Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla stated in an exclusive interview with The New York Times that the regime will withstand the pressure campaign from the Trump administration no matter how long it takes, convinced that Washington will eventually change course.
"For as long as it takes," declared Rodríguez Parrilla from the Cuban mission to the UN in New York. "The United States' policy towards Cuba will change. It has to change; it is inevitable that it will change."
The chancellor's argument is founded on six decades of history: "In these 60 years, up to today, the United States’ policy towards Cuba has not worked. In contrast, Cuba's policy of resistance and adaptation to that aggression has indeed worked and has been successful."
Rodríguez Parrilla, 68 years old and 17 years at the helm of the foreign ministry, acknowledged, however, that he had never faced such intense U.S. pressure as he does now.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on more than 40 entities and at least 38 individuals connected to the Cuban military, energy, and financial sectors, in addition to an oil blockade.
The interview took place days after a tense altercation at the UN. Last Tuesday, Rodríguez confronted the American ambassador Mike Waltz while shouting during the debate on the embargo, marking the third interruption by the Cuban foreign minister to a U.S. diplomat in a year. A member of the Cuban delegation shouted at Waltz, "You are a liar!", to which the ambassador responded, "Go back to your seat! Do you understand who you are dealing with?". The following day, Washington expelled a Cuban diplomat involved in the incident.
On that same Wednesday, the annual UN resolution against the embargo received only 130 votes in favor—the lowest level since 1995—compared to 165 in 2025. The votes against doubled to 17, and abstentions rose from 12 to 25. Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador changed their stance to oppose Cuba, while Germany abstained for the first time since 2002.
Regarding the public call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to recruit informants in Cuba, Rodríguez was dismissive: "The truth is, I have no idea what the Secretary of State intends with those publications. Frankly, they don't seem serious at all, they seem a bit childish."
Rubio, for his part, insisted that "Cuba needs a very drastic change" and emphasized that it is "a completely different case from Venezuela." The spokesperson for the State Department, Tommy Pigott, described the Cuban government as a "failed regime" that "continues to blame the United States and everyone else for its own incompetence and corruption."
The chancellor acknowledged that conversations with U.S. officials are ongoing—face-to-face meetings, calls, and WhatsApp messages—but with little成果: "It's very difficult for conversations to progress when they are persistently accompanied by threats."
The regime, while proclaiming resistance, has introduced economic changes. In June, it approved a package of 176 economic measures —the most radical since 1959— which includes private banks, the sale of shares in state-owned enterprises, and foreign investment in private businesses. Rodríguez insisted that these changes do not respond to pressures from Washington: “It opens up many new opportunities for private capital, foreign investors, and companies from different countries. But the Cuban economy will remain socialist.”
Independent analysts are questioning the viability of that bet. Ric Herrero, director of the Cuba Study Group, was emphatic: "It's easy for Bruno to claim that they are holding out when those truly suffering the consequences are the Cuban people." His assessment of the island's future leaves no room for ambiguity: "The harsh reality is that Cuba is alone. They can resist, but it is simply a managed decline. In the end, they are heading toward the abyss."
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