The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla granted an exclusive interview to The New York Times from the Cuban mission to the UN in New York, where he defended the regime's economic openings but drew a red line: “It opens up many new opportunities for private capital, foreign investors, and companies from different countries. However, the Cuban economy will remain socialist.”
The interview, conducted on October 26 and published on Thursday, comes at one of the highest points of diplomatic tension between Havana and Washington in decades, marked by increasing sanctions and a week of direct clashes at the United Nations headquarters.
Rodríguez, 68 years old and having led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 17 years, acknowledged that he had never faced such an intense campaign of U.S. pressure, but insisted that the regime's strategy is simply to resist: "For as long as it takes. The U.S. policy towards Cuba will change. It has to change; it is inevitable that it will change."
Its central argument is that six decades of pressure have not bent Havana. "In these 60 years, up to today, the U.S. policy against Cuba has not worked. And Cuba's policy of resistance and adaptation in the face of that aggression has indeed worked and has been successful," he stated.
Regarding the 176 economic measures approved in June —the most radical since 1959, which include private banks and the sale of shares in state-owned companies— the chancellor rejected the notion that they respond to pressures from Washington and presented them as a response to global economic challenges, aligning with what Miguel Díaz-Canel asserts: that there are no capitalist reforms in Cuba, but rather "necessary concessions" to protect socialism.
Rodríguez even went so far as to invite American companies to invest in the island, albeit with conditions: "The United States should not be allowed to control sectors of the Cuban economy. However, we would welcome the presence of their companies, which we recognize as competitive in the Cuban economy."
The interview is published days after a tense altercation at the UN between Rodríguez and the American ambassador Mike Waltz, when members of the Cuban delegation began to shout and bang the table during the American diplomat's speech. A member of the delegation shouted at Waltz, "You are a liar!", and he responded, "Get back to your seat! Do you understand who you are dealing with?". Washington expelled the Cuban diplomat Richard Tur de la Concepción following the incident.
On that same Wednesday, the annual UN resolution against the embargo received only 130 votes in favor — the lowest level since 1995 — with 17 countries voting against it and 25 abstentions, including Germany for the first time since 2002.
The spokesperson for the State Department, Tommy Pigott, referred to the Cuban government as a "failed regime" that "continues to blame the United States and everyone else for its own incompetence and corruption." Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose public appeal to recruit informants in Cuba Rodríguez called "childish," was direct: "We believe that Cuba needs a very drastic change."
Independent analysts question the viability of the regime's wager. Ric Herrero, director of the Cuba Study Group, harshly summarized the situation: "It is easy for Bruno to claim that they are there resisting when it is the Cuban people who are truly suffering the consequences. The harsh reality is that Cuba is alone. They may resist, but it's simply a controlled decline. Ultimately, they are heading towards the abyss."
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