Cuban president reveals talks with Trump admin as fuel blockade chokes domestic energy supply and economy

The Cuban government is in talks with Trump administration officials, the country’s president said Friday, as Havana works to halt a potential regime change as it deals with a widening energy crisis. 

In a 90-minute news conference broadcast by state media, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said talks with Washington were aimed at finding solutions to the political differences that divide the communist island and the United States, The New York Times reported. 

However, changes to Cuba’s political system are off limits, Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s chief of mission in the United States, told Politico in an interview.

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Cuba’s economy has struggled since the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his home in Caracas at the start of the year. The Trump administration immediately cut off oil exports to the island.

A number of key sectors across the island are under considerable strain, including its transportation, health and education systems, Torres Rivera said. She noted that as many as 11,000 children are on waiting lists for surgeries and procedures at health clinics.

“They have no money. They have no anything right now,” President Donald Trump said in February. “Maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Trump has said a deal with Havana “would be very easily made.”

In January, Trump declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups.

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Last week, he said Cuba was “negotiating with [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] and myself and some others. And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba.”

Trump has charged Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and someone who has actively championed regime change, with negotiations with Cuba. 

Friday was the first time the Cuban government formally acknowledged talks with Washington. 

Amid talks, Rubio’s main counterpart has been Raúl Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, the island’s de facto leader and its former president. 

Díaz-Canel said the talks with the United States were needed, in part, “to determine the willingness of both sides to take concrete actions,” the Times reported. 

He added that he would soon welcome an FBI team to take part in the investigation into 10 Cubans who lived in the United States who got into a firefight with the Cuban coast guard last month. 

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“Agendas are built, negotiations and conversations take place and agreements are reached. Things we are still far from because we are in the initial phases of this process,” Díaz-Canel said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.