The leader Miguel Díaz-Canel rejected the notion that Cuba is on the verge of collapse, despite acknowledging a situation that he described as "totally complex," in a lengthy interview given to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
In response to the direct question from journalist Mônica Bergamo, the Cuban leader replied: "No, we are not on the verge of collapse. We are in a complex situation, but with enormous creativity that complements the heroic capacity for resistance of the Cuban people. We are exploring alternatives and are fully engaged in a struggle to overcome these adversities with our own efforts and talents."
To support his argument, Díaz-Canel resorted to rhetorical and completely ridiculous phrases: "There are power outages, but no blackout has extinguished the hope of the Cuban people. There are shortages, but no scarcity has fractured the ability to grow."
He added that "without electricity, every day our doctors and nurses arrive to save lives" and that the teachers completed the school year by graduating more than 30,000 university students, including young people from over 62 countries, among them around twenty Palestinians and five American doctors.
At the same time, he provided data that contradicts his official optimism. He admitted that in the last seven months, only one oil tanker has arrived in Cuba—a Russian humanitarian aid shipment of 100,000 tons of crude—when the country requires seven fuel tankers per month. He attributed this situation to the policies of the Trump administration.
The result, according to the ruler himself, is blackouts lasting more than 20, 30, and 40 consecutive hours, in addition to total system shutdowns that take days to recover.
He noted that Cuba recovered 1,400 megawatts of distributed generation using diesel and fuel, but has not been able to utilize them due to a lack of supplies; if they had been used, blackouts would have been reduced to about three hours a day.
The health crisis you described is equally severe: over 64,000 children have outdated immunization schedules, more than 34,000 pregnant women cannot receive ultrasounds, and infant mortality has doubled. There are over 98,000 patients waiting for surgeries, more than 117,000 cancer patients without primary treatments, and the country can only cover 30% of the basic drug supply.
Díaz-Canel referred to all of this as "genocide."
One of the tensest moments of the interview arose when Bergamo relayed a sentiment he often heard among the Cuban population: "There is an internal blockade." The leader did not deny the existence of bureaucracy and government delays, but he downplayed them.
"When people refer to internal blockade, they are talking about the frustrations they have with certain elements of bureaucracy, the delays we have experienced in specific government actions, which we have been the main critics and self-critics of," he said, but insisted that "the main cause of the situation Cuba is experiencing is the external blockade."
That stance contrasts with his own words from June, when he acknowledged that "there are obstacles that do not come from outside nor from the blockade".
In contrast to the regime's optimism, the IX Report from the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, published this month, indicates that 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty and 95% disapprove of the government's economic and social management, according to 1,318 interviews conducted in 79 municipalities.
When asked how long Cuba can endure without an agreement with Washington, Díaz-Canel was emphatic: "We have no alternative but to resist. We must resist."
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