Cuban President Meets Russian Deputy Foreign Minister in Havana<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAsked by journalist Kristen Welker whether he would step down to \u201csave his country,\u201d he responded that surrender is not part of the revolutionary vocabulary. Diaz-Canel stressed that his mandate comes from the Cuban people, not from external designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn Cuba, those who hold leadership positions are not elected by the U.S. government nor do they have a mandate from that government,\u201d he said, adding that he would only leave the presidency if citizens considered him incapable of representing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a free and sovereign state\u2026 We enjoy self-determination and independence,\u201d the Cuban president stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the interview, he questioned whether the question about his resignation was the journalist\u2019s idea or a directive from the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diaz-Canel also mentioned that the Cuban government reiterated its willingness to negotiate with the United States. \u201cWe can negotiate, but at the table without pressure or attempts at U.S. intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cuban president\u2019s remarks come amid a scenario of pressure, marked by the intensified and prolonged U.S. blockade against the island and constant U.S. threats of intervention in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, during the International Conference on Coercive Measures organized by the United Nations, Diaz-Canel denounced that the U.S. oil blockade has caused critical situations in the health system, affecting surgeries and vital treatments due to a lack of electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said that fuel shortages have caused an almost total paralysis of public and private transportation, simultaneously affecting businesses and food production, which negatively impacts the supply of basic goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These circumstances are a direct result of the executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 29. That executive order authorizes Washington to sanction countries that supply oil to Cuba, which generated a fuel shortage in the island nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to Trump\u2019s offensive \u2014 who declared Cuba an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. security \u2014 international solidarity has manifested through statements, demonstrations, and the sending of aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of March, for example, the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived in Havana carrying 740,000 barrels of crude oil to ease the Cuban energy crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Surrender is ‘not part of the revolutionary vocabulary,’ he stressed. On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said he will not resign from his post, during an interview with NBC News’… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[8],"class_list":["post-10762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba"],"authors":[{"term_id":8,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"yolaunicaquehay","display_name":"RRebeldeAdminWP","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6145d63ff95c9a0f0e53b7149804b1faf86748d6cc15f466103269a288ea377?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10764,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762\/revisions\/10764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10762"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=10762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}