The leader of Cuba is calling expatriates who fled to the United States “victims” of American migration policy as the country shuns dialogue with the White House.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced on Monday that there are “no conversations with the U.S. government, except for technical contacts in the migration field,” despite threats from President Donald Trump that the island could be cut off from Venezuelan oil supplies.
“We have always been willing to engage in a serious and responsible dialogue with the various governments of the United States, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, reciprocal benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence,” Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.
“As history demonstrates, relations between the U.S. and Cuba, in order to advance, must be based on International Law rather than on hostility, threats, and economic coercion,” he added.
The statement is another firm rebuke of Trump’s machinations for Cuba in the wake of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s abduction and transport to face trial in New York federal court.
The White House has threatened to use U.S. control of Venezuela as leverage against Cuba, exploiting its heavy reliance on oil previously provided by the Maduro regime.
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last [week’s] U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
He continued: “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Diaz-Canel responded to that ultimatum on Sunday night by vowing Cubans are “ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood.”
WHY MADURO’S CAPTURE IS SUCH A MAJOR CRISIS FOR CUBA
Trump also said he wanted to “take care of” the Cuban diaspora who were “forced out” of the island “under duress,” calling them “great citizens of the United States.”
Those comments seem to have particularly annoyed Diaz-Canel, who asserted in his Monday statement that those Cubans who fled to America through the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 are now being ill-treated.
“They are victims of a change in policy towards migrants and the betrayal of Miami politicians,” he wrote.
Trump replied on Sunday to a jocular social post speculating that Secretary of State “Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba” by saying, “Sounds good to me.”
