Jorge Lefevre Tavarez and Luis de Jesús Reyes – July 2, 2026
By Jorge Lefevre Tavárez and Luis de Jesús Reyes CLARIDAD
When CLARIDAD originally devised the possibility of interviewing Miguel Díaz Canel, President of the Republic of Cuba and First Secretary of the Council of Ministers of the Communist Party, all the forces of the renewed imperialist aggression of Donald Trump’s second presidency had not yet manifested. There had not been the invasion of Venezuela, the war with Iran, or the tightening of the blockade against Cuba through an energy blockade, which has stopped the arrival of fuel to the country and completely stopped its economy. When the request for the interview was accepted, the immediate political circumstances guided, to a large extent, the course of the interview: the preparation, the trip, the questions.
The Havana that received us was different from the one previously known, of power and water cuts due to the precarious situation, of garbage crisis, but also of signs of response to the situation: motorcycles and electric tricycles, communities self-organizing to clean their common spaces. The interview took place at the Palace of the Revolution, the headquarters of the Presidency and the Government, with its large spaces, its paintings that reference the history of the Cuban Revolution, and an interior garden, originally designed by Celia Sánchez, to simulate the vegetation of the Sierra Maestra
From the CLARIDAD team, Alida Millán Ferrer, Director of Claridad, Jorge Lefevre Tavárez, alternate director of En Rojo, Luis de Jesús, Puerto Rican journalist living in Cuba and correspondent of Claridad, Alina Luciano Reyes, head of photography of CLARIDAD, and with the contributions of Mauro González, in the video. Added to that is the constant support in all facets of the trip and this interview by Edwin González Vázquez, from the Puerto Rican Mission in Cuba.
Jorge Lefevre Tavárez: On behalf of the Claridad team, we want to thank you for this opportunity, Mr. President Miguel Díaz Canel….
Miguel Díaz Canel: First, don’t call me Mr. President, I’m not a gentleman, I’m a colleague of yours.
JLT: In recent weeks, certain issues have caused great interest and great questions about what is happening in Cuba, within the context of an intensification of imperialist aggression by the Presidency of Donald Trump. We wanted to start the conversation by commenting on the 176 economic and social measures that have just been announced. From different ideological perspectives, there is a question that has arisen: what could happen in the future, based on these measures, which open certain strategic sectors for Cuban socialism to private capital and the market? To give two examples of these, there is an opening to private banking, and the flexibility of the sale of real estate. We wanted to know, then, his opinion on these concerns and on a possible opening to capitalism in Cuba.
MDC: I think it is unfair when they indicate that these measures, which we are applying in a sovereign way and that have been built with a certain consensus and with the discussion of many years, have something to do with a capitalist restoration. As part of the natural process of generational continuity in Cuba, the generation that is assuming at this moment the main responsibilities in the Communist Party and in the government, in the state, we were born with the Revolution and we defend the Revolution. The Revolution is our life. It cannot be thought that any of us is promoting a capitalist restoration in Cuba.
But whenever something is done in Cuba, everything is controversial, it always arouses interest. The Cuban reality is also manipulated and many interpretations are tried from the right and, unfortunately, sometimes also from the left.
In the first place, we have a challenge as a nation, we have a challenge as a Revolution, and it is a challenge that we have to assume with great responsibility and objectivity. Cuba is trying to carry out the process of socialist construction, and I insist, of socialist construction in the conditions of a small island that has survived the economic, commercial and financial blockade, intensified and now taken to the maximum extreme with an energy blockade, by the most powerful power in the world. How is socialism built under these conditions? Did anyone conceive it? Could someone have overtaken it?
We have studied Marxist theory. We have also studied the Russian Revolution, we have studied the revolutionary movements of the world, the experience of socialist construction in Vietnam and China. But no one has been subjected to the prolonged blockade that Cuba has had. Who can teach us how socialism is built in these conditions if no one has that experience, if no one has lived it that way? That’s why we’ve gone to the essence of our history, and to the essence of the thought of Fidel, of the army general, and also to the legacy of Che’s thought.
This is a debate that had already begun several years ago. Although there are people who say that these are new measures, since the Sixth Party Congress, when the first version of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines came, it was already proposed that changes had to be made to our economic and social model without renouncing socialism. Subsequently, in the Seventh and Eighth Congresses, the economic and social model was conceptualized.
In the process of construction or, as it is called, of transition to socialism, there are different types of property. What distinguishes socialism is that social ownership is the fundamental one, over the main means of production. We have not denied that. On the other hand, in our Constitution, and it is a socialist constitution, different types of property are recognized and how to manage even the social property of the entire people by different economic actors.
We are living in an extremely complex situation of blockade with accumulated damage at the economic and social level due to the prolongation of that blockade. We have to be capable, with Cuban characteristics, of building that socialism. Therefore, it is a question of not renouncing the ideal, and of moving forward, without denying socialist construction. Because we have never been able to achieve the socialism we want, but the one we have been able to do.
I am very struck by the fact that this programme of measures has many aspects, a lot of content, and yet they dwell a lot on whether we open up certain activities to the private sector or not. Why don’t they see that the measures, the first thing they do, is to declare the continuity of socialism in Cuba? Why don’t you see that we continue to ratify social property as the main form of property? Why don’t they say that all we are trying to do is unleash the productive forces to build more in the midst of these conditions, to produce more material wealth to distribute it with social justice? Any measure that we are going to apply always takes a look at people who are in a situation of vulnerability or in a situation of inequality. These are socialist concepts that are at the forefront of everything we are going to do.
But, in addition, most of the people who represent the sector, let’s say, non-state in Cuba, private, are revolutionary people. They are not people who oppose the Revolution. When we are talking about the possibility of Cubans living abroad investing, we are not talking about Cubans who want to make the Revolution disappear, we are talking about Cubans who have maintained a relationship with their country, a relationship with their identity, who want to contribute. It would be very contradictory if we, who are open to foreign investment, do not open ourselves to investment by Cubans who reside here or who reside abroad. These are elements that are in the content of this measure. And there are historical references.
Remember that Cuba has never had it easy as a Revolution. We were in 1962 in a crisis, on the verge of a global nuclear conflict. Then, in the nineties, came the Special Period. In the Special Period, things that now look very normal were totally innovative and necessary at that time. At that time, for the first time, Cuba decriminalized the currency, and decriminalizing the currency already meant the creation of certain levels of inequality in a society that has always fought for social justice. It meant that a group of people were going to be distinguished from others, not because of the contribution of their work, which is the principle of distribution in socialism, but because they had the possibility of remittances. But the country needed foreign currency. Those currencies did not enter because they were blocked; if they could enter that way, why would we deny it?
Things, in political economy, must be seen in all their interrelation. Cuba takes this step to have a level of foreign exchange. But why is Cuba going to have that currency? To strengthen social programs, to strengthen the economy, and by strengthening the economy, to be able to sustain social programs. Our vision, which Fidel taught us, is economic development, but with social growth. Capitalist countries develop economically, but there is no social development because there is no social justice. All of that has been in that debate.
Rest assured that there is no betrayal of socialist construction here, neither by principle nor conviction nor by action. Here we are going to continue defending socialism and we are going to continue defending social justice. But we need to unleash the productive forces so that the country creates more wealth, and by creating more wealth we can sustain the conquests of the Revolution… That is a merit of the Cuban Revolution, in so many years of blockade, we have maintained social conquests such as education and health, with universal, quality, free systems, with access for all. There are countries that have a lot of wealth and have not even managed to have that.
Luis De Jesús: Many of these measures, including Cuban economists, Cuban experts, had proposed them and had been proposing them for several years. You even commented that they had already been discussed at previous party congresses. The question that remains now is: why with the speed and immediacy that has been done now?
MDC: For understanding. One cannot apply measures if there is no understanding, if a consensus has not been built. Notice that even so, in the midst of this situation, we are raising them and there are divided opinions. I depend a lot on what we ensure politically in the understanding of these measures. These are measures that have contradictions, that have risks.
Not all economists always raised them from the perspective of socialist construction. A group of economists are already out there saying that there is a project of market social development – they took away the word socialism. There are others who have begun to say that changes must be made in the political system. We are not going to make changes in the political system. We continue to defend our socialism.
That was a debate, as I was telling you, of the Sixth Congress. It was enriched in the Seventh, progress was made in the Eighth and we were already preparing for the Ninth Congress. At the end of last year, when we were going to take all these things to the Ninth Congress, we had to make the decision to postpone it, because the situation in the country was very complex and we had to focus on the fundamentals.
But what do we explain in the 11th. plenary session of the Central Committee of the Party, which was held at the end of last year? That the postponement of the congress did not mean that we were not going to implement the things that were necessary to give continuity to the Revolution.
Undoubtedly, the situation is also giving us urgency. Not a drop of fuel has come in here for six months. Can any economy in the world run without fuel? Can any economy in the world sustain social programs, social justice without fuel? They have applied a genocidal, criminal policy to us. What is being committed against Cuba is a crime. And in the midst of these conditions we continue to dream and we continue to defend our principles. But there are things that have to change.
LDJ: About the conversation or communication that has to take place with the people, so that they understand these measures. Mr. President, I have been living here for five years, and in recent times we are seeing scenarios that were not seen four years ago. For example, on my block, there are pots and pans practically every night due to discontent with the blackouts. Do you think that the population is really understanding the situation they are in?
MDC: I think most of it. We cannot be idealistic, and sometimes Cuba is seen with tremendous idealism and it is believed that in a process of socialist construction with U.S. aggressiveness, everyone is going to think the same and everyone is going to act the same. That is impossible. What happens is that these peculiarities are only put on Cuba in the media intoxication with which they try to discredit. This is also a heterogeneous society, as are any of the societies in the world. But it is a society with political maturity. I can tell you that most of our people know what the cause of our problems is, and they know that more than because of poor management, how the spokesmen of imperialism try to blame us (because they know what is the will with which they work here, they know what is the link with the people and how the problems are addressed). that the main obstacle to development is the prolonged blockade and the intensification of that blockade.
But that alone does not satisfy them. That conviction alone, resistance alone, is not what solves the problem. That is why I said in the National Assembly and in the last plenum of the Central Committee, that a revolutionary government, a revolutionary party aware of the situation, is not only there to explain the crisis, it is there to help solve the crisis.
We have to do things, and not stay stopped in time. I tell them, in the midst of all this situation, which you have lived, that it is hard – because here there is a shortage of transportation, food, medicines, here there are prolonged blackouts of more than twenty hours – that causes dissatisfaction, no one can be happy, the people are suffering. It is part of the imperialist strategy. The imperialist strategy is to suffocate us economically in order to provoke that: a rupture between the people and the revolution. As Trump once said, “we have applied all possible pressures, there is almost nothing to apply to them other than to raze them away.”
And why has it not achieved social outburst? Why haven’t they managed to break up?
People bang pots and pans, some with more disgust than others. I say: well, play the pot for the neighbors to the north, who are the ones who have us with this blackout.
There are all these realities. As I say, it is the Cuban color, the nuances in the way we also act and feel things. These are not issues to be seen in black and white, they go through many situations, for many reasons. But, look, I have the conviction that we are going to overcome it, and that we are going to move forward, and that we are going to win, and that we are not going to give up. We are not going to give up.
JLT: When you assumed the presidency, there was still a certain optimism from the dialogue that had been resumed with the United States, which, although it never eliminated the blockade, established some communication and that bore economic fruits. Now, despite the fact that Cuba has demonstrated time and again its interest in dialogue, there is no longer only resistance to dialogue, but an all-out offensive in this second presidency of Donald Trump. First, we want to know if you would like to reflect on that change, but also to think about how Cuba prepares itself in this hostile environment based on this radical change in the United States government.
MDC: Cuba and the Revolution have always had a position, and it has been that of the possibility of a channel of communication that allows us, through dialogue, to solve the problems of today, and that we can have a civilized relationship, between neighboring countries, between neighbouring nations, regardless of our ideological differences, which there will be. The United States maintains relations with some countries that they consider their adversaries. It has relations with Russia, it has relations with China, it has relations with other countries that are not its allies.
Now, Cuba has always proposed that a dialogue has to be based on respect for our self-determination, our sovereignty, our independence, without questioning our political system, without initial conditions to engage in a conversation. A dialogue that helps preserve Cuba’s national security, the national security of the United States, including the stability of the Latin American and Caribbean area. That this dialogue allows us to work and distinguish areas, spheres, areas in which we can carry out constructions and projects that benefit both peoples, and that is what they deserve. These peoples do not deserve a confrontation.
To do so, it has to start from the willingness of both parties, it has to start from a sensitivity, because bilateral relations are at stake. These conversations also involve certain moments of discretion in order to build consensus, to also be able to address an agenda that allows us, then, to move forward in those conversations and move away from confrontation.
The Barack Obama administration acted in that way. The Obama administration was a discreet government in the conversation, it advanced, it took steps, it never conditioned us anything, and we took joint steps until the time came when the results of those talks could be announced and relations were opened. Obama did not lift the blockade, but Americans and Cubans were able to start coming to Cuba, some business could be done, tourism increased, and both countries benefited.
We can share a lot as peoples: many topics, many experiences. I always explain how my family always goes to the closing of the Jazz Festival that takes place every year, and that at the end there is an orchestra between American musicians and Cuban jazz musicians. You leave there emancipated, with a sense of cultural well-being. This can be produced by two peoples who come together culturally at a certain time. Why should an aggressive policy deprive two peoples of such things? Or why can’t we share the scientific-technical advances of both sides? Or why does a Cuban athlete, in order to play in the big leagues, have to say that he is politically persecuted, and then be denied to see his family in Cuba, invest in Cuba, bring his money to Cuba? Those are things that they don’t do to anyone. Why this vision of Cuba on the part of the United States? By the example of Cuba, will it be?
We are trying to build that channel of communication, and every day there is a different sanction for a Cuban entity or for a Cuban person, every day there is a rhetoric threatening that they are going to invade us or that they are going to attack us. Every day there is an offense against our people, every day the screws of the blockade are tightened. When these things happen, confidence is lost in what can be done in dialogue.
There is a position of total asymmetry. There is totally lying and slanderous behavior on the part of the United States government. It takes as a pretext that Cuba is an extraordinary and unusual threat to the national security of the United States. That’s a lie. We have never done anything that is an aggression against the United States. They say that Cuba is a country that supports terrorism. That’s another lie. We are victims of terrorism, we have more than 3,200 victims of terrorism, of terrorism that has been engendered and supported by the governments of the United States.
Recently, we annihilated an act of terrorism, an expedition that left the United States. The United States does not allow oil ships to pass into Cuba, but it can let boats that come to commit terrorist acts pass. There is a lot of hypocrisy and very little dignity in these positions, a lot of lies and a lot of slander, a lot of hatred and a lot of arrogance.
The Cuban people are a rebellious people, a people consistent with their history. In the midst of all this situation, we have sought an approach, we have proposed a shield to defend our sovereignty, our self-determination and our creative resistance, which has five components. The first component is the defense of the country. We’ve been raising the levels of readiness for defense. Our conception is totally defensive; we do not prepare to attack, we prepare to dissuade, so that anyone who attempts an adventure of aggression against Cuba knows how costly it can be. So that there is no surprise, so that there is no defeat.
We are developing a broad political movement with the population, of popular participation, and above all, today, in the community, because that is the fundamental scenario where all our processes are developed and where today people spend more time due to the same regulations that we have had to order (in working life, in the school year) as part of all these limitations due to pressures.
We are giving a leading role to young people. The young people have been able to make a very innovative design: the community youth network, with seven projects to address the care of the vulnerable, food production, energy issues, cultural issues, social discipline, and the fight on social networks in defense of the Revolution.
We have also developed a media offensive. We cannot let the only content on social networks in relation to Cuba be all that campaign of intoxication and hatred that comes from all the operators subordinated to the interests of the empire.
And a fifth is also an international call, a strategy of an international movement of solidarity with Cuba.
There are many more things in the economic strategy, but among them, there are some fundamental ones. We are going to eat what we are able to produce. Therefore, we are promoting a whole strategy to achieve the country’s food sovereignty in the shortest possible time, producing ourselves. And the other major issue is the energy transition through renewable energy sources. Last year, we achieved investments of more than 1,000 megawatts in photovoltaic parks. We would have collapsed if we hadn’t had that. And we are going to continue with that transition, plus the use of national crude.
LDJ: Taking into account this recent history of aggression against Venezuela, against Iran, while these negotiations were taking place, is there fear in Cuba that, at the same time that they are trying to dialogue with the United States, they are plotting?
MDC: There is a perception in Cuba that there is a danger of aggression. A danger of aggression, because they are constantly saying it. We are not saying it, they are saying it.
We have mobilized the population for defense. Every Friday is National Defense Day. The people are preparing. We have updated all the plans for the defense readiness.
We have the example of what it means to know how to defend oneself: the 32 combatants in Venezuela. Those did fight. They were able to stop the action of an elite force of the United States that surpassed them in technology, in numbers, in weapons and, in addition, because of the element of surprise. And yet, they fought heroically. There were thirty-two of them. What will not become of millions of Cubans willing to defend their homeland, to defend the Revolution?
JLT: Part of what is causing the intensification of the blockade, in particular the energy blockade, is the pressure that the United States is exerting with respect to other countries and their relations with Cuba. We would like you to comment on an impression that one has: while Cuba has historically been a country that has been very supportive of the countries that have needed or asked for its help, one sees that – at a time when there is a lot of talk of multipolarity, of a challenge to the hegemony of the United States – countries, including those with so-called progressive governments, they are not necessarily providing the help that Cuba needs. Oil-producing countries that, for one reason or another, have not been emphatic in challenging what is, in effect, a genocidal policy of the United States.
MDC: Solidarity is a way of acting; I would say the most altruistic way of acting of a person, a social group, a community, a country, a people, a nation. Solidarity is only offered when there is conviction and when there is a position of non-selfishness. Fidel taught us the concept of solidarity. Fidel always explained to us that solidarity was a moral commitment, it was a moral debt that one had to fulfil with the rest of humanity, and that it was a way of expressing generosity. He always told us that we were not in solidarity by sharing what we had left over, but that we were in solidarity by sharing what we had, whether it was a little or a lot. Cuba, as you describe, in all these years, I believe that it has been an example, a bulwark of what solidarity has been in the world. I believe that solidarity is one of the values that we have to exalt in the world, because it is the way out of the selfishness and individualism that consumer societies believe in. And, in fact, there is solidarity with Cuba. Cuba is not alone. On important dates, such as May Day, July 26, thousands of people from all over the world arrive in Cuba to express their solidarity.
That solidarity comes to us from Puerto Rico every year. More than 35 years ago, the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade arrived in Cuba, led by that friend and sister that is Milagros Rivera. In the midst of these difficult times, we have received solidarity from the brotherly Mexican people and its president, Clauda Sheinbaum. Help has arrived from the Russian Federation: the only ship that has been able to enter Cuba in six months was a Russian ship that gave us a 15-day break. I’m sure that, in the neighbourhood where you live, there were fewer blackouts those days than in the current ones. You have the experience of everything I am telling you. We have received help from China; many of the investments that we have been able to make in photovoltaic parks and other types of inputs have come to us from China. We have also received help from Vietnam, we have received help from many organizations and many political movements of solidarity.
Cuba will never ask for solidarity in exchange for what we have given. Because look, we start from a criterion, and that is that solidarity is the most altruistic position that can mark the behavior of a person, a community, a country, a nation, a people. Cuba is not going to ask for anything in return for solidarity.
But I do believe that it is a moment – and I tell you with a feeling that is not at all centered on Cuba – when defending Cuba in this situation is not only defending Cuba, it is defending the causes of anti-imperialism, the cause of socialism, the cause of the anti-colonial struggle, the cause of social justice. Whoever rises up for Cuba in these times, as Martí said, rises for all time. Because what they are doing to Cuba can be done to any country in the world. The world cannot be an accomplice by omission, by remaining silent in the face of what is happening. Because if they get used to doing it to Cuba, and they get used to doing it to someone else, where are we going to get to?
Besides, is that the better world we want? The one that Fidel asked us to help build? A world where today the language of war, threats, unilateral measures, coercive measures predominates, where the gap between rich and poor is increasing, where the world is increasingly exclusive.
I believe that an issue like Cuba today should be in the debate of the Security Council of the United Nations. Now, you know that in that Council there is a practice that is the right of veto, which is totally undemocratic. With that right of veto, it is very difficult to condemn the United States and its allies.
Notice that what has been happening with Cuba has been happening in Gaza, with the genocide against the Palestinian people, and it has been happening with the aggression against Iran, and with the aggressions and conflicts that exist in other parts of the world in which the government of the United States is almost always involved.
I believe that regional integration blocs, such as the Group of 77 and China, CARICOM in the Caribbean area, the Non-Aligned Movement, should also be demanding in the United Nations General Assembly that the blockade on Cuba and all these sanctions and all this genocidal practice be lifted immediately. I believe that governments in solidarity have to find legal and humanitarian mechanisms that allow them to reach Cuba with aid and break through this imperialist siege.
LDJ: Mr. President, let me take it here, because Jorge’s question seems very important to me at the moment that Cuba is going through. Cuba has made gestures of solidarity and altruism with the rest of the world that for me are immeasurable. And yet, beyond the peoples and popular movements, it seems that there is no response comparable to the solidarity that Cuba has had with the rest of the world. The question is, does Cuba expect more from the rest of the world?
MDC: My answer is that Cuba is not going to demand that anyone give us more solidarity in exchange than we have given. That is left for the people. That is left to the governments, it is to the people. We are not going to qualify anyone because they give us more or less solidarity. The one we have given, we have given out of conviction.
Now, we do believe that today there should be an intense debate at the level of the United Nations, at the level of regional blocs, in support of Cuba. Solidarity with Cuba today is a strategic issue for humanity. Because in Cuba everything that is anti-capitalist, everything that is anti-imperialist, is being defended. In Cuba, peace is being defended, security is being defended, independence is being defended, self-determination is being defended. In the same way, I believe that governments in solidarity have to be able to find legal formulas that break the foundations of this multidimensional siege.
And it would be unfair if I said that we have not received help. We have received help from solidarity movements, political movements, political parties, social movements, but there are countries that have helped us. Mexico, and President Claudia, are constantly looking for ways to help Cuba.
We have been talking about the position of the governments. I think we should also look for the position of the peoples. Because there is no imperialist aggression that can break the position of the peoples. And in relation to this, I would dwell on three elements. One, to break the media siege that exists on Cuba, and to build communication platforms that inform about the Cuban reality, as you are doing: you have come to Cuba, you have seen the Cuban reality and you are going to tell the Cuban reality. A second area: that actions of solidarity with Cuba and humanitarian aid to Cuba continue to be promoted, as was the case with the Flotilla de Nuestra América and as more than 120 organizations that have been sending aid to Cuba have done.
I tell you that the Cuban people are very grateful for it. Today we have in all municipalities, the main social centers, that is, the centers that provide assistance to the population (polyclinics, banks, nursing homes), photovoltaic systems in order to overcome this situation. Many have to do with a program that we have made as a government, but many also have to do with the donations that have been made to us, that international aid that has come fundamentally from brother peoples, from friendly peoples, from solidarity movements. That is a second space.
And a third space is for the people to also be able to influence parliaments and their governments so that they find the legal bases with which to dismantle this entire policy of encirclement by the United States. Remember that this blockade intensified in recent times is further intensified by two executive orders: the executive order of January 29, which declares the energy blockade, and the order of May 1 that internationalizes the blockade, and with the mechanism of secondary sanctions the United States government is condemning anyone in the world – be it a government, whether it is an entity, whether it is a company, whether it is a businessman, whether it is someone who wants to cooperate or have a relationship with Cuba. Governments also have to defend themselves. Who gave the United States the right to act as the world’s policeman, or to rule in other countries? Does he have that right, does he have that power? In the face of this, we must oppose it, and the peoples must force their governments and parliaments, which represent those peoples, not to accept this imposition.
JLT: Something that has also affected Puerto Rico, as part of this renewed imperialist aggression in the region, is the large military presence in Puerto Rico. It varies from week to week, but there may be 15,000 members of the U.S. military in what has been called a remilitarization of Puerto Rico.
MDC: This is part of the current policy of the U.S. government. We can catalog that U.S. imperialism is in a phase of historical decadence, that the decadences of empires in history are prolonged, and that empires, when they are in decline, assume those aggressive positions that are those that characterize U.S. thought today, an ultra-conservative, supremacist, hegemonic, fascist thought.
They have updated the Monroe Doctrine, it has a corollary with the name of the president of the United States. What is the Monroe Doctrine? The doctrine of contempt for Latin America. They see us as America’s backyard. When they say that America is for Americans, what America is for Americans, and for which Americans? Unfortunately, there are lackey governments in our regions, in Latin America and in the Caribbean, that subordinate themselves to the interests of the United States.
Many times, supportive friends from countries like Puerto Rico warn us: be careful, Cuba, there is movement of Yankee troops and marines here. It is also part of psychological warfare, of instilling fear in our peoples, of having us afraid and kneeling before the empire. It is part of that geopolitical conception and reactionary thinking of the United States
LDJ: I have to say, and Jorge I’m sure he will agree with me on that, that for those of us who consider that Puerto Rico is indeed a militarily occupied country, for us it is a shame that our territory is used to attack sister countries as happened with Venezuela and as is potentially being planned with Cuba.
MDC: We know how you Puerto Ricans feel about your independence and your commitment to the causes of Latin America and the Caribbean. And what else to say, you know in what direction our feelings, our affection, our admiration for you and our commitment to your cause are going.
LDJ: Mr. President, recently our governor, the governor of Puerto Rico, said that they are preparing in Puerto Rico to liberate Cuba.
MDC: She is very eager for something to happen in Cuba. It would be necessary to see if she would have the courage to commit something against Cuba.
I believe that political leaders, those of us who occupy responsibilities representing peoples, anywhere in the world, regardless of the ideologies we defend, must have a responsible attitude, and not at all call for war or aggression, or interference, or the occupation of another country, or humiliation or intervention against a people. I believe that we all have a responsibility, so that there is multilateralism, so that the dignity of peoples is respected, so that each people can choose, even if it is contrary to our principles, its model of government, its political system. And to be able, with all that diversity, to build consensus, to achieve unity within diversity, which was what Cuba has always defended in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which is a Latin American and Caribbean integration bloc. It was precisely in Cuba, the CELAC Summit, in which the army general brought that postulate of unity within diversity, and we managed to proclaim Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace. That peace is now under attack.
JLT: To close, if you want to give a message not only to the public of CLARIDAD, but also thinking about the Puerto Rican public, inside and outside of Puerto Rico, who would be watching or reading this interview.
MDC: I want to tell you that this conversation with you, who are young people and who represent the people of Puerto Rico, is also a personal experience that I will never forget and that also moves me.
Since I knew that I was going to talk and talk to you, I brought you – I have it here, scribbled – so that you know what our feeling is towards Puerto Rico… Silvio Rodríguez and Roy Brown, Puerto Rican musician and singer, put on the soundtrack or in the discography or in the musical memory of my generation a song that is a hymn to our two peoples, to what they esteem each other as peoples. I’m going to read you just one stanza.
If I have a brother, a brother who burns,
a half-breed brother, a brother of hunger,
I drench my signs with the light of his air,
I dye my flag also with his blood.
That is, for us, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is the close island and the brotherly people with whom we share dreams of independence against colonialism and against neocolonialism. Puerto Rico is the sister nation that has a flag similar to ours, with the colors inverted. Puerto Rico and Cuba are the Grito de Yara and the Grito de Lares in 1868; were the cries of our independence. From Puerto Rico is General Juan Rius Rivera who fought in the Cuban War of Independence. Puerto Rico and Cuba are Martí’s ideology and Hostos’s ideology seeking, from the Antilles, to balance the world. Puerto Rico and Cuba is Lola Rodríguez and her poem, which anyone, in Cuba and Puerto Rico, can recite, and which says “Cuba and Puerto Rico are of a bird with two wings, we receive flowers or bullets with the same heart”. Puerto Rico and Cuba are Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, for whom Cuba claimed its rights and freedom for many years and it is good that we were able to have them among us at some point here. But Puerto Rico and Cuba are also Carlos Muñiz and Santiago Mari, a Cuban and a Puerto Rican murdered by terrorists for sharing the same ideals in Puerto Rico. We Cubans, since Martí, have never thought that our independence will be complete until the independence of Puerto Rico is complete.
Therefore, brethren, as you are with us, we are with you. For the Puerto Rican people, our appreciation, our feelings, our affection, our brotherhood, and we will always be defending them in all the tribunes.
If your space also allows us to reach Latin America and the Caribbean, I would like to tell the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean that when we are fighting for Cuba today, we are fighting for freedom, for independence, for sovereignty, for self-determination, against imperialism and for social justice. If we all unite in that struggle, today for Cuba and tomorrow for Puerto Rico, another day it will be for other peoples and for other countries, that unity will be the wall against which imperial aggression will always crash. And we must all be convinced in Latin America and the Caribbean that we will win.
Video made by Luis De Jesús Reyes and Mauro Gonzalez Hernánde
Watch video https://youtu.be/8lILtQU0V3M
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