The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, stated in an exclusive interview with PBS NewsHour that the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, "does not know Cuba, has never been to Cuba, does not understand Cuba".
It seems that you are not familiar with the history of Cuba, stated the high-ranking official last Tuesday in remarks made during a time of heightened tension between Washington and Havana, with negotiations stalled and an escalation of pressure that includes direct sanctions against the regime's business conglomerate, GAESA.
Vidal, who participated in the negotiations for the Obama-Castro thaw in 2015-2016 and was appointed as deputy minister in 2021, pointed directly to the supposed origin of Rubio's policies towards the Cuban regime, once again deliberately conflating the political system imposed by the so-called "revolution" with broader and more historical concepts such as the Cuban nation and national identity.
«The message being sent, which is a very clear indication that the United States wants to dictate to Cubans what kind of political system, model, or order we should have, clearly reflects that they do not know us and do not understand our history or how proud we are of our independence and our determination to defend it», stated Vidal Ferreiro.
The diplomat set a single red line in any negotiation: internal matters. «We are willing to discuss everything, with one exception, which is matters related to our domestic affairs, internal order», she assured.
"Deciding what we do and what decisions we make regarding our internal and constitutional order is the exclusive responsibility of the Cuban people and only the Cuban people," emphasized the regime's diplomat.
Vidal's attack on Rubio fits into a systematic pattern by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) since the appointment of the Cuban-American as U.S. Secretary of State.
At the end of May, Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío accused Rubio of lying "repeatedly and unscrupulously," and last Wednesday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla stated that Rubio lies "constantly" and seeks to provoke a military confrontation.
"The true incompetent" was what Johana Tablada de la Torre called the U.S. Secretary of State at the end of December. The Deputy Director General for U.S. Affairs at MINREX has been one of the most active officials in the so-called "revolutionary diplomacy" when it comes to insulting and discrediting the Cuban-American.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who arrived before the 1959 Revolution, recently responded that the U.S. will continue to engage in dialogue with Cuba because "having a failed state 90 miles from our shores poses a threat to national security".
In the same interview, Vidal Ferreiro rejected the Trump administration's accusations that Cuba hosts intelligence operations from China and Russia: "The U.S. government is not telling the truth. U.S. agencies know very well that Cuba is neither a threat to the United States, nor has it ever been."
Furthermore, he declined to comment on the visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Havana in mid-May.
Both Rubio and Vidal herself have acknowledged that the negotiations are not making progress. The Secretary of State stated on May 21 that "honestly, I don't see much advancement," and Vidal admitted last Wednesday before the National Assembly of People's Power that "there has not been much progress in the dialogues between Havana and Washington."
The June 5 deadline for foreign companies to cease operations with GAESA will mark the next turning point in a bilateral crisis that shows no signs of easing.
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