(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)
Ignacio Ramonet: President, first of all I would like to thank you very much for your kindness in granting us this interview.
This is going to be an interview of about ten questions that we are going to divide into three blocks: one block devoted to domestic policy, to the domestic situation in Cuba; a second block on the economy, essentially the economy in Cuba, obviously; and a third block on international policy.
The first question then on domestic policy is the following:
For many families in Cuba for a short time now, two or three years, daily life has become particularly difficult: there are food shortages, there is inflation, there are shortages in public services. The economic, commercial and financial blockade illegally imposed by the United States already existed, and what I would like to ask you is what has happened in recent times for things to have deteriorated in such a way.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Well, Ramonet, first of all I thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk to you, it is always very interesting to be able to share points of view with you and also to hear your comments on these issues. And you asked me a very interesting question, because many people ask why, if there has been a blockade for so long, what is it that distinguishes the current blockade?
I think we have to start from the fact that, in the first place, today the blockade has a qualitatively different characteristic; today we are talking about a tightened blockade and, furthermore, this tightening is supported by another component, which is the inclusion of Cuba in a spurious list determined at will by the US government of countries that supposedly support terrorism.
Above all, I am going to make a comparison that I think is the best way to illustrate what changes from one moment to another, if we compare what life was like for Cubans until 2019 or until the second half of 2019, and what life has been like after the second half of 2019, which is what also frames or differentiates these two moments.
In the first place, we are a country that has suffered the limitations and adversities imposed on us by the blockade for more than sixty years; an illegal, unjust, anachronistic blockade as a policy and loaded, above all, with an overbearing perspective of the Government of the United States.
Cuba has never stood idly by and we have developed a capacity for resistance. I would even say, after the experiences we had in COVID-19, that it is a creative resistance, because the country has not only been capable of resisting the onslaught of the blockade, but the country under these conditions has advanced, has contributed, has grown as a nation and, furthermore, has developed; in other words, it is not just resisting and doing nothing else.
Under all these concepts and all the strategies of the Revolution we have been able to maintain a certain level of economic activity, of exports, of support to social programs with a high impact on our population and we have lived, although our dreams have been stopped or all our aspirations slowed down, precisely because of the effects of the blockade, which I categorically tell you is the cause that slows down our economic development the most. And I always say: if we have been able to do so many things blocked, what would we not have been able to do without being blocked; but these will be hypotheses that have to be turned into theses with studies, with verifications, with data analysis, which is not the case of what concerns us now.
In 2019 this country received income from exports from our exportable and competitive productions in the international market, because there was a vitality of the country's economic activity; the country received a significant amount of remittances; it received notable income from the tourist activity -remember that we had almost four and a half million tourists in a year-, and we had credits from several financial institutions, government credits from countries with which we have very good relations and also credits from programs, from agencies, which allowed us to elaborate and support projects.
On the other hand, we had a stable supply of fuel on the basis of agreements with friendly countries, with brotherly countries, which meant that under those agreements we did not have to spend practically nothing of the foreign currency income we received on fuel, because all that had a compensation based on the services we provide to those brotherly countries.
Therefore, under all those conditions we had foreign currency income that allowed us to import raw materials to develop our main productive processes to the extent that we could have those things with the limitations of the blockade; we could buy food to satisfy the basic food basket, we could even buy food and other goods that we put in the stores - at that time they were the stores that operated in CUC, and in the domestic market in national currency - therefore, our domestic market had a certain level of supply.
We had foreign currency available with which we could achieve a legal exchange market, controlled by the State, where we could buy and sell foreign currency with its equivalent in local currency. We had an acceptable level of capacity to pay our debt obligations with countries or with companies that had invested in Cuba, even with foreign investment. And we also had a capacity of money for the purchase of spare parts, of the most important inputs for our economy.
Therefore, there was a supply in the domestic market and there was an adequate supply/demand ratio that allowed inflation levels to be low.
All this caused a feedback loop: the productive processes, a good productive activity gave more exportable funds, more income; tourism developed, gave more income, and all of this was being revolved and we reached a certain situation, I would say, of stability, without yet achieving the prosperity to which we aspire, and we are in a process of perfecting our economic-social system, and, on the other hand, also with a whole group of proposals, visions, postulates and guidelines in relation to the National Plan for Economic and Social Development until 2030, and we lived in that way.
Ignacio Ramonet: That was until 2019.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Until the second semester of 2019.
In the second half of 2019 the Trump administration applies more than 240 measures that tighten the blockade, and this is where the first concept comes in: They tighten the blockade, and even Title III of the Helms-Burton Act is applied for the first time, which had never been applied before and which achieves a tremendous impact, above all, of pressure on foreign investors, on those who have already invested, on those who were thinking of investing, and it gives all the support to those who were part of the confiscations that the Revolutionary Government justly carried out in the first years of the Revolution.
With these toughening measures, all our sources of foreign currency income are suddenly cut off; tourism decreases notably, because the United States Government denies the right of the American people to do tourism in Cuba; the cruise ships, which were an important part of the influx of tourists to Cuba, are closed; an enormous energy and financial persecution is organized. There are more than 92 banks or international financial entities sanctioned or pressured by the US Government, for which reason they have ceased their financial exchange relations with Cuba.
Remittances, which were an important source of income for the country, have been cut off and, on the other hand, they have also pressured and applied many sanctions against friendly and brotherly countries that supplied us with fuel on a stable basis. Therefore, we began to have a fuel deficit; we began to have a deficit in the availability of foreign currency.
With these two elements, on the one hand, the national electric power system is destabilized, because we are able to guarantee the operation of the thermoelectric plants with domestic crude oil; but the thermoelectric plants do not cover all the country's electricity demand, especially at peak times, and we have to start up other distributed generation plants which operate mainly with diesel and fuel oil; since we do not have these fuels, we are left with a deficit.
On the other hand, since we had less availability of foreign currency, we could not buy in time the necessary inputs and spare parts to maintain the entire national electric power system, which, in addition, is a system with a certain level of obsolescence; this increases breakages, causes maintenance to be extended and all this conspires against the stability of the national electric power system and, under these conditions, we began to suffer from the annoying blackouts. In order to reduce these blackouts, we even had to close or limit a little the level of productive activity, a group of economic activities.
Therefore, this is going to give us the first impact that at the peak of the day we can have the distributed generation groups not working and we can cover everything with this new energy.
Ah, because one of the elements that I forgot to explain to you is that as the thermoelectric plants stop working, the energy distribution groups that are planned, especially for peak hours, have to work at off-peak hours, therefore, they wear out more than what they were planned for and they do not always manage to compensate that deficit.
We have a whole program, which was explained by the Minister of Energy and Mines a few weeks ago to all our population. We are now starting to successively set up and enable parks, and our electricity generation will grow by this means, that is to say, there will be a substantial change this year, and a consolidation next year.
Part of these photovoltaic energy parks will accumulate energy, therefore, they will be able to be used in the evening hours. In addition to giving us this possibility, it will reduce the fuel consumption used for this purpose.
Ignacio Ramonet: Which is used to produce.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Here there are two ways out then: we will be able to devote more fuel to the economy, especially to food production, to agriculture, to productive processes which today are very limited because most of the fuel we have, as it is in deficit, we use it for electricity generation; and, on the other hand, our fuel purchase expenses will also decrease.
Ignacio Ramonet: On the purchase of hydrocarbons.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But, in addition, thermoelectric plants will work in a more comfortable regime, therefore, we will consume less of our own national crude, which is also exportable; and one of the things we are doing, of the measures we have taken, is to take a group of steps to continue increasing the production of national crude, with that production of national crude we can export, and it also helps us to have a source of financing for all these investments that are costly, these investments are very costly, the investments in electricity generation.
This is, I would say, the most sustainable path, because, besides, it is totally coherent with everything we propose in environmental policy, with all the commitment we have in our programs and in our commitments with the COP conferences, to reduce the emission of CO2 into space, in other words, it is coherent and guarantees sustainable development.
We are also looking for foreign investments that will allow us to strengthen, update and improve the processing of some of our refineries, which would also allow us to process this national crude oil.
Ignacio Ramonet: To refine it.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: To refine it, and to achieve other products that would also be exportable or that would be useful for domestic consumption and we would have to import less of these products for domestic consumption.
There is also a whole energy saving program that goes from the culture of the population?
Ignacio Ramonet: To reduce consumption and not to waste.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: To reduce consumption, not to waste, and, on the other hand, there is a whole development of photovoltaic technologies, let us say more in the domestic field, of equipment that work with photovoltaic energy sources. There is also the replacement of luminaires with LED luminaires, which consume less energy and also last longer, and all this combined group of actions will lead us to a better electro-energy situation.
This is well defined and well programmed. Unfortunately, to get there we have to go through moments like these, but it is one of the ways in which we can overcome the effects of the blockage in relation to the energy issue.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, in any case, this situation you are describing and the previous one, with the difficulties, the hardships, has lately provoked a sociological phenomenon that was unknown in Cuba, which are the social protests. On the one hand, many people are emigrating because they cannot stand the current conditions and, on the other hand, the protests which, although they have not been massive, have been surprising because this is not usual.
So, I would like you to explain to us, first, how do you analyze the nature of these protests and what lessons are you drawing from this situation?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, first of all, I believe that our people have suffered the effects of the blockade, besides, as I was saying, it is an accumulated effect of the blockade in more than sixty years. My generation, which was born in the early years of the Revolution, is a generation that has lived blocked by the shortages caused by the blockade.
Ignacio Ramonet: The blockade has always been present.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But my children were born under blockade and our grandchildren were born and are living under blockade conditions. Therefore, this has had a direct effect on the Cuban population.
Precisely, conceptually, what does the U.S. Government and the imperial policy defend in relation to destroying the Cuban Revolution?
There is a reference called the Mallory Memorandum, based precisely on a memorandum written by a State Department official in the sixties in an assessment of Cuba, who said that, given the level of popular support the Revolution had, the way to overthrow the Revolution was: economic asphyxiation, trying to do everything possible so that the people would suffer hardship, shortages and that this would lead to a break with the Revolution and, therefore, would provoke a social explosion that would lead to the fall of the Revolution.
That has been the policy, that has been the reference point, the fundamental concept, and that is what they are doing with the tightening of the blockade. In 60 years they have not been able to break us, and they have gone for a tightening of the blockade to break us. They are not going to break us either! I continue to believe in the capacity of response, in the heroism of this people and in the creative resistance I mentioned to you.
Now, in these times in particular, with this intensification of the blockade, on occasions we have had the coincidence of several factors on this population: prolonged blackouts, transportation problems, the shortages of life, problems in guaranteeing the basic food basket, problems with food, problems with medicines.
When there are blackouts, the water supply is affected, because the water supply sources also work with electricity; which, by the way, we have made a very important investment now in transforming pumping systems into photovoltaic systems as well, and this is part of the things we are doing to overcome this situation.
At certain times, there have also been demonstrations in some places and with a certain participation, I would say, in greater numbers, more massive in the events of July 11; less massive in that of March 17, although the media presented it as very massive as part of the other component of this aggressive policy towards Cuba of maximum pressure, which is on the one hand the economic asphyxiation with the tightening of the blockade, and on the other hand is the media intoxication where they try to discredit the Cuban Revolution, and where there is a virtual Cuba and a real Cuba. Then, in a number of places, there have been popular protests.
What have been the characteristics of these claims? Most of these claims have taken place in a situation of peaceful claims, where most of the people who have gone to claim what they have asked for is an explanation. Look, they are not demands for a rupture with the Revolution, people have gone to Government institutions or to Party institutions.
Ignacio Ramonet: That was seen very well in Santiago.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In Santiago.
They have gone to ask for an explanation, to ask for ratification if the situation is due to certain circumstances, and who are the ones who have shown their faces? Who are the ones who have been talking to the people, because they are part of the people? They have been precisely the leaders of the Party, the leaders of the Government and the administrations in those places, and without police repression, without repression of any kind.
Photo: Pérez, Leandro
Also, in these protests there have been small groups that have not behaved in a peaceful manner and this is one of the things that the media intoxication promoted by the empire tries to distort. Many of these people have been financed by subversive projects of the U.S. Government and they receive money systematically to take advantage of situations like this and demonstrate against the Revolution. Nor do they have a repressive response for demonstrating against the Revolution.
Ignacio Ramonet: The Cuban Constitution guarantees the right to demonstrate.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It does not have a repressive response, they can have a popular response because the population..., it has even happened, there are people in these protests who say: “Wait, we have to talk with the Government and talk with the Party”, and they have confronted and have not allowed them to shout counterrevolutionary slogans or other types of things; but, even that opinion that someone who is not with the Revolution may have is not repressed. What happens is that many times, because it is part of the same platform of subversion, those who protest in this way against the Revolution, who are the fewest, in these protests commit acts of vandalism and attempt against state properties, against social properties, alter public order, and this then leads to a response which is not due to ideology, it is a judicial response, a legal response as they would do in any other country, because they are altering public order, they are altering the tranquility of the citizens, they are committing misdeeds or committing acts of vandalism.
What happens is that this is not presented in this way by the international media, it is presented in a different way, because there is a script, an unconventional war script that proposes: first, social outbreak, claims or protests; second, the mounting of police repression; third, the mounting of political prisoners, that is, repression with political prisoners in quotation marks; then to demonstrate that because of these things there is a failed State, and then the alleged humanitarian aid and the change of regime. That is the script and the script of the Unconventional Warfare that today is applied against Cuba, that is applied against Nicaragua, that is applied against Venezuela.
So, there is a distortion there and, I would say, this type of protests that have existed in Cuba, as you say, which is a relatively new fact - the world has also changed and our society has changed, also the conditions caused by the tightening of the blockade make our lives change - are attended to, they are explained, they do not cause a rupture between the people and the Revolution, because, besides, we also have a working system where we are visiting the places, we are constantly talking to the population, we provide information on these problems.
Why is there no mention of the protests in the United States, which generally end with police brutality, especially against black people or humble people? Why is there no mention of police brutality during the protests that have taken place in the United States these days, in the universities, which were peaceful, totally peaceful, in favor of the Palestinian cause and against the genocide committed by Israel, supported by the United States, against the Palestinian people? And what has been the response of the United States government to these events? Police repression, mistreatment of students, mistreatment even of teachers, with boots on people's necks. We have seen scenes of a teacher, an elderly person, subdued, reduced, humiliated on the floor. That does not happen in Cuba, that does not happen in Cuba!
Why were there no criticisms of the protests in other European countries in which demonstrators were also shot or in which in less than two days there were more than 3,000 prisoners and which were indeed peaceful protests? Why are those in Cuba the ones that are amplified and why are they the ones that take on such dimensions?
For example, I tell you, on March 17, when we were in direct contact with the three places where social protests took place, around seven o'clock at night everything was already in complete order, and, besides, that day in the country there were different activities in which people were participating as part of a Sunday, and still at one o'clock in the morning the media platforms of intoxication were saying that there was a massive protest all over Cuba: a total lie, a slander, a construction.
I say, Ramonet, what can you expect from a government of the main power in the world that in order to attack a country, whose only sin can be that it wants self-determination, independence, sovereignty and that it wants to build a model different from the one that the United States government wants to impose as part of its hegemonic policy, that for that reason that power resorts to a brutal blockade for so many years and that in order to overthrow the Revolution it has to resort to lies? It is so perverse, such constructions are so vulgar.
I say, if we are so wrong, if we are so inefficient, if we are really such failures, don't apply any sanction to me, let me fall. But no, I know that the example of Cuba, and I say this without any expression of boasting, much less, without any Cuban chauvinism..., we know what we represent as an example for Latin America, the Caribbean and for the world, because one constantly sees how many people in the world have made solidarity with Cuba the center of their lives, and this is not by choice, this is because there is an example, because there is trust, because there is a guiding light, with which we assume a tremendous commitment, because we cannot let it down. That is the only thing that explains why such a powerful government has to resort to such practices to try to subdue a small country.
Ignacio Ramonet: We are going to pause here, President.
President, we are going to address the second block of our interview, which are questions on the economy, we are essentially going to ask four questions.
The first one is the following: I would like to know your assessment of the current state of the Cuban economy and what measures your Government is taking to face some of the current challenges, besides the blockade, obviously, such as, for example, inflation, which you already addressed in part; the partial dollarization that is taking place, and also the lack of significant foreign direct investments taking place.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, I think that part of the question, as an answer, we advanced it when we were describing what the blockade meant, because it is precisely that blockade that is giving rise to the new economic situation, which is the one described.
So, to summarize it, to focus more on what we are going to do to overcome this situation, we have to say that it is an economy that today operates under complex conditions and where there is a whole group of economic imbalances.
So, to face this, what are we proposing? First, we have designed a Macroeconomic Stabilization Program that will be developed over a long period of time, let us say, until 2030, and which will have to be constantly adjusted in order to achieve the macroeconomic balances that the country needs in the shortest possible time. It deals with the problems of inflation, the problems of the exchange market and, of course, the exchange rate; it deals with monetary policy, fiscal policy, incentives for domestic production and exports; it also includes elements of salaries, pensions, employment and all the reorganization we must make of the economic system, and the policies that have to do with the use of our finances, with the allocation of resources, with the role of the state enterprise, with the relationship between the state enterprise and the rest of the economic actors.
Photo: Estudios Revolución
Now, it is based on several premises. One premise is that we are looking for ways in which we can stimulate national production, because by stimulating national production we gain economic sovereignty; by stimulating national production we can also satisfy the country's domestic needs, so that the domestic market becomes a source of development.
Ignacio Ramonet: Are you thinking above all about agriculture, for example, for food sovereignty?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We are precisely talking about it.
We can produce an important part of the food the country needs and import less food. Today we have to have more than 2 billion dollars to import food, and because you invest them you do not always import the same amount or even more; on the contrary, you import less because prices and freight costs go up.
Furthermore, from this increase in domestic production and the efficiency of this domestic production, we must also achieve competitiveness in exports in order to earn foreign currency and make this domestic production sustainable.
This concept of stimulating national production and, above all, agriculture, we are not taking it to the country scale, but we are taking it to the country scale to be built from the local scale: how each municipality has a municipal self-supply program, how each province has a provincial self-supply program, and that all these efforts and all this construction from the community, from the neighborhood, by the municipality, the province, reach the country and stabilize the food situation of the country.
That is why we have developed a Food Sovereignty Policy and there is a Food Sovereignty Law.
Ignacio Ramonet: Is it giving results, and do you see the results?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I have an experience. Since January we have been visiting every month all the provinces of the country and in each province we are visiting a different municipality every month.
What have we observed? We have observed good experiences where workers and workers' collectives, with the leadership they have, do things differently, and in conditions of an intensified blockade, just like all the others, they find answers to what we have to achieve, including many of them in the area of food production. I have seen very interesting things in that sense.
Ignacio Ramonet: That could be extended to other parts of the country.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Anjá, but let's say that today they are exceptions.
So, we also have other places we have visited where the performance is not adequate, and where the collectives are perhaps more overwhelmed by the weight of the restrictions of the blockade and not by the thinking we want to develop, which is the thinking of creative resistance: “I am affected by the blockade in this and this, but in conditions of blockade I can do this, this, this and overcome and move forward”.
What we intend is that these are inspiring, that inspired by the example of those who do things differently, they acquire that experience and go to a better performance, and then what today is an exception becomes the rule.
But there is already something interesting, because, I tell you, these convictions and these criteria that I am sharing with you are not a call nor is it our propaganda, it is that one has it as a conviction precisely because of what one is appreciating in these visits to each place in the country.
So, for example, in the tours of March and April we began to observe that places that closed 2023, last year, with unproductive, unprofitable, inefficient performances, are starting to leave this situation behind and begin to approach this. Now, what do we have to achieve? That this transformation is sustainable over time. I think that's where the answers are, we have the answers ourselves.
What are we telling them later when we share with the management of the territories? We have to take this one that does not do it well to the concepts of this one that does it well, the experience is right there.
It is very stimulating to see how in each place of the country there are things that still do not have the productive levels of activities, of contributions that we need, but there are also lights in those examples.
Ignacio Ramonet: On the part of the State, the necessary reforms of laws have been made to facilitate a new production.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We still have to guarantee that the state enterprise can operate under the same conditions as the non-state sector, but today the state enterprise has a group of powers that have been given to it, which are not always well used. To the extent that it is used with a more advanced and flexible business culture, it will undoubtedly have an impact.
So, a fundamental concept: science and innovation. A poor country like ours, with scarce natural resources but with a lot of talent, has a construction founded by the Commander-in-Chief, which was continued by the General of the Army and which continues to be expanded and updated in the midst of these conditions: that the answers to our problems must be found in scientific research, taking all this to innovation. That is why we have opted for a Government Management System based on Science and Innovation to be applied in all areas. That is how we faced COVID-19 and now we are taking it to the field of agriculture, to the field of industry, to the issue of food production.
There is also the attention to individuals and families in vulnerable conditions. Each of the measures that we are going to apply must have a treatment so that vulnerable people and families in vulnerable situations are not affected, because our purpose is not to create more inequalities; on the contrary, it is to reduce the inequality gap, and that we are capable of producing with the awareness that the wealth that we are capable of generating is what we can distribute and that we are going to distribute it with social justice.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, among the changes that have taken place in Cuba's economy in recent years is the emergence of a market economy, right? In particular, this has expanded lately with the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which here are called MSMEs. What is your assessment of this phenomenon that is transforming Cuba's economic fabric?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In this sense, I think there are some clarifications to be made.
First, we have a planned economy that takes into account market signals, but it is not an economy based on pure market economy, there is a concept of social justice where market laws are not the ones that drive economic development, because above all, we think a lot in terms of people. And sometimes the efficiency of the Cuban economy is criticized from a purely economic point of view, but I say: this blocked economy, which still does not satisfy all our needs, maintains important social conquests that today in Cuba are assumed as a right; but in many places they are still not a conquest. So, I believe that there is also a certain level of injustice in assessing exactly the behavior of the Cuban economy. On the one hand, it is a planned economy but it takes into account, it recognizes the signals of the market and the laws of the market.
On the other hand, the MSME sector. First, there are state MSMEs and there are non-state, private MSMEs, that is to say, it is not only a private sector field. And the private sector existed in Cuba, but here it has expanded, because an important part of agricultural production is in the hands of private farmers and agricultural cooperatives.
There was self-employment, what happened is that since we did not have the development of MSMEs, self-employment was confused with self-employment and it already generated certain articulations or certain relationships that were more than self-employment and became organizations.
Ignacio Ramonet: Yes, they were already small companies with employees.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Those companies that, although they were not recognized, worked like that. In other words, what I believe is that we updated the situation we had, and that something very coherent has been proposed, which is to take advantage of all the potentialities the country has. So, it is a state-owned company that must play a fundamental role in the socialist construction, but which has a private sector as a complement to the economic activity.
Ignacio Ramonet: What does this private market sector currently represent?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Today when people talk about the dynamics of MSMEs, they say: “No, but they are growing a lot”. They are growing, it is a relatively new process, and let us say that we already have around 10,000; but one of our concepts, as part of the socialist construction, is that the main means of production are in the hands of the State and are represented by State enterprises. Therefore, the greatest weight of the economy is in the state sector, without denying the important contribution of the non-state sector.
I believe that this has also been a relatively new area in the improvement of our economic-social system. Now what we have to do is to correct some distortions in the relations between state enterprises and state entities with non-state entities, so that all of them, as part of a group of economic actors in our society, contribute and are inserted in the National Economic and Social Development Plan. And that is why, in exchange with the non-state sector, in exchange with the Cuban business sector, we are now updating a whole group of rules so that this may work more coherently and really boost the country's economy from the contribution of the state and from the contribution of the non-state sector.
Here we are also insisting that many of these companies are formed on the basis of the concept of high-technology companies and innovative companies, and we can have them in the state sector, because one of the characteristics of MSMEs, whether state or private, is that they are companies which, due to their conception and the way they operate, adapt more quickly to changes and have greater capacity for innovation.
Ignacio Ramonet: They are also smaller.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They are smaller, they operate in a more flexible way and, therefore, the contributions and dynamics they can bring to the economy are very important.
(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)
Ignacio Ramonet: Do you think this sector will continue to grow?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think this sector will continue to expand, it will continue to be part of our network of economic actors, and it will not be an enemy of the Revolution; it is a sector that will make a contribution, because it is a sector that was created under the Revolution. Although, as we know, there is a very direct attempt by the government of the United States to turn this sector into a sector of opposition to the Revolution.
Now there is an enormous contradiction: there are senators, congressmen, opinion leaders in the United States who say that the state sector should not be supported, but that money should be invested to turn the mipymes into agents of change. There are others who say that since the mipymes are the creation of the Cuban state to achieve a certain façade, they should be eliminated. They themselves have a contradiction, a contradiction that is not generated in Cuba, in Cuba they are part of a business network that is necessary to continue advancing in socialist construction, they are involved and committed to the National Plan for Economic and Social Development, and they take care that there are no distortions.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, let's talk about COVID-19, although you said some important words earlier; but let's remember that Cuba, thanks to its scientists, thanks to its biopharmaceutical industry, was one of the few countries in the world that was able to vaccinate its entire population with its own vaccines, an extraordinary achievement, especially in the context of a country under blockade and with limited resources. What lessons have you learned from this crisis? More importantly, what new contributions could Cuba make to the world in the area of health?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, first of all I think we have to talk about the fact that the world was shaken by COVID-19 and that the world should learn lessons from COVID-19. I think the first lesson that the world should learn from COVID-19 is that we need to allocate more resources, more funding and more money to achieve strong health systems in all countries.
Ignacio Ramonet - Public.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Public, resilient and for all, not for a minority.
On the other hand, international cooperation in the sense of COVID-19 is important and not selfishness. I, maybe a little idealistically - it has to do with the convictions that one has, with the formation within the Revolution - aspired that after COVID-19 the world would be more supportive, the world would cooperate more and better, and the opposite has happened: the world has gone to war, to the increase of sanctions, to blockades, to the construction of walls to solve international problems.
Ignacio Ramonet: Hate speech, the extreme right.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Hate speech, the whole issue of social networks, where there is defamation, bullying, viciousness, lies, slander, and above all what you pointed out: this hate speech, this vulgar speech, this banal speech that does not help to improve international relations.
This shows us that we need a new international economic order that is inclusive, that guarantees justice and fairness.
Ignacio Ramonet: To show solidarity.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That it should show solidarity, which is the opposite of the current international economic order.
What have we learned from COVID-19? A first lesson has to do with the experience we learned from Army General Raúl Castro. COVID-19 went around the world, the first news of COVID-19 began, there was no case in Cuba yet -we are talking about January 2020- and the Army General told us: we must immediately study what is happening in the world and prepare a national plan to face the epidemic. In other words, we learned that we must have the capacity to design an integral work program or strategy to confront COVID-19, which would involve all governmental institutions, social institutions, the non-governmental sector of the economy, in short, that as a country we would adopt a plan/country that would allow us to move forward and prepare the conditions to face this situation. This is a first lesson, because thanks to this plan, thanks to this strategy, we were able to get ahead of the situation.
Ignacio Ramonet: You started to some extent before COVID-19 was extended to the world.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: To prepare ourselves before the first case arrived. That meant training our personnel with the experiences that existed in the world, studying the disease, and other things that I am going to explain now that are also experiences and that come from that, but the concept that most encompasses what we have done and learned is the vision of the Army General who said: prepare a strategy, prepare a program, prepare a plan to face the disease.
Second, international cooperation. We immediately sent Cuban medical brigades to more than 46 countries, where at that time, in some of them, the epicenter of the disease was.
Ignacio Ramonet: In Italy, in Lombardy.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In Italy, for example, in Lombardy. That allowed us to support those peoples, to help, to cooperate.
Ignacio Ramonet: And to learn.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But we also learned, we learned!
I remember that we met with each brigade every time they came back, and they brought us all these experiences, and we incorporated all these experiences into the plan.
Thirdly, to develop a network of molecular research laboratories, molecular biology laboratories, which become important elements to be able to process all the samples, which in cases of these epidemics are massive at a certain time, especially when there are pandemic peaks; but when there are no pandemic peaks, they become the possibility of having references, data with samples to know how far the disease has spread.
The role of epidemiology as a science within the health system, because many of these diseases also have to be confronted with concepts...
Ignacio Ramonet: They have a special logic.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel. An epidemiological logic: how to reduce transmission, how to prevent it, how to work; the integral work of all the organizations of society and especially the connection, in the Cuban case, of the health system -which is a robust system, we have to say, in the midst of the situation, note that we are facing the COVID-19, as I said, in the midst of the intensified blockade and already included in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism-, the link and the articulation of the health system with the Cuban Drug Control Agency, CECMED (in Spanish), and with the biopharmaceutical industry, because this shortens the time for clinical trials, gives capacity for clinical trials, gives capacity to generate new medicines or to propose the use of existing medicines to improve the protocols for the treatment of the disease.
The management system based on science and innovation. This was a fundamental role, we systematized a meeting, which we still have, every Tuesday at two or three o'clock in the afternoon, usually, with the experts, scientists and institutions that worked in the COVID-19 confrontation, from which came out a whole group of scientific researches. There was a program of more than a thousand scientific researches, scientific research topics; evaluation of the results of these researches, and from there came the generation of our vaccines.
I remember when we had the peak of the pandemic with the Delta strain, and we saw that the mechanisms for distributing vaccines in the world were totally unequal and favored the rich and not the poor....
Ignacio Ramonet: Also, they had to be bought.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We had to buy them and we asked our scientists: "we need Cuban vaccines to have sovereignty and to face this". And after three months, there was the first vaccine candidate, and then we know the story: five vaccine candidates, today three are vaccines that have been well proven in terms of efficiency and efficacy; two others are still in clinical trials, and they are going to be very promising vaccines, and since we started applying... Ah, this is another lesson: you can have the capacity to produce vaccines, which is not very common; not more than ten countries have been able to produce their vaccines, none of them from the South.
Ignacio Ramonet: Some powers have not been able to do that.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There were powers that did not succeed, and we shared and transferred this technology to other countries and shared it with other nations.
It is to have the capacity to produce your vaccines, but to have the capacity to face a massive vaccination campaign in a short period of time. We applied 40 million doses of vaccine in less than two years, and to do that you have to have a system organized at the social level, at the community level, because the vaccination was not only done in polyclinics, there were institutions like schools where vaccination clinics were almost organized and where health personnel were present, but together with the social institutions to carry out this vaccination.
Ignacio Ramonet: And this in the midst of this intensified blockade that you described earlier.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is a piece of information that I do not have, I think it was impossible for us to calculate it in those conditions. When I saw and studied - at that time we studied a lot what was going on in the world with COVID-19 - the billions that were given to pharmaceutical companies to develop research, I assure you that we could not even give more than 50 million to our scientific institutions.
Of course, you tell me: "It can't be", there is what I explained before, all the knowledge.
Ignacio Ramonet: The whole apparatus is working here...
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: All the previous development that came from the visionary idea of the Commander-in-Chief, which later underwent a transformation thanks to the Army General, what had been a budgetary system of the scientific pole also became a powerful closed-loop business system for the production of medicines and especially biotechnological ones.
Ignacio Ramonet: And also for export.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: If there had not been all this preparation, we would not have been able to face it, and the vaccines saved the country! Once we had vaccinated more than 60% of the population with a single dose, the peak of the pandemic was immediately lowered.
Ignacio Ramonet: The pandemic curve went down...
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: After we opened the country's borders, the Omicron strain entered, which caused higher pandemic peaks in the world, in Cuba a third of the previous pandemic peak, and it only lasted two or three weeks, because the immunity level of our people was already high with the effects of the vaccine.
Ignacio Ramonet: It was high.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: So these are other lessons learned.
The role of social sciences, because when you face a problem like an epidemic...
Ignacio Ramonet: COVID-19, the same epidemic.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That you cannot see it only as a health problem, there are psychological effects, society moves differently, in different conditions, in conditions of isolation or physical distance, how you take care of people with fewer possibilities, more vulnerable. All this led to proposals.
Ignacio Ramonet: Then also mortality, and what it means.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: All of this led to analyses and proposals from the social sciences, which were integrated into this whole system.
Honest, clear, timely and systematic information. Every day there was a space in our media where even one of our most brilliant epidemiologists became an opinion leader.
Ignacio Ramonet - He became a popular figure.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Every day he would explain what was going on, how many deaths there were, how many admissions there were, how the rates were going up or down, and how things were going.
Ignacio Ramonet: At that time, Cuba demonstrated or confirmed that it was a health power, despite all the difficulties we have been talking about. What can you tell humanity about the contributions that Cuban scientists have been able to make?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: At this moment, based on these experiences, what have we proposed? A compendium has been prepared with the experiences and lessons learned, and we are designing an exercise that we are going to do at the national level to incorporate these lessons learned into our health system.
Secondly, the program is being defended and has already been presented in these same meetings that we systematically hold, with the concept of a single health, which links everything related to diagnosis, emergency treatment and all the integral analysis of diseases.
Among the lessons learned, there are things that have confirmed our ideas, such as the role of primary health care, which Fidel also designed with the concept of the family doctor.
Ignacio Ramonet: From the neighborhood, from the family.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: COVID-19 confirmed the usefulness of primary care, and now we are updating within primary care the lessons learned from COVID-19.
We are continuing to develop the capacity of diagnostic tools. We, in addition to using PCRs and that, we came, at the time of COVID-19, to design with our scientific institutions our own diagnostic mechanisms and diagnostic techniques that they also supported.
We have continued and we can share with the world the studies of the consequences of COVID-19. The issue was not only to face the disease, it was not only to save lives, it was how to guarantee quality of life to those who were patients of COVID-19, and there is a group of researchers.
Ignacio Ramonet: Those who have survived the disease.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We have maintained the development of the system of science and innovation that we apply in COVID-19, that is why we hold weekly meetings to analyze and update certain topics.
I want to tell you that there are important advances, the time will come to announce them, we will wait for the clinical results; but there are important advances in the study of many diseases and, above all, in therapeutic solutions with biotechnological medicine and advanced techniques for diseases, for different types of cancer. We are working - our population is aging - on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, studies on an important group of degenerative diseases; in other words, there is a wide range of scientific results that I believe will have an impact at the national level to continue strengthening the quality of Cuban health, but also at the international level.
At the moment, with licenses granted by the United States government as part of the tightening of the blockade, we are conducting two important clinical trials with American institutions: One of them is a vaccine against lung cancer, which we have already tested in Cuba with very good results, and a clinical trial has recently been authorized in relation to the drug Heberprot-P, which is a drug that helps people suffering from diabetes, the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, at impressive levels, as it cures diabetic foot ulcers and avoids one of the most unpleasant things for a person, which is amputation. Today in the world, an amputation costs thousands of dollars in every country, and in addition, there are many patients with diabetes, many patients whose solution to the gradual development of this disease is, unfortunately, amputation. These are also important results.
Ignacio Ramonet: I think these words are going to be talked about a lot, I mean, they are going to give a lot of hope to a lot of people in the world, and let us hope that Cuban science achieves these results, Mr. President.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That Cuban science can solve these mysteries. And we are also working on research to get the vaccine against dengue.
Ignacio Ramonet: There is already a Japanese vaccine for dengue.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Here we are working on a vaccine, there are about four strains, there are several strains of dengue, that works not only on one strain, but on all the existing types of dengue.
Ignacio Ramonet: Excellent!
Mr. President, the last question of this block is about economy and technology.
You are a defender of the use of technology, and we all know that technology, artificial intelligence, digitalization, are transforming our societies. You have been particularly committed to the computerization of Cuban society, could you tell us how this project is progressing and what does the computerization of society bring to Cuban citizens?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We have defined three priorities of government management, which are: first, the computerization of society, which now we have advanced in the concept and we have taken it to the digital transformation of society, it seems the same but it is not the same, the issue is not only to take everything to digital platforms, but to have a concept of life and a way of acting in a digital way. In other words, we defend digital transformation as a pillar of government management, along with science and innovation and social communication. These are the three pillars of government and they are very closely related.
Ignacio Ramonet: It is also very important in the financial sector.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Notice that one of the elements that I highlighted as a learning experience was the social or institutional communication that took place with COVID-19.
Then I would say that the digital transformation of society is a reality. We have 7.7 million people registered with mobile phones and about 8 million with Internet access, we have expanded the mobile networks, although we still need to achieve more coverage, it also has to do with the fact that it requires investment in technology and it goes through all these problems, but we have managed to maintain a level.
Ignacio Ramonet: That is expensive.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Today we are above the world average.
There has been a very recent debate about digital transformation, artificial intelligence, the digital economy. As part of this debate, a few years ago we created the Union of Computer Scientists of Cuba, where all the people and experts on these issues are gathered, and where a lot of debates and excursions are also promoted to support the digital transformation processes.
In the coming weeks, the update of the country's digital transformation policy, the country's digital agenda and the policy for the use of artificial intelligence will be presented to the Council of Ministers, here with a holistic approach, that is, we see artificial intelligence not only for the results it can give us in the productive processes of services to the population in terms of efficiency, but also in the ethical aspects and a whole group of elements that need to be taken into account around artificial intelligence.
We are bringing the digital transformation and we will also bring the contribution of artificial intelligence to the following areas: To the area of the productive sector of goods and services, because digital transformation and artificial intelligence can help us a lot to achieve efficiency in the productive and service processes, especially when we have to face a demographic situation where the population of the country is aging more and more, so we have to make our productive and service processes more efficient, so that with fewer people we can have more productivity to serve the majority of people, and that's why automation, computerization and digitalization are tools that give a good result.
Digitalization is also applied in the field of public administration, because an important element in which we are developing the digital transformation is the electronic government, the interaction of citizens with all government activities, which also guarantees greater spaces for citizen participation in government management. For example, we have achieved that all municipalities in the country, all provinces, all ministries and most institutions have digital portals or web platforms through which they interact with the population.
Recently, the draft laws that have been submitted to the National Assembly for approval have been placed on digital platforms, the criteria of the population have been collected with interaction, and this has led us to the National Assembly with modifications that strengthen and improve this process of creating regulations.
Soon we will make it public, it is ready, the final results are being achieved, we will present the Cuban Citizen's Portal. It will be a platform where the Cuban citizen can create his profile and access a very important number of procedures without having to go through offices, without paper, which will make his life much more feasible.
In fact, many of these procedures are already in platforms of certain agencies and institutions, but now you will have in a single platform with your profile, the possibility of all these procedures and, in addition, a lot of information to the population also as part of this; that you can search any question about a process, a procedure, a law, a particular problem, you can work on it, and it will be another step forward.
We are supporting this whole process of digital transformation and the use of artificial intelligence with the development of cybersecurity, to avoid cyberattacks, to have security in all these platforms.
An important element in which we are developing the digital transformation is the electronic government.
In a very creative way, and these are things that one is constantly impressed by and especially by the activity of young people, our country today has a whole series of computer applications, mobile applications developed locally by Cubans, which work perfectly, even, we already have the variant in our store, which is an application called Apklis, where you can download Cuban applications and applications from other places, but they are there, there are several Cuban applications, many of them are becoming a reference for the population.
We have Cuban operating systems, we have designs and productions that are still limited because of financing problems, Cuban computer equipment, laptops, tablets, PCs.
Ignacio Ramonet: There is robotization.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We also have experience with robotization. One of these examples is COVID-19. When COVID-19 wanted to expand the intensive care units to prevent the hospital from collapsing, every time we went to a company to buy lung ventilators, they refused to give them to us because of the blockade laws. We gave the task to a group of young scientists from one of our institutions, and the prototypes were made, and today they are already high-performance ventilators, with a level of digitalization that I tell you is brilliant, excellent. Their use and quality have been confirmed by the best experts in intensive care and anesthesia in our country, by highly qualified medical personnel, and I tell you that this is another of the prides that one feels as a Cuban, that one demands something from our scientific personnel, including young people, and that there are immediate answers, but high answers, that is, answers that are at the level of any international development.
Ignacio Ramonet: Are you developing your own artificial intelligence applications?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Yes, we have our own platforms that are being developed, our own applications, our own designs to integrate them into production and service processes.
Ignacio Ramonet: Are you working on quantum computing?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Also. Of course, the acquisition of quantum computers and that goes through all these problems, but we have the preparation.
Ignacio Ramonet: They have the specialists.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We have the preparation, we have trained specialists, there is a whole level of knowledge and updating and international exchange.
Ignacio Ramonet: Do you think we could work on these issues specifically within the framework of Latin American integration?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think so, that was one of the things we proposed.
Well, when we were at the ALBA anniversary and the ALBA summit in Venezuela, the need to create platforms to integrate Latin America and the Caribbean, the ALBA countries, on the issue of digitalization and artificial intelligence was raised.
We modestly said that we are willing to cooperate with the developments that we have in the country.
Ignacio Ramonet: Even with teaching units, right, mainly specialized universities?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Teaching units, training, participating in joint projects; also making our applications available to the rest of the countries. This is one of the things that is already having an impact.
We have started a process of bancarization, the digitalization of the Cuban banking system, which is related to these things that we are achieving.
Ignacio Ramonet: This also contributes financially to the disappearance of physical money, which has to be produced, transported and purchased.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Of cash. We also have a lot of applications in process georeferencing systems, process geolocation; the work for crop estimates through the use of these technologies.
There is an enormous appetite for knowledge and development among young Cuban scientists and Cuban professionals.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, we are going to talk about the third block of this interview, which is international politics.
For years, Cuba has won a great victory in the United Nations General Assembly against the illegal blockade of the United States against your country, but clearly this victory has not led to concrete results, the United States does not give in and does not lift the blockade. What new initiatives could you announce to move towards the lifting of the blockade? I ask you, for example, have you tried to speak directly with President Biden?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, your vision of the problem is correct, which also requires some reflection. How is it possible that the most important power in the world, or the most powerful power in the world, receives no support, minimal support, only from the State of Israel; the rest of the countries vote in favor of Cuba in relation to the Cuban resolution against the blockade, which is presented year after year in the United Nations General Assembly, which last year was the 31st, in which the blockade was condemned by a majority, and there is no response? This only shows the arrogance of the empire, and it shows - and I would say this is more serious and everyone should have learned from this - it shows contempt for the opinion of the rest of the world. It is contempt for our peoples that when the whole world considers it a shameful fact that a small country is subjected to a criminal and genocidal blockade, such as the blockade of the United States government against Cuba, that they remain deaf to this worldwide demand.
And note that this demand is not only expressed in the vote at the United Nations, but also in the number of countries, organizations of countries, regional blocs and international institutions that, year after year, also adopt resolutions against the blockade or measures condemning the blockade. More and more heads of state and government are speaking out against the blockade with their full names in the United Nations General Assembly. For example, at the last United Nations General Assembly, where the issue of the blockade was discussed, 44 heads of state and government from all over the world spoke out against the blockade...
Ignacio Ramonet: All kinds of ideologies.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: From all kinds of ideologies, they have spoken out against the blockade, for example, the African Union, the Group of 77, CELAC, ALBA, all of them are regional blocs. A group of institutions, including institutions that make recommendations to the report of the Secretary General of the United Nations, supporting Cuba's position against the blockade. And there are more and more events, I would say already on a daily basis, of protest activities against the blockade that are taking place day after day, week after week, weekend after weekend, all over the world. Last year alone, we registered more than 2,000 demonstrations in support of Cuba, and in the months that have already passed this year, there have been countless moments of support against the blockade.
We have made it known, through direct and indirect channels, to the current administration of the United States government that we are willing to sit down at the table on equal terms, without impositions and without conditions, to talk about all the issues that have to do with the relationship between Cuba and the United States, all the issues that they want to discuss; but without conditions and on equal terms.
Because at the end of the day, in the blockade, there is a relationship that is, let's say, unilateral: Cuba has not affected the United States, Cuba has not taken any action against the U.S. government; the U.S. government was the one that unilaterally imposed the blockade, therefore the U.S. government is the one that has to unilaterally lift the blockade. We are not asking for favors, nor do we have to make any gesture to get the blockade lifted, it is simply a right of the Cuban people. A right of the Cuban people to be able to develop in an environment of peace, of equality, without coercive measures, without impositions, and we are willing; but the U.S. government has never responded to this.
Ignacio Ramonet: The current administration?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This current administration.
We are convinced that this current administration does not have the will to change the situation towards Cuba, especially because it has prioritized its policy towards the interests of a minority, which is the Cuban-American mafia based in Florida, and this undermines the possibilities of having a relationship as we would like to have. With ideological differences, which we will always have, but a civilized relationship between neighbors, where there could be cooperation, economic, commercial, scientific, financial, cultural exchanges, in all areas of life. It could be a normal relationship, just like the United States has with another group of countries that do not share its positions.
Ignacio Ramonet: Countries that have also been great adversaries.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Great adversaries. So why this cruelty towards Cuba?
And we raised the issue because we are making a difference, we have nothing against the American people, this is a problem with the government of the United States.
Ignacio Ramonet: How do you explain that President Biden, who was Obama's vice president for two terms, and Obama had changed the atmosphere, let's say, of relations, and relations were restored, has this position?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It is inexplicable.
Obama began to build a different relationship.
Ignacio Ramonet: Biden's wife was in Cuba, she had a very good experience, because she is a professor, how can you explain that?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It can only be explained by the fact that in the United States it is not a question of parties, a Democrat acts like a Republican. There is a military-industrial complex, there is another power structure behind it, in the shadows, that determines the positions of the U.S. government, which are the imperial positions. And there is this situation of subordination to a group of interests, especially for electoral purposes, to the positions of the Cuban-American mafia.
Ignacio Ramonet: And do you have any hope that the next elections will change this situation?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I wish they would change and I wish we could have the space to discuss all our positions face to face and that there would be another type of relationship and that the blockade would be lifted; but my conviction is that we have to overcome the blockade ourselves, with our capacity, with our work, with our talent, with our intelligence and with our effort, and that would be the best answer to this stubbornness to maintain this genocidal blockade against our people for so many years.
Ignacio Ramonet: What is particularly surprising is that Biden maintained the list of countries that support terrorism, which Trump adopted minutes before leaving the White House.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Everything, he kept everything.
But in addition, the Biden administration had very perverse statements and actions against Cuba. I told you about the lung ventilators in COVID-19. In COVID-19, our medical oxygen production plant was affected, and when we went to buy medical oxygen from countries in the area where we could have the necessary product in the country in less time, the U.S. government put pressure on the companies that could supply us with medical oxygen so that this oxygen would not reach Cuba; this is a totally criminal action. Imagine in the middle of a pandemic, with intensive care units, with people with respiratory problems, to deny service to these people, they were condemning them to death. We had to make a tremendous effort, with the help of other countries, to overcome that situation.
This is something that is not forgotten, Ramonet, it was such a perverse action. The way they manipulated the COVID-19 situation in Cuba, when they had a more complex situation than we did. We handled the response to COVID-19 better than the U.S. government itself, which has money and wealth. They called for the SOS Cuba, all the media manipulation, all the events of July 11.
Today they are so cynical that they are able to say that they have not gone to another moment in the relationship with Cuba because of what happened on July 11. That is a tremendous cynicism and a tremendous lie with which they want to justify their position before the world.
Ignacio Ramonet: Especially what you say about oxygen, they pretend that the blockade does not apply to food or medicine, and obviously this shows that it is not true.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Yes, the blockade applies to everything.
Ignacio Ramonet: Perhaps there is hope in this information that we have that is circulating at the moment, and that is that President Biden would announce in the primaries who would be his vice president, that it would no longer be Kamala Harris, but that it would be Michelle Obama. Do you think that if that were true, if that were confirmed, that would leave some hope?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think that today everything is purely speculative, I think that today in the current situation in the United States, the internal situation of the country, it is not possible to predict objectively which side is in favor or not of the vote of the population, which, in addition, today is very much affected by the facts of the internal economy of the United States; very internal issues such as the abortion issue; international issues such as Palestine, the issue of the war in Ukraine. In other words, there is a whole group of situations that are in the minds of the American people, in the lives of the American people, and I don't think you can accurately say today which side a vote of the American people can be on. There are many people who are undecided, there are positions within the parties themselves of isolating themselves from the position. In any case, an announcement by a person like Michelle Obama could have a different reading.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, you are returning from Moscow where, in addition to attending the ceremony commemorating the victory over Nazism, you participated in the inauguration of President Putin and spoke at the plenary session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. Are you looking for new economic alliances? Does Cuba expect to join the BRICS platform in one way or another?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This was a very interesting trip, because it was a trip of anniversaries, I would say, in a way, wasn't it, and of interesting and important events.
First of all, we arrived in Moscow when President Putin was at the inauguration ceremony, we were not invited and we did not participate, so it was a very internal ceremony.
Ignacio Ramonet: Private.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Very private for the country, but we participated in this trip to Russia at the invitation of President Putin.
Then, for the first time, we participated in person in the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union, because all the previous participations we had in the Supreme Council were during the years of COVID-19 and we did it virtually through the possibilities of videoconferencing. So it is not a new alliance, it is an alliance that we have been in for a long time. And when the Supreme Council met, it was the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union. So it was also a time to take stock of the results of this regional integration, in which we have observer status. And it was the same date on which we celebrated the 64th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba, the same relations that have now been continued with the Russian Federation, but with an important element: the member countries of the Eurasian Union - and this was a remark made to me by Lukashenko, the President of Belarus - were former republics of the Soviet Union, Lukashenko told me:"This anniversary belongs to everyone, because we were all part of the Soviet Union.”
Ignacio Ramonet - Members of the Soviet Union.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I believe that the Eurasian Union in ten years has shown a significant capacity for economic and commercial dynamism, and has greatly increased the gross domestic product among these countries in the region, and defends very fair principles in terms of economic development and complementarity among these countries.
For us, it is a space of opportunities, because we can contribute especially in areas such as biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry, we can take advantage of this space by having our medicines recognized by the regulatory agencies of these countries, and also enter a market that is more affordable for us, because they also have intentions and needs for these medicines and for the transfer of technology and for making joint investments. It also opens a space for investors from these countries to participate in the economic and social development programs in our country. And there is also the issue of food sovereignty to share with them, which is one of the points of the whole Union; the issue of environmental sustainability, that is, sustainable development and respect for the environment and the development of a culture of sustainability, which is also a principle that we take into account in our development; food sovereignty and the development of renewable energy sources. So this is an important area for us.
I believe that BRICS is one of the alternatives in today's world, a bloc of countries that opens the expectation of breaking the North American hegemony in international relations. Therefore, the BRICS are becoming an alternative, inclusive space; the BRICS are open to the countries of the South.
Ignacio Ramonet: They just expanded last January 1st.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The BRICS have just expanded, they have shown a willingness to establish relations with the African continent, with Latin America and the Caribbean; a relationship of greater consensus, greater equality and respect is being established. On the other hand, the BRICS are also proposing an alternative to the dollar, and they are promoting trade in the currencies of each country or compensatory trade based on the exchange of products and services generated by each of the countries.
Ignacio Ramonet: They also have a development bank, which is chaired by Dilma Rousseff.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They have a development bank presided over by Dilma, who is a recognized leader with a political vision for the problems of the South. And the five countries that she presided over, founders of the BRICS, are countries that have an excellent relationship with Cuba. We are studying, we are observing, we are commenting it now also in the meeting with President Putin, that Cuba aspires to join the BRICS.
Ignacio Ramonet: The next summit will take place in Russia, in October, in Kazan. Will you attend, President?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Everything depends on how events unfold.
Ignacio Ramonet: It seems that they want to create a new type of member, which would be the associate or partner member, there would be room for Cuba.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There would be room for Cuba, and it also depends on the consensus reached with the countries that lead the BRICS; but for example, they were very consistent and allowed Cuba to participate in the South Africa Summit, not only as a country, but also as a representative of the Group of 77 and China, because at that time we had the pro tempore presidency, and it must be said that they paid great attention to the proposals of the Group of 77 and China that Cuba presented in their name, and also to the Cuban position. I believe that this is a very favorable environment for South-South relations and that it opens a new perspective for the New International Economic Order that is needed.
Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, we are coming to the end of this interview, this is the last question, it is about Latin America.
Crises are multiplying in Latin America and the Caribbean, there was that attack on the Mexican embassy in Ecuador; the U.S. Southern Command is building military bases in Guyana, which is a threat to Venezuela and its historical claim to the Essequibo; in Argentina, President Javier Milei is destroying decades of social progress; in Haiti, the difficulties are not ending. How do you interpret these situations? And what can Cuba contribute to the promotion of sovereignty, peace and progress in the region?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This is an expression of all the contradictions that exist at the global level and that are also manifested at the regional level in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. I think it is also an expression of the persistence of the empire to maintain the Monroe Doctrine, with this imperialist concept of America for the Americans, which for all of us who live in the continent is not Latin America and the Caribbean; it is Latin America and the Caribbean subordinated to North America and to the power of the empire. Therefore, this is also an expression of the North American vision of contempt for our peoples and of the North American vision of Latin America and the Caribbean as its backyard.
Now, a Latin America and the Caribbean that, on the one hand, has a group of governments that have maintained revolutionary processes that have been subjected to the greatest setbacks, pressures, sanctions, insults, aggressions and interference, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
A whole group of progressive governments that also provide a favorable correlation of left forces in the Latin American region, such as: the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Lula, in Brazil; Lopez Obrador; Xiomara, in Honduras; Boric, in Chile; Petro, in Colombia, which contribute to stability and ease of cooperation and exchange. But the United States does not stop there and is constantly trying to mobilize right-wing forces with, I would say, very dirty mechanisms to provoke instability in these countries, to prevent left-wing processes or left-wing governments from staying in power, and to encourage that where the left has lost power and the right is established, that the right does not lose power.
Ignacio Ramonet: It is maintained.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And that this right wing is a right wing that is totally subservient to the government of the United States and to the design of the United States, and also that is fomenting disputes on certain issues that have a historical component; that is promoting ruptures, slandering, feeding divisions to provoke the disunity of the region.
This explains why today there are some governments that support the entire U.S. policy in the continent, including governments that support the presence of NATO troops in the territory of Latin America and the Caribbean, governments that deny the right to sovereignty and self-determination of territories of their own country where there have been wars and where there are heroes and martyrs who died for the independence of those territories, for the sovereignty of those territories, and what they do is to flatter the powers that have become the metropolis of those geographical spaces that belong to the region, in what can be considered totally absurd, irrational and unpatriotic. Governments that, in addition, have a media projection where they express their principles, but totally of offense, of insults against those who think differently, against those who think of doing things in a different way, or against those who defend another way of building the world. I always strive, and we will always strive, for that better world that is possible and to which Fidel called us.
We have an ethic, we do not talk behind someone's back, we do not insult, when we have to defend a position, we defend it directly, and when we have to discuss a position, we discuss it directly; but we are not given to the media show, to insults, to insults, to that kind, I would say, of political vulgarity that others in the world lend themselves to.
Cuba's position is that we will always maintain and defend, with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, respect for the sovereignty and independence of these countries; respect for the self-determination of the socio-political system that they adopt; and the willingness, regardless of systems and ideologies, to have the most respectful, supportive, cooperative relationship with each of these countries, and we do that with most of them.
We never break off relations with Latin American countries and we try to resolve, through dialogue, through discussion, through argumentation, any issue on which we may have some differences, on which we may have different positions.
I believe that Cuba's expressions of solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean are eloquent of the coherence with these convictions. We have sent doctors and teachers, internationalist workers in engineering and other economic and social fields to several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
We do not send military or armed forces to Haiti, nor do we make invasions; we have medical brigades in Haiti. Today, in the midst of this situation in Haiti, when many are thinking of intervening in Haiti or interfering in Haiti's internal affairs, we have a medical brigade that is providing services to the Haitian people, a people that I believe deserves the greatest respect for all that they have suffered as a result of being the first nation in the region to develop a revolution.
Ignacio Ramonet: That became independent.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: A dignified people, a people that has been subjected to interventions for a long time; a people that has had to pay a debt for its freedom, which is totally unjust. In other words, there must be reparations for Haiti, just as there must be reparations for the slavery of the peoples of the Caribbean, who are constantly under pressure from the United States government to break unity with the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean.
We have a relationship of gratitude, as well as a great friendship and brotherhood with the government of López Obrador and with Mexico. The relationship between Cuba and Mexico is an intimate, historical relationship, it is a fraternal relationship, it is a family relationship. Mexico was the only country that did not break relations with Cuba when the United States government called on the entire OAS to break relations with Cuba.
We defend the cause of Venezuela, the Chavista Revolution, civil-military unity, and we support President Maduro, whom they even tried to assassinate.
Ignacio Ramonet: Several times.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Something that is unusual.
We support the Sandinista Revolution; we call for the self-determination of Puerto Rico; we defend the principles of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. We are very interested in Xiomara's role in Honduras and also in her role as head of CELAC; at the moment we have a very close relationship with Lula.
Ignacio Ramonet: CARICOM countries.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: With the CARICOM countries, in the end with all of Latin America and the Caribbean; but always on the basis of respect, solidarity, friendship and dialogue to resolve any situation.
On the other hand, we intend to defend the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, which was approved at a CELAC summit in Havana.
We are also defending Latin American and Caribbean integration, which responds to the dreams of our heroes, responds to the highest ideals of Latin American integration, and I am thinking at this moment of Martí and Bolívar. Martí, who always spoke so respectfully of Our America and defined very well what Our America was; and Bolivar, who led a whole struggle to achieve the independence of many Latin American countries.
I believe that leading by example is the greatest support we can give to this Latin American unity.
Ignacio Ramonet: Fidel always defended it.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Fidel always defended it, he taught us to defend it, and Raúl also defended it.
Ramonet, when we talk about dreams, about aspirations, we have such a common history, such a common culture, such wonderful, hard-working, intelligent, creative peoples. I tell you, the pre-Columbian Latin American cultures have nothing to envy the Mesopotamian cultures or the cultures of ancient Greece. They were known first, but when you go back in history, you see that ours in their development, in how they measured time, how they channeled water, how they produced, their development, were as developed as those, and they are part of our roots, and you can see them in any of the Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Our cultural wealth, the advanced thinking in Latin America and the Caribbean, the approaches of Latin American thinkers, Latin American philosophers, the Latin American academic sector, are advanced positions, of much study, of much coherence, of much defense of the roots of the Latin American and Caribbean identity, and, in addition, it is a continent with resources, which today, unfortunately, is where the greatest degree of inequality among its peoples is manifested.
I am convinced that with all these virtues, with all this wealth - and this is what I dream of - the Latin American continent could have such an integration that it could be an example for the whole world of what it can contribute to the human condition, to the future, to the dreams of emancipation, to the placement of the human being at the true center of everything that is done for the world. I believe that this moment will come sooner rather than later, because our peoples demand a lot of justice, because they have lived through many complex situations: they have experienced aggression, they have experienced contempt, they have experienced interventions, they have experienced practices of inequality, they have been excluded from processes, they have been excluded from opportunities.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, there is still a lot of illiteracy to be solved, there is still a lot to be done in terms of gender issues, there is still a lot to be achieved in terms of the emancipation of the wonderful Latin American and Caribbean women, there is still a lot to be achieved in terms of the equality of all our peoples and in terms of social justice.
But there is a historical potential, a cultural potential.
Ignacio Ramonet: There is a desire.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The desire, and I believe that we will continue to move forward in integration, and that is the message, the conviction, the support and the example that Cuba can give.
A Latin American country will never feel that Cuba is a danger for them, on the contrary, in Cuba they will always find support, understanding and a willingness to integrate and move forward.
Ignacio Ramonet: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your time.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: No, thank you. It was a pleasure to be with you.
Ignacio Ramonet: Thank you.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Next time I will ask you the questions (laughter and applause).