Related videos:
The Cuban regime raised the tone of its response this Friday to the resolution approved by the European Parliament that demands sanctions against Miguel Díaz-Canel and GAESA, in addition to calling for the suspension of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) between Cuba and the European Union.
Although Havana officially reacted just a few hours after the vote with a statement issued by its embassy in Belgium and to the European Union, it was not until Friday morning that Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla personally intervened to reject the initiative and accused conservative sectors in Europe of aligning with the U.S. policy against the island.
The sequence of events turned out to be striking.
The regime's initial response was limited to a diplomatic note issued from Brussels, while the highest Cuban authorities remained silent on one of the most significant resolutions passed by the European Parliament against Cuba in decades.
Additionally, the controversy coincided with the presentation to the National Assembly of a package of 176 economic measures announced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, which monopolized the attention of the official media.
The first from the regime arrived from Brussels
The initial reaction from the regime was a statement published by the Embassy of Cuba in Belgium and to the European Union titled "European Parliament: from arrogance to indignity."
The text rejected the resolution approved in Strasbourg, characterizing it as "another exercise in political manipulation, double standards, and subservience to the most extremist and hostile political agendas of the United States against the island."
The Cuban diplomatic representation directly accused European conservative groups of promoting a campaign against Havana and argued that the European Parliament acts in alignment with the interests of Washington.
According to the statement, "the indignity of the European Parliament, dominated by right-wing political groups, is all too well known."
The note also attempted to discredit the MEPs by pointing out that those who present themselves as defenders of human rights are the very same who, according to the Cuban narrative, "have approved and celebrated with racist and xenophobic slogans the expulsion of migrant families, including girls and boys, and have established a European ICE akin to that of Trump."
One of the main arguments of the Cuban response was of a legal nature.
The embassy insisted that the European Parliament lacks the authority to decide on the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement signed between Cuba and the European Union.
"The ADPC is not a commercial agreement. It is a political, comprehensive, and bilateral agreement that encompasses areas of political dialogue and cooperation, and supports the relations between Cuba and the European Union and its Member States, based on the principles of sovereign equality, reciprocity, and mutual respect," stated the communiqué.
For this reason, he added that "the European Parliament has no jurisdiction over this Agreement."
The statement also accused certain European political sectors of acting under the influence of Washington and asserted that the resolution constitutes support for economic pressure policies against the Island.
"It is particularly serious that certain European political sectors end up subordinating the sovereign interests of the European Union to Washington's aggressive agenda and to the campaigns driven by anti-Cuban extremist groups," he stated.
The statement concluded with a message of gratitude to the regime's international allies and assured that "Cuba is not alone" in the face of the isolation attempts promoted by its adversaries.
Bruno Rodríguez breaks the silence and lashes out at the European Parliament
Several hours after that initial diplomatic reaction, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez decided to personally intervene in the controversy through a post on the social network X.
In a much more political and direct message, the Minister of Foreign Affairs accused conservative sectors in Europe of adopting the discourse promoted by the United States to justify sanctions against Cuba.
"Right-wing political forces in the European Parliament prefer to align themselves with the deceptive American narrative designed to justify the energy blockade, extreme economic warfare, and the military threat from the U.S. government against the people of Cuba," he wrote.
Rodríguez also criticized the MEPs for not defending European interests against the extraterritorial measures promoted by Washington.
"They don't even dare to invoke European sovereignty, jurisdiction, and interests in the face of US interference and pressure against their companies and citizens," he noted.
The chancellor stated that this attitude contradicts even community legislation, specifically citing Regulation (EC) 2271/96, which was approved to protect European companies and citizens from the extraterritorial application of certain laws from third countries.
In one of the harshest parts of his message, Rodríguez linked the stance of those European political groups to the situation in the Middle East.
"We are not surprised. We have seen the silence and complicity of those same groups in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza," he stated.
Despite the criticism, the head of Cuban diplomacy made it clear that Havana will not renounce the institutional framework currently governing its relations with Brussels.
"Cuba will continue to bet on the implementation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union, a mechanism that allows for the discussion of issues of common interest and differences on the basis of equality, reciprocity, and mutual respect," he concluded.
The resolution that triggered the Cuban response
The resolution approved this Thursday by the European Parliament was supported by 283 MEPs, while 199 voted against it and 85 abstained.
The text constitutes one of the most severe statements from the European Parliament regarding the situation in Cuba in recent years. Among other aspects, it warns that the Island is "on the verge of becoming a failed state" and notes that 89% of Cuban families live in extreme poverty.
The resolution also cites data from the organization Prisoners Defenders, which counted 1,281 political prisoners in Cuba by the end of May 2026, including minors.
The MEPs urged the Council of the European Union to consider individual sanctions against Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials of the regime, particularly leaders connected to GAESA, the business conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces that dominates a significant part of the Cuban economy.
Additionally, the European Parliament has once again called for the suspension of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and the European Union, the main instrument currently governing bilateral relations.
The initiative came just two weeks after the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) directly sanctioned Díaz-Canel for the first time.
Before the vote, the Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch, one of the main proponents of the resolution, captured the spirit of the proposal with a powerful statement:
"The time for warnings and threats is over. It's time to take action."
The Cuban reaction makes it clear that the government views the resolution as a new political offensive driven from Washington and supported by conservative sectors in Europe.
However, the text approved in Strasbourg reflects a growing deterioration in the perception of the political, economic, and human rights situation on the Island within European institutions, which have traditionally been more inclined towards dialogue with Havana than to sanctions.
Filed under: