Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, called upon International Law to denounce that “the entire population of a country” would be punished for an undefined political objective.
Interviewed by Antonia Hylton for the program The Assignment on the MS NOW network, the Deputy Minister took refuge in an erotema or rhetorical question to evade an uncomfortable and undeniable reality: Cubans have not been stripped of their rights by a foreign power, but by a political system that prevents them from freely deciding the fate of their country.
"An entire population of a country is being punished for an undefined political objective (…), to take control of a foreign nation and its wealth. By what logic (…) is that acceptable?," asked Fernández de Cossío.
The Cuban regime asks what the logic is behind pressuring a foreign state, but never answers what the logic is behind prohibiting political pluralism, controlling the media, punishing dissent, and closing all institutional avenues for citizens to hold power accountable.
The Cuban Constitution recognizes the Communist Party as the superior political force of society and the State; that is, it establishes the legal norm of the country's subordination to a single political organization.
That is the central contradiction of the official Cuban discourse: it invokes sovereignty outward while denying sovereignty inward.
Talks about national self-determination, but does not allow the nation to self-determine in free elections, with independent parties, uncensored press, and citizens protected against state abuse.
The logic of the regime is not that of International Law, but rather that of permanence. To remain even as the country empties due to emigration. To remain even when hospitals are overwhelmed, blackouts become the norm, and millions of Cubans survive amid scarcity, inflation, and hopelessness. To remain even when all forms of peaceful criticism are labeled as a threat, a crime, or treason.
International organizations have documented for years the repression against activists, independent journalists, artists, opposition figures, and citizens who express criticism of the government.
Human Rights Watch states that Cuban authorities continue to repress and punish dissent and public criticism; Freedom House describes Cuba as a single-party system that prohibits political pluralism, bans independent media, and restricts basic civil liberties.
One cannot talk about national wealth without discussing who manages it. GAESA, the business conglomerate linked to the Armed Forces, has been identified as a dominant player in strategic sectors of the Cuban economy, including tourism, foreign currency, retail, and other key sources of income.
In a country where citizens lack real mechanisms to hold power accountable, this economic concentration reinforces an opaque and militarized structure.
That is why Fernández de Cossío's statement is so revealing. The Cuban regime presents itself as a victim of external aggression but avoids discussing the internal victims of its own system: political prisoners, young people forced into exile, censored journalists, mothers protesting for food and electricity, citizens watched for expressing their opinions.
The question, then, must be returned in full: Under what logic is it considered acceptable for a political elite to hold power for more than six decades, control information, manage national wealth without transparency, and repress those who demand basic freedoms?
That logic exists. It is neither legal nor democratic. It is the logic of a power that turned the state into private property, the citizen into a subject, and the nation into a hostage.
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