Miguel Díaz-Canel categorically rejected calls for his resignation and defended the legitimacy of his mandate in an exclusive interview given this Thursday on the program Meet the Press, from NBC News, the first appearance of a Cuban leader on U.S. television in decades.
The interview takes place in a context of maximum pressure from the Trump administration, which, as reported by the New York Times on March 17, 2026, demands the resignation of Díaz-Canel as a prerequisite for any negotiation with Havana.
In response to the direct question of whether he would be willing to resign to save Cuba, Díaz-Canel answered that "the concept of revolutionaries abandoning or resigning does not belong to our vocabulary."
The Cuban leader argued that his legitimacy comes from the people and not from Washington: "In Cuba, the people who hold leadership positions are not chosen by the United States government nor do they have a mandate from that government. We are a free and sovereign state, with self-determination and independence."
Díaz-Canel described the Cuban electoral system as a process of popular participation that begins at the grassroots constituencies: "We are elected by the people, even though there is a narrative that tries to deny this. Before we can take on a leadership position, we must be elected from the grassroots, in an electoral constituency, by thousands of Cubans."
However, the electoral system that it invokes as a source of its legitimacy is a single-party process in which there is no legal opposition or electoral campaigns.
The 50% of the candidates for the National Assembly are selected by a Nomination Commission controlled by organizations affiliated with the Communist Party of Cuba, and it is that same Assembly that elects the president.
Díaz-Canel also denied that the United States has the moral authority to demand change: "The government of the United States, which has implemented a hostile policy against Cuba, has no moral authority to demand anything. It has no moral authority even to say that it cares about the situation of the Cuban people."
The ruler called for unconditional dialogue: "Let them be ready to talk and discuss any topic without conditions, without demanding changes to our political system, just as we do not demand changes to the U.S. system."
Leticia Martínez Hernández, head of press for Díaz-Canel, confirmed on social media that this is the first with a U.S. media outlet. She also anticipated more interviews.
The interview with NBC comes days after Díaz-Canel warned in Newsweek — whose April 2nd cover featured the headline "WE WILL FIGHT BACK" — that Cuba would respond with guerrilla warfare to any potential military aggression from the United States, at a time when Trump has publicly declared "Cuba is next" and has imposed more than 240 new sanctions against the island since January 2026.
"If the Cuban people believe that I am not fit for the position, that I have not lived up to expectations, then I should not hold the presidency. I will be accountable to them."
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