Cuba Denies Threat Claims Amid U.S. Oil Pressure Push (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Cuba poses no threat to the United States. They are attempting to choke Cuba economically, as they have been trying to do for the past over six decades, I would say. At this moment, they are threatening countries with tariffs to harm them if they, in use of their national prerogatives, they export fuel to Cuba. That will pose a great harm to Cuba. It is the aim to cause as much harm as possible to the people of Cuba.

[00:00:30] Speaker 2: Cuba has only 15 to 20 days of oil left at current levels of demand. That's according to the Financial Times, with the U.S. blocking deliveries from Venezuela, a key supplier, and pressuring Mexico to cancel shipments, while also threatening new tariffs on any country that sells oil to Havana. The Trump administration is choking off the Cuban economy one gas tank at a time. Now, oil doesn't just drive Cuba's transportation infrastructure. It also powers an electricity system on the brink of total collapse. But could talks with Washington give Cuba an off-ramp? Donald Trump thinks so.

[00:01:07] Speaker 3: I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba would be free again. They'll come to us, they'll make a deal, but Cuba really, they've got a problem.

[00:01:20] Speaker 2: Carlos Fernandez de Cosio is Cuba's deputy foreign minister and its top diplomat for U.S. affairs, and he says Havana is even now exchanging messages with Washington and is ready for meaningful dialogue. Carlos Fernandez de Cosio, welcome to the program. So it appears that you are confirming what we heard from President Trump when he said that his administration is talking to the highest people in your government. He also says that he expects a deal. To be clear, is your government currently working or currently looking at a proposal or demand actually from the United States?

[00:02:00] Speaker 1: The U.S. government knows that Cuba is ready and has been ready for a long time to have a meaningful dialogue with the U.S. government to deal with our bilateral issues. At the moment, we've had some exchanges of messages, but we cannot say we have set a bilateral dialogue at this moment.

[00:02:19] Speaker 2: It seems like a complete 180 from what your president was saying just last week, noting that measures taken by Washington are, quote, criminal and genocidal in nature. Now you're ready to talk. What has changed? Is the pressure from the United States working?

[00:02:37] Speaker 1: The statement from our president, it was on January the 9th, I believe, he was calling the actions taken by the United States as they are, and he also said very clearly that Cuba is ready to have a serious and responsible dialogue with the United States that is respectful of international law and, of course, respectful of our national prerogatives and sovereign prerogatives. There's no change in what he said.

[00:03:04] Speaker 2: The president of the United States, as well as the secretary here, Marco Rubio, have said that their goal, Marco Rubio has said this explicitly, would be regime change at some point. How do you respond to that demand?

[00:03:25] Speaker 1: Well, the first thing to remember is that on the measure announced on January 29th, they claim that Cuba is an emergency to the U.S. because we pose a threat to the United States. Cuba poses no threat to the United States. It is not aggressive against the United States. It's not hostile. It doesn't harbor terrorism nor sponsors terrorism. There are no foreign military bases in Cuba, contrary to what is alleged, with the exception of the one existing in Guantanamo, the U.S. base. Cuba has no trafficking drugs or illegal drugs that would harm the United States, nor there's organized crime in Cuba, nor organized crime uses Cuba as a platform against the United States. So the allegations that they used are not truthful. Now, the Secretary of State has said that he wants regime change, and it's been his policy and the policy of many anti-Cuban politicians in the United States for a long time. I don't know what the reasoning today of the government is when they speak of talking with Cuba because, of course, our plan and our idea and our objectives would never be to change the government or what we have in Cuba, nor the system or economic or political system that we have in Cuba.

[00:04:44] Speaker 2: So what are you going to do to stop the United States if that is their ultimate goal?

[00:04:52] Speaker 1: They are attempting to choke Cuba economically as they have been trying to do for the past over six decades, I would say. At this moment, they are threatening countries with tariffs to harm them if they, in use of their national prerogatives, they export fuel to Cuba. That will pose a great harm to Cuba. It is the aim to cause as much harm as possible to Cuba. It is the aim to cause as much harm as possible to the people of Cuba. I am sure that if we sit down and if the U.S. were ready to ease the very illegitimate pressure it puts on Cuba, we could evolve in a way so that Americans could travel to Cuba, which today is prohibited by their government, could do business in Cuba, which today is prohibited by their government, could visit Cuba, could do tourism in Cuba, which today is prohibited by their government.

[00:05:44] Speaker 2: You mentioned and described as illegitimate the U.S. rationale for the blockade. The Trump administration's January 29th executive order specifically cites Cuba hosting hostile countries, that being Russia and China, as the reason for this new blockade. You have said that there are no hostile actors in the country, so I am asking you to confirm again, to be precise, are there any Russian intelligence operations or the same with Chinese security operations inside of Cuba right now?

[00:06:21] Speaker 1: There are no foreign operations in Cuba and there is no action or activity in Cuba from any foreign country that is hostile against the United States or that can harm the United States.

[00:06:33] Speaker 2: Before January 3rd, and that is the day of the operation where the United States seized Maduro from Venezuela, the Cuban economy was in its worst state since the early 1990s. You have suffering from massive stagflation. Real world inflation is estimated to be about 70% by the end of this year. You've had chronic blackouts for many, many years. How is this all the fault of the United States policies and none of yours?

[00:07:06] Speaker 1: If you look at U.S. legislation, if you look at what politicians in the United States say, you'd be sure that would happen. Politicians in the United States have been betting since the 1960s that their coercive economic measures against Cuba will make the country collapse. Many politicians, officials from the State Department, officials in the White House have said that for years. It's a miracle, I would say for them, that Cuba has lasted so long. It has been the aim of the United States, by their own doing, in believing that their actions can make Cuba collapse.

[00:07:41] Speaker 2: The humanitarian question that's been raised in the fallout of completely choking off the country from gas reserves, etc., and oil, and President Trump responded by saying that he thinks he can work a deal out. That is similar language that we heard from President Trump prior to his seizing of Nicolas Maduro, and now putting his number two, Delcy Rodriguez, in place and in power. So what is to stop or prevent that same type of chain of events from happening in Cuba? How do you know that the United States is not currently working or speaking with somebody in your government to take out your leadership and put them in place?

[00:08:23] Speaker 1: They've been trying to do that for a long time, to speak of Cubans of different types. The Cuban government is united, it's united behind its president, and it's got the support of the majority of the population. So they could try to do that. I cannot doubt if they try to do it. They've been attempting to do it in Cuba and in many parts of the world.

[00:08:42] Speaker 2: I do want to ask about the chain of events following the seizure of Maduro in Venezuela, along with his wife, because we know that there were scores of Cuban military officers that were killed protecting Maduro. It had been Cuba's public statement that there had been no military personnel protecting the Venezuelan leadership for a number of years, and come to find out there were, and you had a very high-profile memorial, and we saw the funerals that you hosted for all of them. So why lie about something that you then made so public?

[00:09:24] Speaker 1: To say that we're lying is a strong word. In 2018, 2019, and 2020, when this was raised, we're very clear. We have no troops in Venezuela. We do not participate in military operations in Venezuela. That was what we said consistently. What was in Venezuela, and the officers that you claimed lost their lives there, were security detail, personal security detail for the president of Venezuela. That in no way is equivalent to troops. People know what troops are. There was no regiment. There was no battalion. There were not heavy machinery in terms of military of Cuba in Venezuela. It was simply a security detail for the president of Venezuela. That is not troops equivalent in any measure anyway, so it's wrong to say that we were lying.

[00:10:20] Speaker 2: Okay, well, we'll have to get them to answer that question at some point as well. We do appreciate the time today. Carlos Fernandez DeCosio, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:10:32] Speaker 1: Thank you.