{"id":533966,"date":"2026-03-13T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/533966\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:50:11","slug":"cuban-president-confirms-talks-with-trump-officials-amid-us-blockade-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/533966\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban president confirms talks with Trump officials amid US blockade | Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuban<\/a> officials have held talks with the US government to seek solutions to the blockade<\/a> imposed on the Caribbean nation, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel has said in a video broadcast on national television.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,\u201d D\u00edaz-Canel, the Cuban president, said in the video, which aired on Friday, shortly before he was scheduled to address Cuban media in a rare appearance that comes amid a severe economic crisis and as the Communist government has come under increasing pressure from Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel said that the Cuban negotiators had participated \u201con the basis of equality and respect for the political systems of both states, and for the sovereignty and self-determination\u201d of the Cuban government.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel said no petroleum shipments have arrived on the island in the past three months, which he blamed on a US energy blockade.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s western region was hit by a massive blackout last week,<\/a> leaving millions without power.<\/p>\n

He said that Cuba, which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn\u2019t been sufficient to meet demand.<\/p>\n

He said the lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact is tremendous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The address was billed as a continuation of a 5 February event when Diaz-Canel warned that Cuba<\/a> was approaching a situation that would require \u201cextreme measures\u201d given the<\/a> economic crisis, frequent power blackouts and fuel shortages exacerbated by Trump\u2019s imposition of an oil blockade on the Caribbean island.<\/p>\n

Trump has said repeatedly that the United States was already in high-level talks with Cuban representatives. Until now, the Cuban government had denied that any official encounters are underway but had not explicitly denied media reports of back-channel discussions with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, who is 94 and still wields great influence.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez Castro was seated behind Diaz-Canel and among the Communist Party officials pictured in the video.<\/p>\n

Last month, US officials held talks with former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro\u2019s grandson, on the sidelines of Caricom, the annual meeting of Caribbean<\/a> leaders, in St Kitts and Nevis.<\/p>\n

Ra\u00fal Guillermo Rodr\u00edguez Castro, 41, does not have an official role in the Cuban government, but remains close to his grandfather, who holds huge sway in the country\u2019s power structure.<\/p>\n

Trump in recent weeks had made a series of statements, saying Cuba was on the verge of collapse or eager to make a deal with the United States. On Monday he said Cuba may be subject to a \u201cfriendly takeover\u201d, then added: \u201cIt may not be a friendly takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuban officials have held talks with the US government to seek solutions to the blockade imposed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-533966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}