The Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel asserted this Thursday, in an exclusive interview with Kristen Welker from the show Meet the Press of NBC News, that Cuban leaders are elected from the grassroots level and that their leadership does not stem from personal, corporate, or party ambition, but from a mandate of the people.
The interview, recorded in Cuba, is the first appearance of a Cuban leader on U.S. television in decades, since Fidel Castro gave one in 1959, and it occurs amid unprecedented pressure from the Trump administration on Havana.
"We are chosen by the people, even though there is a narrative that tries to deny it. Before taking on a leadership position, we must be elected from the grassroots level, in an electoral constituency, by thousands of Cubans," stated Díaz-Canel, who is popularly referred to as "el puesto a dedo."
The leader described the process as a two-stage system: first, the direct election in local constituencies; then, the ratification of leadership positions by the National Assembly of People's Power, "as occurs in many other countries around the world," according to his words.
"When we take on a leadership responsibility, we do not do it out of personal ambition, corporate ambition, or even partisan interest; we do it as a mandate from the people," the leader insisted.
What Díaz-Canel did not mention is that the nominations in that system are filtered by commissions affiliated with the Communist Party, that opposition parties are not allowed, and that the PCC exerts effective control over the entire electoral process.
In response to the question of whether he would be willing to step down as a condition imposed by Washington, Díaz-Canel answered with another question: whether the journalist had posed that same inquiry to any other president in the world.
"The concept of revolutionaries abandoning or renouncing does not belong in our vocabulary," he stated.
He acknowledged that he would be accountable to the Cuban people if they believed he was not fulfilling his duties, but he made it clear that such a judgment does not belong to Estados Unidos: "It is not the United States that can impose anything on us."
Díaz-Canel also rejected Washington's moral authority to demand changes on the Island: "The U.S. government that has implemented that hostile policy against Cuba has no moral standing to demand anything from Cuba. They have no moral authority."
The leader called for unconditional dialogue and affirmed that Cuba is willing to discuss any topic without requiring a transformation of its political system.
The interview aired partially this Thursday on "Meet the Press NOW" and "NBC Nightly News." An extended version is scheduled for Sunday, April 12 on "Meet the Press."
The context in which the interview takes place is one of maximum tension: the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 new sanctions against Cuba since January 2026, and signed Executive Order 14380, which declares the regime an "extraordinary threat" to national security.
Additionally, U.S. officials are said to have communicated to Cuban negotiators that Díaz-Canel's resignation is a condition for advancing any normalization.
Days earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded disdainfully to the Cuban leader's statements in Newsweek: "I don’t think much about what he has to say".
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