuel, of which 6,000 tons are gasoline and 21,000 tons are diesel. The 6,000 tons of gasoline represent less than half of the country’s monthly consumption, and the 21,000 tons of diesel are enough for a week of electricity generation.
The blockade is so brutal that the fuel we need isn’t getting through, but we’re not going to give up.
He was talking about the latest round of sanctions, the one on May 1st. It happened to me this morning at the hotel; I went to pay for a drink in the cafeteria and my credit card wouldn’t go through.
Today it was announced that the entity that handled credit cards is withdrawing from the country.
And this week we also learned that Iberostar and Meliá are withdrawing from the country. What do you expect from the Spanish government and the European Union regarding two leading Spanish tourism companies leaving Cuba as a result of US sanctions?
They have been investing in Cuba for a long time, they have worked tirelessly with our tourism entities, they are businessmen whom we greatly respect, and they are leaving against their will.
Just as they have been able to develop their businesses in Cuba, they have also brought knowledge to the Cuban tourism sector. And that is why we have a hotel infrastructure, built on the investments made by the country, which can be used today, for example, as assets to offset debt or generate business.
But on the other hand, there is learning, professional training for our people.
There will be hotels that we will have to operate, and we are considering different business models with Cubans who want to invest in and manage hotels. We are open to that, including people from other countries or entities that don’t have accounts in the US or any US ties, and who are willing to work with Cuba. We have offered this business opportunity to Cubans residing abroad. I am sure that many will return to Cuba to continue their businesses, but it won’t be easy given the stubbornness with which the US administration has tried to hinder the development of tourism in Cuba, which it knows is a source of income.
“[Iberostar and Meliá] have been investing in Cuba for a long time, they have worked tirelessly with our tourism entities, they are businessmen whom we greatly respect for the support they have always provided, and they are leaving against their will.”
Spain and Cuba are among the most important countries in our trade relations. We are united by traditions, history, and family ties. The Spanish government has been very respectful of Cuba, and the European Union, for the most part, has always supported the Cuban resolution at the United Nations against the blockade. I believe that now the European Union and Spain must also understand that the blockade not only affects Cuba, but that it is also affecting Spanish citizens, European citizens, and European and Spanish businesses and entities.
Spanish and European banks cannot have relations with Cuba; today it is more difficult for a Spanish tourist to get to Cuba, and European or Spanish investors have to face coercive obstacles and pressures.
No country in the world has the right to act as the global policeman or dictate the fate of other nations. Therefore, the European Union and Spain itself must address this issue and protect their businesses and citizens. They cannot allow extraterritorial laws to be imposed on them from another country, laws that contradict the very principles enshrined in European constitutions and the Spanish Constitution.
“The EU and Spain have to face this and they have to protect their businesses, their citizens. They cannot allow extraterritorial laws to be imposed on them from another country, laws that contradict the very principles enshrined in European constitutions and the Spanish Constitution.”
There was a declaration last April, at the IV Summit of Democracy in Barcelona, against the military intervention in Cuba , in which Spain and other Latin American countries participated.
It was a moment of support from Spain, which has made some humanitarian aid donations at this time.
You were just talking about that first Trump administration, which introduced the ESTA restrictions and represented a radical shift from the Obama administration, which was among the most open to Cuba in recent times. In fact, one of the consequences of those Trump sanctions was that the US did not supply ventilators to Cuba during the pandemic.
Trump intensified the blockade in the second half of 2019, and in January 2020 he included us on the list of countries that supposedly support terrorism. And Biden maintained it.
We received our first COVID case in March 2020, and we had already sent Cuban medical brigades to areas that were the epicenter of the pandemic. At the time, these were regions of Italy. The brigades supported local authorities, worked with the population, and earned tremendous respect and affection, and they learned how to manage the disease. In the first year of the pandemic, we were able to maintain control, and by the end of 2020, we reopened the border.
There were many Cubans who had been abroad for a long time, who wanted to return and see their families at the end of the year. And with the arrival of that avalanche, cases began to multiply, and we fell into a very strong pandemic peak in 2021. By mid-2021, we realized that Cuba had no options with the vaccine distribution mechanisms that existed in the world, and, on the other hand, we had to increase the number of intensive care units so that they wouldn’t collapse, as they had in other parts of the world, including the United States.
This allowed us to see a decrease in infection rates by the end of 2021, when over 60% of the population was vaccinated, and subsequently maintain control of the disease. We were the first country to vaccinate children over the age of two. We were among the top ten or twelve countries that had administered the most vaccine doses per capita.
In the midst of this intensified blockade, with blackouts, lack of supplies and lack of medicines, when we go to look for ventilators for the intensive care units, the United States Government prevents American companies from marketing this type of technology with Cuba.
We had to design ventilators with which we were able to produce what we needed, and today we have the capacity to export those ventilators.
Once again, science and innovation, one of the legacies of the Revolution bequeathed by Fidel, allowed us to obtain these results.
And there is a third fact that also demonstrates the brutality and perversity of the blockade. In the midst of this situation, with a high number of patients hospitalized, our medical oxygen production plant suffered a breakdown, and we had to send the replacement part to a European country. The United States government prevented entities in Latin America and the Caribbean that produced medical oxygen from selling it to Cuba. Other countries, including Russia, supported us; we were also able to receive ventilators and medical oxygen from China and other countries.
That shows you that they were condemning a group of patients to die from lack of oxygen. And that’s how the country faced the pandemic, and we were able to manage the disease better than other wealthy countries that weren’t under blockade. And that has a lot to do with our inclusive and free healthcare model. Given this whole situation, the wealthy were able to receive better care than the poor, but in the end, the pandemic didn’t respect or differentiate between rich and poor, and what it did was claim many lives globally. And I believe that’s an experience from which humanity must also learn lessons.
In the United States, there’s a lot of talk about the possibility of an attack on Cuba. Various hypotheses are being discussed, from an operation like the kidnapping of Maduro, using Raúl Castro’s indictment as a pretext, to other types of operations. In fact, Democrats in Congress have introduced several resolutions on war powers to try to prevent this scenario. Do you think it’s possible?
Cuba is a country that wants peace; we are a country of peace. It is a lie what representatives of the US government say about Cuba being a threat to US national security.
Ten million inhabitants on a blockaded and besieged island cannot be considered an extraordinary and unusual threat to national security, as they have claimed, for the most powerful nation in the world. This is a pretext fabricated to inflame world public opinion and justify the possibility of military aggression against Cuba.
Aggression is increasingly prevalent in the rhetoric of U.S. government spokespeople. This rhetoric is intensifying, and every day there are reports of plans to attack Cuba; every day, U.S. media outlets describe how such an attack could take place. They compare it to Venezuela, but we don’t want war; we want dialogue.
But we are not afraid of war, and we are preparing to face military aggression. We are preparing according to the concept of our military doctrine, which is the war of the entire people, a doctrine of defense with the participation of the entire population to defend ourselves.
That is also a deterrent, because invading Cuba would cost Cuban lives—hundreds of thousands of Cuban lives—but it would also cost the invader heavy human losses in any scenario. It would be a complex outcome for the United States and for our country, but it would also be a threat to the stability and security of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Invading Cuba would cost Cuban lives, it would cost hundreds of thousands of Cuban lives, but it would also cost the invader great human losses in all kinds of cases.”
I believe the United States is pursuing three scenarios: the first is economic strangulation, provoking social unrest, and then using that social unrest as a pretext for intervention in the country under the guise of humanitarian aid. We see examples of this in Haiti, where Haiti is becoming increasingly impoverished and the Haitian people are facing an ever more complex situation.
A second scenario is to pursue a coercive dialogue with Cuba, using maximum pressure to seize control of the Cuban economy in order to economically occupy the country, which would then allow them to bring about a change in the political system. This is the United States’ ultimate goal.
And a third scenario is that of military aggression.
But we didn’t create those scenarios; they’re the scenarios present in their rhetoric. Therefore, we have the right to defend ourselves, to prepare to defend ourselves, so that there are no surprises and no defeat.
And we always try to avoid comparisons with other nations. Because to compare us with another nation would be to ignore the strength of our institutions, the unity of our heroic people, and the determination of the majority of our people to defend the Revolution to its ultimate consequences.
Our history and our traditions of struggle, our attachment to sovereignty, independence and self-determination, which cost us so much work to achieve.
We will continue to defend peace, seeking dialogue and ensuring that dialogue allows us to resolve the contradictions in our bilateral relations and moves us away from confrontation. But for that to happen, there must also be a willingness on the part of the United States government.
And there’s an example in Venezuela: 32 Cubans heroically gave their lives defending their principles, defending their convictions. What wouldn’t millions of Cubans do who are willing to defend the Revolution, sovereignty, independence, and who want to maintain the self-determination we have in this country?
You’re mentioning the U.S. government’s public statements about Cuba, but you’re talking to them. The CIA director was here, and, on the other hand, you also recently met with U.S. Southern Command near Guantanamo Bay. In other words, there are ongoing discussions. So, what are you willing to compromise on? What are you unwilling to compromise on? Where are the red lines?
We can have a civilized dialogue like the one the United States has with other countries it also considers adversaries, regardless of ideological differences. But, in addition, we could have trade relations, cultural, academic, sporting, and scientific exchanges… There could be unrestricted tourism from both sides.
Throughout history, there have been talks or attempts at talks, though not always through official channels. One of the most significant dialogues took place during the Obama administration, when we even re-established relations between the United States and Cuba. There was a complete opening in relations that benefited both countries.
We have always advocated dialogue, and for this reason, our officials have held talks in which we sought to resolve our bilateral contradictions in order to find areas of cooperation where we can move forward with projects that benefit both peoples and guarantee the security of both peoples, of Latin America and the Caribbean, of the region in which we live.
These are conversations that must be approached with great responsibility, discretion, and sensitivity, because they deeply concern the relations between our countries and between our peoples, and they will allow us to build spaces for dialogue that facilitate progress in that relationship and move us away from confrontation.
But it must be a dialogue without pressure, on equal terms, without conditions regarding changes to our political and social system, without considerations concerning our independence, our sovereignty, and our self-determination; a dialogue that observes a principle of reciprocity and respects international law. Therefore, we are drawing red lines there.
There can be no imposition of a change in the political system. The internal affairs of our country are not at stake. This dialogue cannot be based on a position of strength or pressure exerted on the country. And it must be approached with responsibility and discretion.
When distorted accounts emerge about this dialogue process, one wonders: why do they have to resort to such a shameful practice of saying things that weren’t actually discussed? Why do they feel the need to portray themselves as the ones steering the conversation to a point where we have no way out, or putting us under immense pressure, or conditioning us?
We would never accept that. And when anything touches on those issues, there will always be a firm position from the Cuban side and a refusal to continue a dialogue under those conditions.
Now, we believe that dialogue is necessary. There are many things we are open to, for example, American investments in Cuba, and American businesses operating in Cuba. But we are not the ones limiting them; they are limited by the laws of the embargo itself, by the embargo policy itself.
If the United States wants to have that kind of relationship with Cuba, it has to lift some of the limitations imposed by the blockade and the executive orders.
There has always been one country playing the role of aggressor and another the role of victim. The United States has always been the aggressor, and Cuba has always been the victim. There is also an asymmetrical relationship: the one that has pursued an aggressive policy, a policy of blockade, a policy of offense toward the other party, has been the United States toward Cuba.
We have also had conversations on topics such as terrorism and transnational crime, migration issues, covert operations against Cuba, terrorist acts orchestrated in the United States against Cuba, aspects of law enforcement, and the dialogues at Guantanamo Naval Base.
For years we have maintained a monthly dialogue with representatives of the U.S. Armed Forces. One month it takes place on the base and the next month it takes place on Cuban territory. And that was suspended by the United States government.
But the truth is that during this second Trump administration, the blockade has intensified, and the threats have grown. What do you foresee between now and the end-of-year holidays, which are so, so important for everyone? What do you think might happen between now and the end of the year?
As a revolutionary, one always maintains an optimistic view of life. And while acknowledging that we are living through a very complex, very difficult situation…
And uncertainty weighs heavily as well.
We are part of a people who have set a global example of resilience and heroism. And one cannot betray that history. Furthermore, we trust in international support; there is widespread support for normalizing relations and establishing a constructive dialogue.
There is also the possibility that dialogue can help overcome this situation. And, on the other hand, I believe in humanity. There are many in the world who want a better world, who want a different international economic order that is fairer, more inclusive, and that provides opportunities for everyone. There are many in the world who disagree with having a supremacist, hegemonic country that dictates the rules.
“There are many people in the world who want a better world, who want a different international economic order that is fairer, more inclusive, and that provides opportunities for everyone. There are many people in the world who do not agree with having a supremacist, hegemonic country that dictates the rules.”
There are more and more people, more governments, more States that, supported by their people, defend multilateralism and more inclusion, more equality and more opportunities; that do not look down on the peoples and countries of the global south.
And that idea has to reach the world; it has to be faced with dignity. Because what’s happening in Cuba isn’t just happening in Cuba. It happened in Venezuela, it’s been happening in that cruel genocide being committed every day against the Palestinian people in Gaza, it’s happening in Lebanon, with the aggression against Iran.
The world needs to realize that we are all facing a multidimensional aggression from the United States government that manifests itself in a global war that is ideological, cultural, and media-driven.
It is ideological because the United States is trying to impose its hegemony on the world; it is cultural because, to impose its hegemony and make everyone think like the United States, it has to erase the cultural identity of all our peoples and our countries, our histories and our cultural roots; and it is media-driven because, to achieve this, it develops a huge media strategy based on slander, reputation assassination, and repeated lies, as they are doing with Cuba.
What did they do to Venezuela? They created the narrative that it was a narco-state, that Maduro was a dictator, that there was no democracy in Venezuela, and the infamous connection between Maduro and the Cartel of the Suns. And when they launched that entire media campaign, they attacked the country, even while they were in talks with it. That’s where they demonstrate their treachery, how treacherous they are. They illegally kidnapped a president and took him out of his country to try him illegally in the United States. And two days later, the Cartel of the Suns was gone. All the evidence disappeared.
Let’s remember the war in Iraq, when they claimed there was a biological weapons program, and the biological weapons never materialized. Or the war with Iran under the pretext of a nuclear weapon, and there has been no nuclear activity on the part of Iran.
Will a dignified world allow this to be the way things work, this perversity? Or is the world unable to learn from the lessons of history? This is the same as fascism, this is the same as what Hitler did in Europe. Will the world return to that barbarity? Because the issue isn’t just Cuba; what’s happening to Cuba could happen to any country.
“Is a dignified world going to allow this to be the way things work, this perversity? Or is the world unable to learn from the lessons of history? This is the same as fascism, this is the same as what Hitler did in Europe. Is the world going to return to that barbarism? Because the issue isn’t just Cuba; what’s happening to Cuba could happen to any country.”
If I could change anything about the last five or six years—something you sometimes hear in certain circles here in Havana—instead of investing so much in the hotel and real estate sector, could more have been invested in energy and food sovereignty, and in education and healthcare, which are the symbols of the Revolution and are now being severely impacted? Or perhaps some economic reform that wasn’t implemented or was postponed, which would have put us in a better position to face this critical moment?
We’ve always focused on our shortcomings and mistakes, but they’ve also shaped us. And we talk about many things, some more accurately than others, because many of the reforms we’ve proposed have been virtually impossible to implement.
Because to invest you need foreign currency, you need to operate within certain international financial and economic relationships. It’s not just about wanting to change, but also about having the ability to change.
We have made mistakes, there are mistakes, and we must also see under what conditions those mistakes are made, in the experience of a besieged city, and there is also the fact that the amount of reforms that have been made throughout the times of the Revolution is not recognized.
Today, for example, the U.S. government doesn’t recognize the openness that has existed regarding the private sector and the incentives for foreign investment. It’s not that Cuba is changing; it’s that they want us to change the way they want, with total privatization and the adoption of a neoliberal model. That’s not our model.
We don’t tell the United States what changes it should make; those are their problems. I believe history will tell how wrong we were, and even if we hadn’t been wrong, the blockade has been the fundamental cause of our current situation: take away the blockade, and we’ll see how things work out . If you take away the blockade and we’re still unable to move the country forward, to continue transforming and improving our society, then the conclusion could be that we were incompetent and didn’t do what we were supposed to do.
But this country, under a tightened blockade, manufactured COVID vaccines and has health and education indicators that, while not satisfactory to us, are better than those of most countries in the world. The equality in Cuba, the security in Cuba, the respect for human dignity, the non-discrimination, the solidarity with other parts of the world…
The US government says we received unpaid fuel from Venezuela, and that’s another lie. We provided medical services, and those services were compensated with fuel. The problem is that this way of being, of acting, of conceiving life differently, doesn’t fit into the mindset of a supremacist, of someone who thinks they are above others, of someone who treats Latin America and the people of Latin America as their backyard. And now, with the Monroe Doctrine updated with a Trump corollary, our people are being despised.
If we’re so incompetent, why are they blocking me? Why don’t they just let me collapse on my own? Because they have no interest in Cuba improving. That’s a lie. They want to seize control of Cuba, just as they’ve tried to seize control of other places in the world, to extract its resources, to control them, not to improve people’s lives.
And what we always dream about is how we can overcome adversity with everyone’s participation.
You said that the United States was seeking, among other things, a social explosion. Now July and August are coming, a very hot season with power outages. And it’s the fifth anniversary of July 11th. Do you think the circumstances could be right for some kind of explosion? How do you plan to deal with dissent?
We have our programs for each of those scenarios, to address them. But right now we have a grassroots mobilization program with neighborhood-level projects, led by young people, that are focused on how, at the community level, we can improve food production, provide support to vulnerable populations, and work on issues related to energy, recreation, culture, sports, and spirituality.
There is a culture of resistance, a culture of creative resistance.
