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The president Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted to the British channel Sky News that his government has made internal mistakes, but he was emphatic in stating that these mistakes do not explain the crisis that devastates the lives of Cubans, while insisting that the primary blame lies with the U.S. embargo.
The interview, recorded in Havana and broadcast this Friday by journalist Yalda Hakim, lasted over an hour and marked Díaz-Canel's first appearance before a European media outlet this year, amid the worst economic crisis in Cuba since the Special Period.
Hakim directly conveyed what Cuban citizens had told him during his stay in Havana, that the situation "is not entirely Washington's fault, but also their own." The question was straightforward: what responsibility does he assume for the suffering of his people?
The leader did not evade the question, but immediately framed it. "We have always acknowledged the mistakes we have made, and the revolution has constantly engaged in self-criticism," he replied.
However, he immediately added: "Regardless of those factors, the main cause of the complex economic and social situation our country is facing is not the internal mistakes we have made, but the impact of the blockade on daily life."
When Hakim reminded him that he himself had acknowledged to his party the existence of internal factors unrelated to the embargo, such as bureaucracy, administrative sluggishness, and postponed decisions, Díaz-Canel did not deny it, but he maintained the same hierarchy.
"We take responsibility for the things we need to improve, those we have not been able to achieve, and those we have had to postpone because of the blockade. But even if we had done everything perfectly, the country would still be in this situation, because the main cause is the blockade," he stated.
This discursive pattern—limited self-criticism followed by main attribution to the embargo—is not new. In April 2026, during the event for the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the socialist nature of the revolution, Díaz-Canel admitted to "own errors," but insisted that "the main cause of our problems is the genocidal blockade."
On June 18, he repeated the scheme during the most recent Plenary of the Communist Party of Cuba. On June 30, at the Council of Ministers, he stated that the 176 approved economic reforms aim primarily to "save the Revolution", not the Cuban people.
To illustrate the humanitarian impact, the leader provided concrete figures: more than 67,000 newborns who require special medications without being able to receive them, 34,000 pregnant mothers at risk without full care, more than 12,000 children with cancer without complete treatment, and 16,000 patients who need dialysis without sufficient resources.
Díaz-Canel also noted that the infant mortality rate increased from four per 10,000 live births a few years ago to 9.2 per 10,000, a decline he directly attributed to the energy embargo imposed by the Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on January 29, which reduced Cuba's energy imports by between 80% and 90% and worsened power outages to more than 20 hours a day.
The interview with Sky News takes place just days before Cuba will convene an extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly for July 7 with the aim of denouncing the tightening of U.S. sanctions, at a time when the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP by 6.5% in 2026, the worst in Latin America.
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