Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, heart, attends a celebration marking the sixty fifth anniversary of the proclamation declaring the Cuban Revolution socialist, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, April 16, 2026.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
Ramon Espinosa/AP
HAVANA — Cuba’s authorities on Monday confirmed that it had lately met with U.S. officers on the island as tensions between the 2 sides stay excessive over the U.S. vitality blockade of the Caribbean nation.
Senior U.S. State Division officers, talking on situation of anonymity, had mentioned on Friday that American diplomats flew earlier in April to the island for the primary time since 2016 in a brand new diplomatic push. Neither U.S. nor Cuban officers have mentioned precisely when the assembly passed off nor which U.S. officers took half.
Alejandro García del Toro, deputy director common accountable for U.S. affairs on the Cuban Ministry of Overseas Affairs, mentioned on Monday that the U.S. delegation included assistant secretaries of state, and that the Cuban delegation included representatives on the stage of deputy overseas minister.
The alternate was carried out “respectfully and professionally,” he mentioned, including that the U.S. delegation didn’t problem any threats or deadlines as has been reported in some U.S. media.
“The elimination of the energy embargo against the country was a top priority for our delegation,” García del Toro mentioned. “This act of economic coercion is an unjustified punishment of the entire Cuban population.”
He added: “It is also a form of global blackmail against sovereign states, which have every right to export fuel to Cuba, under the rules that govern free trade.”
Amongst circumstances for a lifting of U.S. sanctions on Cuba, Washington is urgent the Cuban authorities to finish political repression, launch political prisoners and liberalize its ailing financial system.
In late January, U.S. Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that sells or provides oil to Cuba. Trump additionally has threatened to intervene within the nation, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned final week that his nation is ready to struggle if that ought to occur.
