General Deputy Director for U.S. Affairs, Alejandro García del Toro spoke to Granma.
Alejandro García del Toro, general deputy director for U.S. Affairs at Cuba's Foreign Ministry (MINREX), confirmed recent foreign press reports on meetings between US and Cuba’s officials in Havana.
“It’s a sensitive matter that, as we have said, we have managed discreetly,” he said.
The Cuban official confirmed that assistant secretaries from the U.S. State Department met with a Cuban delegation led by a deputy minister of foreign relations.
“Within the framework of the meeting, neither side set deadlines or made any coercive demands as U.S. media outlets have echoed,” García del Toro stressed. “All exchanges took place respectfully and professionally”.
He said that for the Cuban representatives, the removal of the energy siege against the country is a top priority. “This act of economic coercion is an unjustified punishment against the entire Cuban population. It is also a form of global blackmail against sovereign states, which have every right to export fuel to Cuba under the rules governing free trade,"
(Cubaminrex-Granma)