Cuban senior foreign ministry official answers questions on the current state of Cuba-US relations
2019-11-13 00:14:18 / web@radiorebelde.icrt.cu
.jpg "Cuban senior foreign ministry official answers questions on the current state of Cuba-US relations")
Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, director general for the U.S. in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), said that, besides the measures that have contributed to the tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba, the aggravation of bilateral relations is also manifested by other actions taken by the U.S. administration.
When answering questions to Cubadebate website about the elements that confirm a hostile context in the diplomatic arena, after the re-establishment of relations on December 17, 2014, he explained that this worsening was demonstrated since the arrival in power of an influential segment within the current U.S. government, formed by anti-Cuban sectors, determined to undo everything that was advanced under Barack Obama's administration.
Those purposes consisted of taking relations to the points of greatest aggressiveness in the past and trying to place enough hurdles in the way to make it difficult in the future any return or recovery in bilateral ties, he said.
Fernandez de Cossio used as an example the freezing of several spheres of bilateral cooperation that had been formalized between the two countries. Bilateral dialogue mechanisms are almost non-existent; additional obstacles have been added to cultural, sporting and educational exchanges, as well as to family ties on both sides of the Florida Strait.
This is exacerbated by the deterioration in the functioning of the two embassies.
When asked about the risk of closing embassies, the Cuban diplomat replied that "We know that there are those within US government or people with influence within it who have pushed for that intention. It is an ambition conceived since relations were re-established in 2015.
"What I can assure you is that Cuba is fully committed to the proper functioning of the respective embassies in both countries, just as we are fully committed to the functioning of the embassies in Cuba of all the countries with which we have diplomatic relations, and just as we have the duty to ensure the proper functioning of our embassies all over the world".
In this regard, he added that USA refuses to grant visas to Cuban officials for certain responsibilities in the Cuban embassy, a similarity to the responsibilities that their officials have in their embassy in Havana. It is an unsustainable position.
Concerning the security differences between Havana and Washington, Fernandez de Cossio explained that the United States is a country where there is a lot of violence and that is not the case in Cuba.
In the States, police authorities in charge of security of diplomats are not always in a position to fully guarantee the security of the officials of other countries, nor of the diplomatic missions. We have bitter experiences in this regard.
Cubadebate was also interested in knowing what the next American measures or actions against Cuba could be.
The US director general at MINREX responded that it is logical to expect new measures against Cuba and against what remains of bilateral relations, since it is something to which they have publicly committed.
We can expect anything aimed at harming the population, harming the daily life of Cubans, depressing their standard of living and making it more uncomfortable. That has been the clear sense of the measures taken throughout this year, just to refer to the most recent ones.
They can also aim to cut off in even more absolute terms any contact or exchange between the people of both countries, including exchanges between Cubans who live there and their country of origin.
They need to prevent the majority of American citizens from getting to know Cuba and from denying, for themselves, the fabrications that are being spread about this country and its people, the director general for US of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded.
(ACN)
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