00:00President Trump said, quote, I do believe I will be having the honor of taking Cuba.
00:04I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba.
00:10That'd be good. That's a big honor.
00:12Taking Cuba.
00:13Taking Cuba in some form, yeah.
00:15Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.
00:21What is your reaction to some of the rhetoric that we've heard from the president of the United States?
00:24Well, you know, during the last three months, almost every day, President Trump or Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said
00:33something like this.
00:35Friendly take cover, take cover. We are negotiating. We are not negotiating.
00:39We are ready to bomb and destroy everything.
00:42And for us, we have been very, our position is clear crystal.
00:48You know, our president announced last Friday that we are recently starting a dialogue between officials of the Cuban government
00:57and officials of the U.S. government
00:59based on equal footing, respect of sovereignty, respect of independence and respect of not interference in internal affairs.
01:10At this moment, what is the best outcome for you, for Cuba, from those talks?
01:15What do you hope comes out of it?
01:16Well, you know, as we also said, we are, as part of this dialogue, we are identifying the issues, the
01:23main issues where we have difference.
01:25So once we identify those issues, we are in a position to find solutions for those difference.
01:31And at the same time, we are in a position also to identify areas where we can cooperate in benefit
01:41of mutual part.
01:42Because usually people talk that a conversation between Cuba and the U.S. is only beneficial for Cuba.
01:48And it is not. It's beneficial for both parts, like we proved in the past.
01:53You talked about what's on the table and what isn't.
01:55So we had the secretary of state saying Cuba has to put new people in charge.
01:59Is Cuba willing to make changes to senior leadership to appease the United States?
02:04Not at all. As I told you, this is part.
02:06The only people that has the right to elect our leadership is the Cuban people.
02:11So no one will come to tell us you have to do this or do that in this regard, you
02:16know.
02:16So it is part of we are not asking the U.S. that they have to change their leadership.
02:22So it's it's an issue of independence.
02:25You know, it's we are an independent country and no one can tell us what we can do in this
02:30regard.
02:30This is something that we have to to to to get by ourself.
02:34Your president said this earlier this week.
02:36Any external aggressor will encounter una resistencia inexpugnable, an indomitable resistance.
02:42Your job at the U.N. is to explain to the world the policies of your government.
02:46What is an indomitable resistance from Cuba look like?
02:49That means that we are ready for any scenarios.
02:52You know, we we really want to have this dialogue.
02:57It is not a new position of the Cuban government.
03:00It is a very long standing position of the Cuban government that we consider that the best option for both
03:06part is to different to have a different kind of relation.
03:10You know, so and we are open to talk about everything.
03:14We are not telling that we can we can talk about everything based on what I told you, not interfere
03:21in the internal affair.
03:22But if you want to talk about human rights, we are ready to talk about human rights.
03:25You have the U.S. government has concern about human rights in Cuba.
03:29OK, we are we have concern also about human rights in the U.S.
03:33Something happens in in Minnesota or in some other area.
03:38So we can talk about this.
03:39If you want to talk about democracy, we are ready to talk about democracy also with the U.S. government,
03:45you know.
03:46But so this is our position.
03:49But at the same time, we we are ready for some of the scenarios because we suffer aggression from the
03:57U.S. government in the past.
03:58So we know about that and we have to be ready for it.
04:02So when the president said that, that means that we are ready to talk.
04:07This is our main position.
04:09But if someone try to invade Cuba or if someone try to make an aggression to Cuba, they will find
04:16a whole people, 10 million people ready to defend our sovereignty, our independence.
04:22Let's talk a bit about the oil blockade that's been in place.
04:25The last shipment that you got of oil was in January that came from Mexico.
04:29Before that, in December, you got a shipment from Venezuela.
04:32Of course, circumstances have changed used to rely on 25,000 barrels a day from Venezuela.
04:36That's gone.
04:37What has the impact of that, the oil blockade imposed by the United States, been on the country of Cuba
04:42over these last couple of months?
04:44It has a huge impact.
04:46The first question here is, do the government of the U.S. has the right to impose a blockade like
04:55this?
04:56Do they have the right to sell third countries that they can sell or not oil to Cuba?
05:02I think that they have not this right, and this is not that they are violating the international law, the
05:07international humanitarian law, the charter of the U.N., the rules of the foreign trade.
05:14We have 96,000 people that are waiting for a surgery because we don't have electricity or oil to have
05:21electricity in the hospital.
05:23Around 11,000 of them are children.
05:26We have more than 30,000 pregnant women waiting for an ultrasound because also lack of electricity.
05:37But you need electricity to produce food.
05:40You need electricity to pump water.
05:43You need electricity for food transportation, to transport people.
05:49You need electricity for almost everything.
05:53So here, David, we are looking at collective punishment to a whole country just because another country, they want to
06:03change the government of Cuba.
06:06Who do you count as a close friend of Cuba at this moment when there is so much scrutiny of
06:12the island country by the United States?
06:14Well, as an ambassador at the U.N., I can tell you that we count with the support of the
06:20majority of the countries all around the world.
06:22You're hearing that from other ambassadors?
06:24Yes. Not only here.
06:25We have a statement of the G-77 and China condemning this policy.
06:31G-77 and China is the largest group of member states in the U.N., 134 countries.
06:37Are you disappointed China isn't doing more, they're sending solar equipment, for instance, but do you wish that they would
06:43take a stronger stand?
06:44No, not at all.
06:45We have been receiving political support for the majority of the country, but at the same time, we have received
06:52some other support from many countries.
06:55You mentioned China, Vietnam, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Chile, the Caribbean countries.
07:03The U.N. system is also working now to try to implement this when a country offers some kind of
07:12aid.
07:13They are trying to be like a bridge.
07:16What is your message to the American people at this moment as we hear, again, the president making bellicose statements
07:21from the White House?
07:23What would you say to American people who are watching this and hearing from the administration that things are bound
07:28to change in Cuba in the near term?
07:30Well, you know, yesterday I read a poll that said that only 28 percent of the American people support this
07:41kind of policy of their government towards Cuba.
07:46So I will I will say to the rest, the 72 percent that doesn't support this policy, that please continue
07:54pushing, continues rising your voice in favor of a different kind of relation between Cuba and the U.S.
08:02It is possible and it is beneficial for both part.
08:06Lastly, what gives you optimism that this will be resolved?
08:11How grave is this moment and what gives you optimism that this is going to resolve itself in a way
08:15that will be peaceable?
08:16Because this is not the first time that we face a situation like this.
08:23We have been, unfortunately, we have been facing this kind of policy for many years.
08:31I lost the count of how many presidents of the U.S. try to change the government in Cuba.
08:38And we are still here.
08:40And as I told you, we, for us, there is only one option, resist and to keep and to prove
08:51that it is possible to be different.
08:55We are not better.
08:57We are not worse than the U.S. government or than the U.S. people.
09:02We are just different people.
09:04We just want to try to build our own future from our own perspective.
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