By The Opinion
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Tuesday that a failed Cuba is looking for help to get out of its situation and assured that he will respond with dialogue, which for now seems to be stalling amid the president’s threats to take control of the island.
“No Republican has ever talked to me about Cuba, that it is a failed country and that it is only going in one direction: down! Cuba is asking for help and let’s talk!“, wrote the American on his Fact Social network.
Trump, who today plans to travel to Beijing for a postponed meeting with his Chinese counterpart and ally of Havana, Xi Jinping, concluded his message: “In the meantime, I’m going to China!”
The US president has recently increased pressure on Cuba, which has been hit with an extension of sanctions that covers almost any non-US person or company that has commercial relations with the island, especially in the energy, defense, security and finance sectors.
The most recent punitive actions include sanctions on the Cuban military conglomerate Gaesaits directors and a joint venture mining company with the Canadian Sherritt, one of the largest foreign companies present on the island, which shortly before announced the immediate suspension of its activity in Cuba.
This is in addition to the oil blockade on the island imposed last January by Trumpwhich has said that it will “take the modification” of Cuba “almost immediately” and could move the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to Caribbean waters.
Both governments are holding negotiations and the only known physical meeting between both parties took place last April, without progress. For now, talks appear stalled amid increasing antagonistic rhetoric between the two countries.
American media have leaked an alleged list of demands from Washington, with the economy and political prisoners as priorities, which Havana denies.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced last week that they will take “more measures” against Cubaas he said during a visit to the Vatican, where the issue of American pressure on the island was on the table.
For his part, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has stated that Trump “raises his threats of military aggression against Cuba to a dangerous and unprecedented scale” and that, consequently, “the international community must take note and, together with the people of the United States, determine whether such a drastic criminal act will be allowed.” EFE
