(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)
Arleen Rodríguez: I am thinking, there are people who think that since there are no tourism nor remittances and there is a lack of foreign currency, it translates into a lack of foreign currency to buy fuel or to make the production lines work.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is no way out.
Arleen Rodríguez: There is no way out, and people say: "I have to leave".
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is a high migration flow now. Is this the first time we have had these flows of migration? Let us look at the history of the Revolution. At various times, and especially when we have been under economic crisis, there have been excessive migratory flows. Let's remember the migratory flows of the first years of the Revolution, let's remember Boca de Camarioca, let's remember Mariel.
Arleen Rodríguez - 1994.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: These are flows that have occurred cyclically, always when the U.S. Government tightens the situation. In that way, they are inducing an illegal, unsafe, disorderly migration that costs lives, which is the worst thing.
Let us go back to the pre-Trump period. The situation was different, there were visas for citizens, it was easier to obtain a visa; there were consular services; there were more possibilities for Cubans to visit their family abroad, and for family abroad to visit their family in Cuba; there were more possibilities for remittances. All that changed with Trump.
At that time, even the repatriation flows were also high, that is, there was not only migration; there was a lot of repatriation. All that was brutally altered with Trump's measures, which also aimed at creating an unfavorable situation to seek social upheaval in relation to migration: consular services in Cuba were cancelled and moved to third countries, with limitations. People had to spend more money to be able to acquire a visa, with more ucertainty whether they would obtain one. They have even taken other measures to close off our income from tourism. They recently adopted measures that affect the automatic visa granted to European citizens: if European citizens visit Cuba they are stripped of the visa that facilitates them travelling to the United States. All this has further impacted the complx economic situation and has caused an increase in migration.
Arleen Rodríguez: All this while maintaining the Cuban Adjustment Act in place..
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The thing is that Cuban emigrants are favored by the Adjustment Act. What are we advocating for? For a legal, safe and orderly migration. Our immigration law guarantees that, but the attitude of the U.S. Government does not, and what it provokes is hopelessness and insecurity, making people embark on totally dangerous, insecure experiences.
Notice that Cuban emigrants leave Cuba legally and join the illegal migration flow in transit to the United States. They then fall into the hands of coyotes, fall into the hands of human trafficking networks and many lose their lives. Others lose their lives at sea when they leave on unsafe rafts. This creates a situation of bewilderment and, humanly speaking, it is regrettable.
People say: well, but we are also losing young people, professionals, women of reproductive age; all that is true. But why don't we also talk about those who stay, about those who do find a project in Cuba, about the thousands of Cubans we see every time we go to the territories, in the most complicated scenarios, with the same limitations but with another idea, with another mindset, with another disposition to contribute, and who have life projects where the personal project matches the social one and who have very heroic attitudes?
I am certain it will all change again as we overcome this situation, and that there should be no rupture with the Cubans who leave the country for economic reasons or motivated by the speculation that is made in relation to the migratory situation. In fact, there are many interested in having projects in Cuba, and they are moving forward with them, they are mutually benefitial projects, either for themselves or their families, which help the country advance. There are many who are really committed to improve the life of their family and to improve the life of the country. Unfortunately, others are filled with hatred.
I believe that in this hatred there is also a reluctance to admit failure. Some of the people who leave -I am not going to speak in absolute terms if there are more or less of them-, but they do not really find the American dream, they find themselves in a more disadvantageous situation, even more so than the one they could be in Cuba, they are at least in a situation of more social insecurity than the one they could have in Cuba. The hatred that has brewed inside them, they are unable to recognize that the country they migratedt to did not welcome them as they expected nor did it give them the possibilities they had hoped for, and so they turn against Cuba, against the Revolution, as if it was the Revolution that pushed them to make that decision.
These are phenomena that are in the order of social psychology, of social behavior in times of crisis, in times when relations between Cuba and the United States are tremendously asymmetrical and where they are marked, especially on the part of the U.S. Government that applies a policy of maximum pressure towards Cuba, a policy of genocide, a policy of strangulation, and it provokes all these things.
We have to know the real causes, we have to see what the origins are, and we cannot despair. We also have to work with intelligence to create the relations we want with those Cuban emigrants; we also have to come up with ways to work with the young people so that they do not have despair. In fact, we have just approved a policy for children, adolescents and youth that takes into account many of the things that may be problems for young people and I believe that it will help us overcome these situations.
The truth is that we have deep fiscal and monetary imbalances that have caused processes such as the inconvertibility of the currency, the accelerated inflation, the depreciation of the informal exchange rate, the appearance and development of an informal foreign exchange market; things that are present in almost all countries today. I will not focus on the world situation now because we are concerned about our problems.
The most visible element of all these imbalances is the lack of supply in state markets, with inflation, and that is where the criticism of MSMEs we have just seen is reinforced. These non-state forms have also found a space where the State today does not have many supplies and, in some cases, there have been abusive and speculative prices. The dragging effects of the pandemic in the country and the intensification of the blockade also factor in.
The fuel shortages, for the reasons we have explained, have particularly hit the country in this situation in this time.
Social problems, of course, have a lot to do with this situation of the economy, but we have taken measures to counter them. There is an Economic-Social Strategy that includes a program for macroeconomic stabilization, which, as I was telling you just now, are measures that will be gradually applied, in a very appropriate way to avoid further complication of the situations, because they all imply big risks. That is why we are proposing as a principle that everything we apply and design has to have a vision towards people in disadvantaged or vulnerable situations, towards women, young people, children and adolescents, the elderly, just to mention some sectors, so that the analyses are really comprehensive and we can manage the risks and the complexities.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, I wanted to stop for a moment here. When you talk about policies against racism, policies for the advancement of women, policies for the youth, for the elderly, etc., sometimes it seems that it is a political discourse, but they have concrete content in reality, let us say, is it to facilitate housing? What does the change in policy consist of?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They all deal with very different problems.
First, it is ideal to think that in 60 years of the Revolution, regardless of all the social work of the Revolution and its enormous dimension, all the vestiges of colonialism that brought with it patriarchy and racial discrimination have been solved. So, we are courageously recognizing this and there is a program to avoid manifestations of discrimination as much as possible, which includes legal aspects to protect the dignity of people and that people in those positions do not have disadvantages.
In the case of the National Program for the Advancement of Women, in addition to increasing the possibilities for the advancement of women, we are in an iron fight against gender violence, which is an issue that you know is very complex to deal with because women who are in risk situations with gender violence do not report it many times, so there must also be social support, comprehensive work, education work.
Sooner rather than later, we are also going to apply the measures that are related to subsidizing people and not products in a gradual way by calculating and measuring well the subsidy these people will receive. We are also proposing other things for the development of the country. First, the promotion of territorial development and generalize existing good experiences. I always say: Why is it that there are good experiences in some places of the country of almost everything that needs to be done in the country? That is one of the issues we are dealing with in these territorial meetings.
Arleen Rodríguez: Which are held via...?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: By videoconferences, I will explain later.
We are strengthening local productive systems; because they are essential for the municipality to be able to exercise autonomy, they are subordinated to the municipality and become their source of development. We are looking on local development projects whereseveral municipal companies have been created, for example, for food production.
There are measures that have been applied indiscriminately in one place or another trying to cap prices. These measures have not yielded many results and we are insisting that producing is what we have to do is to. In the same extent that we have more offers of products and services to the population, prices will decrease and the rest of the economy will be in order.
We have a whole group of proposals to promote the development of companies, both in the state and private sectors, through the exchange market, oriented towards fundamental productions and in that way take these companies, especially the private ones, from the illegal foreign currency market and, therefore, operate with an exchange rate that can facilitate better prices. But, what is the limit, the availability of foreign currency we have for that market?
We have made an analysis of how to face the problem of the wage-price relationship, when to raise wages, when to raise minimum pensions and minimum wages; it must be linked to a greater supply of goods and services so that the increase in wages is not reflected again in an increase in prices.
We continue to apply alternatives for people with lower incomes. For example, today, with food modules that come to us by donation, we are prioritizing people in vulnerable situations.
We have given more powers to state-owned companies, we have even broaden their objects, because we are defending that a company that is currently facing fuel or financing problems and does not have all the conditions to fulfill its main functions, but has other things it can do and to which it can link and take advantage of its workforce to also create goods and offer services, all this will improve the life of the population and will guarantee a better performance of the company.
All these issues are part of the daily debate of the Government's agenda and also of the Party's agenda. There are many people working on these things in order to move forward, such as groups of economists and jurists.
Arleen Rodríguez: There are many of them here, I know because I see them. Sometimes it looks like the University of Havana or the University of Cuba, to put it in plain words.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This is a science palace, and sometimes people criticize when we resort to science, when we hold so many meetings because of thise. I do believe science and innovation are going to provide the country with solutions, I am firmly convinced of this, Arleen, that there are no magic solutions. People say: Why don't they apply the measures of the Special Period? Everything of the Special Period has already been applied: foreign currency was decriminalized, foreign investment was opened, tourism was opened, and stores were opened in foreign currency, all that has already been done!
What I do believe is that we have to create material wealth and, in the current conditions, we have to be capable of producing and distributing the little we have with the greatest possible concept of equity and social justice while maintaining unity. This is how we are going to get ahead, and find ways to to get out, I am convinced of that.
Now, is it going to be fast? No, because the issues are complicated. Will it happen overnight? No. But we have to work and we have to create the conditions and, above all, we have to create the awareness that we can do it, to believe that we can do it.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, these meetings that you mentioned are taking place, with the local governments, the provinces by videoconferences, and what you were saying just now, do they mean that the solution could be at the local level?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: First, these meetings with the provincial bureaus of the Party in each province, which we are holding by videoconference, were going to be held face-to-face during a tour..
The background of this: in January we toured all the provinces and held these meetings with the Government, the Party, the administration, the business system, economic actors, because we have said that this year had to be a better year, and the provinces presented their strategies for development this year.
Then, in mid-April, we made a tour to check the advances of these actions -all in the midst of these situations-, and now it was our turn to do it in September, we postponed it a little bit due to the international commitments we had as part of the Presidency of the Group of 77, and we were going to do it in October, but the energy sitution arose. It was irrational to show up now in the provinces with a certain number of colleagues, because no matter how much rationalization there was in transportation vehicles and gasoline, it was an expense, and we decided not to waste time and to do it virtually, through a secure videoconference system we have. We have done it province by province and this has not affected the quality at all, we have been able to make very deep analyses.
First, understanding of the moment, that is to say, of everything we have experienced during the year and particularly of this moment, therefore, they have also been focused on how a group of indications we gave to overcome the current situation have been fulfilled; and also how we continue working on everything we programmed and planned since January, under the concept that we can all contribute, that we have to emphasize energy efficiency and energy saving. We have looked for and reviewed experiences from the Special Period; we are also discussing which of the actions that we have applied now should be maintained so if we fall into a situation like this again, we will already have the solutions to the problems.
We have insisted a lot on the demand and on the fulfillment of the functions of the state institutions in all areas because there are times when we observe cracks that have nothing to do with the blockade or with economic problems and have to do with the malfunctioning of state entities or institutions.
We highly value the fight against corruption and crime. We have analyzed the fight against the enemy's plans of political and ideological subversion; and we have proposed that it is necessary to work in an organized way from the community, from the municipality to promote development. If the municipality is capable of producing, developing and overcoming the problems, the province and the country will overcome them. However, it does not mean that we are leaving the municipalities alone or that now the municipalities are to blame for everything; but we have to produce, we have to expand the offer so that prices decrease, we have to continue with the social transformation programs in the neighborhoods, the attention to the most disadvantaged people.
The entrepreneurial system has to take advantage of all its potentialities and not hide behind the lack fuel or financing, and do everything else it can do without limitations. Let's say, if I can no longer do this, but what about everything else I can do? How many companies there are that have forces that can go to repair schools, to repair school furniture, to repair polyclinics, hospitals, to participate in the housing program, to produce food to change the food situation of their workers and the families of their workers who are part of the population, and how many services they could provide to the population, how many things can be done that are not being done. We also reflected on that.
The other thing is food production, which is fundamental: how to achieve food sovereignty at the municipal level; what has to be done in each community, in each municipality; how to control land use, how to use idle land.
Arleen, there are times when we see contradictions: in the midst of all this situation I have come to rural communities where there is not a banana plantation, there is not a grove of fruit trees, you do not see a chicken, you do not see a cow or a pig, and you say: what are they waiting for, for their food to be what the country needs, when they should be producing for themselves and to contribute to others? So, we have to see all this, this is part of the process of analysis of insufficiencies, of errors that we are developing to later share it publicly and to debate it publicly.
There are all the exports that we can promote, there is also how we manage innovation to solve the problems, how we support bankarization, starting with the state entities that, although gradually -it is not for the time of the Greek calends- have to create the gateways so that e-commerce can be developed.
We have talked about MSMEs, about how to achieve adequate relations between the state and non-state sectors, to clarify all this and to see the linkages that are taking place between the state and non-state sectors, and how we can arrive at a precise, clear and coherent regulatory framework.
We have talked a lot about the work systems. The Party has to take care of everything, with the Party's methods and style, without supplanting functions; in taking care of everything, it is also necessary to ensure that the Government rules, that the administration does it job, that the enterprise, the economic actors of the non-state sector, and social organizations play their role in society. For this we must make rigorous and demanding analyses, there must be more than ever a tremendous link with the people and with our people. There must be a constant debate with the population. We must continue designing spaces through which the population can present its problems, propose solutions, and be receptive to incorporate all this. The need for a more coordinated work between the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, which is made up of the district delegates, who were nominated, postulated and elected by the people and represent the people, and is the highest body of the State and the Government at the municipal level; and the Administration Council, which is the executive, operative and administrative body in the Municipal Assembly of People's Power for the implementation of everything it approves.
Therefore, there has to be a very coordinated work between the president of the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, the mayor and, in addition, the governor of the province has to be able to promote the articulation of all national, provincial and municipal policies, without taking away from the autonomy of the municipality, that Provincial Council of Government where the president and vice president of the municipal assemblies and the mayors of all the municipalities are present.
All this, Arleen, focused on territorial management, for the same reason you were asking me just now and which we are defending as a concept. All the processes we are dealing with: food production, crime fighting, adequate relations between the state and non-state sectors, territorial development, innovation management, attention to people who have certain disadvantages, attention to social programs, search for endogenous development potential, strengthening of local productive systems, all this is generated in the municipality, it has to be done in the municipality. So, we have to ensure that this territorial management is strong in order to make progress in everything we want.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, I would like to go into the subject of your trips abroad, which also seem to me to be of great interest, but I would like to close this subject of the national dynamics and the most recent problems.
Many of my colleagues tell me: the most serious problem is communication, and I know that you give a lot of importance to that as well; but they talk about: one, meetingism, that there are too many meetings in the News or in our media, etc., and that the value of those meetings is little seen, that is one, However, there is another phenomenon that occurred recently. When there was a rumor, a rumor, a fake news, as you say, that the availability of fuel was going to be zero, the Minister of Energy and Mines and the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning appeared on television, and the Minister of Energy and Mines convinced us all that this was not going to happen, he announced a date: "By October 3rd Energas must begin operation, we are going to have a better situation," and many people say: why do we give dates if we depend on so many external factors, because afterwards there were some of the strongest blackouts we have ever had.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Before we get to that, I would like to talk to you about some elements of your question.
I insist, one thing is meetingism as an excess and another thing is the space where you can say meeting, you can say encounter, you can say workshop, but where a group of people have to agree and have to build consensus to face the situation, because we do that even in the family, doesn't the family meet? It seems to me that there are criteria that are hyperbolized and which purposes is distorted a little, distort reality, without objecting that there are things that are done in an improper way and that need to be improved.
In a family, when there is a problem, do we not get together to try to solve it? Do we always find the solution, do we always do the right thing or do we also make mistakes? Well, that is what life is all about, because families are the fundamental cells of society. That also happens to us at the social level and it happens to us with the institutions.
Now, with what you were referring to, to the Round Table where Alejandro and Vicente, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Mines, respectively, reported, and that in these days we have systematically taken different ministers who are more associated to the situations we are living to inform the population.
We are not telling lies, the information we had and the perspectives we had at the time they reported were the ones Vicente said, What happens is that, in life, unforeseen events also happen: the fuel ship came in and there was not all the foreign currency available to make the payment and the fuel delivery was withheld; therefore, the fuel deficit was extended a few days with respect to what Vicente informed; in other words, he did not tell a lie, he told the information and what we were working for that day, and the situations changed. Every day in the morning we explain how the energy situation and the power generation situation is going. We do it because that is what we learned, not to tell lies; no matter how hard the situations are, we have to face them with the truth, which is one of our concepts.
We always defend ethics in the way of doing politics, which is to work on the trut. Ther must be law, which is the defense of what is fair, and there must be culture and history, because there are the antecedents and the answers to the solutions to our problems.
I believe that we are also going to overcome this situation, we have already been working to ensure the fuel shipments we need, not in abundance, but the ones we need to return to a situation like the one we had before this month of October, and we are already working to have stable supplies for November and December.
Arleen Rodríguez: Under the conditions we have just seen, even a donation can be...
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Under conditions of pressure. For example, now a U.S. agency wanted to put pressure on a Mexican company because they were "giving away" oil to Cuba. In other words, pressure appears everywhere, everywhere it is followed. One often sees posts and news reflected in the cables, from the haters, where they are saying: a ship from such and such a country is entering Cuba with fuel, in other words, there is a follow-up, an energy of persecution of the country, all with the evil, perverse objective that the country does not have the fuel it needs to live. What can one expect from people who act in this way and condemn a people to live with limitations?
Arleen Rodríguez: Those same haters, every time you make a trip abroad, a visit to another country, even in your capacity as the head of a state temporarily leading the Group of 77, for example, or to a meeting as crucial and important as the BRICS meeting in South Africa, thwy speculate and the less aggressive ones say: "What are the benefits of these trips?”
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In these trips, negotiations and agreements of mutual benefit are reached, investments are unlocked, payment facilities for debts are obtained and a level of international relations is achieved that avoids the isolation they want to provoke in relation to our country.
This year in particular, there have been many trips motivated by the responsibility we have at the head of the Group of 77, and we have not gone just as Cuba, we have gone on behalf of the Group of 77, and there is a group of international events where the Group of 77 has to be present that have required our attendance.
Now, there have been, first of all, political results, and we have to see the opinion on Cuba's participation in the Summit of the 77, in the BRICS Summit, in the United Nations General Assembly. In all those trips, agreements have been signed and we have achieved an almost unanimous support for the condemnation of the blockade and the demand to remove Cuba from the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
There are concrete investment and trade agreements derived from those trips, which can only be achieved when there are high-level meetings, they cannot be achieved at any other level, and that is the achievement. Now, the implementation of these agreements requires the work of technical teams, diplomatic teams, and all negotiations are not done in days, they take months. Therefore, of all these things that we have achieved in the last trips, there is a group of things that are in process and that in the medium term will be implemented.
Unfortunately, we cannot make public all the things we have achieved in these trips, because the enemy is behind us trying to destroy everything we do. We know of places where we have gone and we have achieved an important negotiation and behind them they have been pressuring that country not to carry out what it has committed itself to.
Arleen Rodríguez: On the basis of these same pressures, of this harassment, of this unleashed wickedness, on your recent trip to New York you had private meetings, to which the press, not even your press, did not have access, with American political personalities, what understanding did you find towards the situation in Cuba?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: First of all, these meetings were an opportunity to talk, to explain, to put forward points of view and to remove doubts that these personalities had regarding certain events in Cuba due to the propaganda and the disinformation or discrediting campaign against the Cuban Revolution, and I think we achieved that, in all cases there was understanding, there were people who even embraced us when they were convinced that they were right. Therefore, I believe that in these meetings we achieved understanding of the situation in Cuba, admiration for what the Cuban people have been able to resist and under what conditions we have done it and, above all, sensitivity for Cuba's problems, and a tremendous willingness to do everything possible within their reach to achieve a change in the policy of the United States Government towards Cuba and to get Cuba removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Another element, Arleen, several people have felt pity and obvious shame -they have told us so- for the actions of those governments towards our country.
Arleen Rodriguez: President, Cuba has just been reelected, well, not reelected, but elected, but for the sixth time, as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It has irritated a lot, because there was a huge campaign against that possibility. How do you see the issue, an issue that has been a hot topic inside and outside Cuba?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We are talking about the issue of human rights, an issue that has been manipulated for many years, with an ill intention and a discourse of double standards by the so-called international community and the supposed leaders of that international community. Let us not forget that we have lived through many events in which 50 States of that community, which is more than 190 countries, support something and that something is legitimized as if it were being approved by the majority, because everything is manipulated.
Cuba, a country with a humanist vocation, with a calling of solidarity, with a calling of service to the world, sharing what we have, not what we have too much in spare, they have wanted to put us in the dock. The same Cuba that sends doctors and not bombs; the Cuba that sends teachers where others send soldiers; the Cuba that does not intervene and cooperates in solidarity when others "support" with interventions and aggressions; the Cuba that faced the pandemic inside and outside the country under principles of human solidarity that cannot be renounced, even under the worst circumstances. That is the Cuba they want to condemn.
I ask myself, Arleen, with all logic and I believe also with all right as a Cuban: When is the international community going to put the Government of the United States in the dock for violating human rights? When is the United States going to have to answer for the violation of human rights constituted by the genocidal blockade it has applied for more than 60 years against Cuba? When is the United States going to answer for stirring up international conflicts as it stirred up the European conflict? And when is the United States going to be held accountable as a violator of human rights when it has violated the rights of the peoples of the Middle East, of Palestine, of the Syrian people, who have constantly lived under attack and bombing by Israeli troops supported by the Government of the United States? Why has the United States never been accused of violating human rights, when it is probably the government that has violated the most human rights in the world, of its own people and of other peoples of the planet?
So, I believe that the election of Cuba again to the Human Rights Council is, above all, recognition of the coherence, of the courage, of the way in which we have firmly defended our principles, and also recognition of the solidarity with which Cuba has supported others in the world. Therefore, it is an expression of recognition and I would also say of admiration, of respect for Cuba and of support, and therefore this election is a political and diplomatic victory for the Cuban Revolution, it is a victory for the Cuban Revolution!
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, several victories in a row, which I think are the ones that have made some people uncomfortable.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Summit of the Group of 77, United Nations General Assembly.
Arleen Rodríguez: The Summit of the Group of 77 helped us to see this world with its complexities.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And it built a consensus with which the countries of the Group of 77 went to the United Nations General Assembly.
Arleen Rodríguez: Exactly, and Cuba's participation in the United Nations, I know, because I saw it and I saw two opposing worlds, some servants "of the past in a new cup," as Silvio Rodríguez would say, trying to demonstrate against their own country of origin and absolutely in the minority there, recognizing it themselves, and the North American people in solidarity with Cuba.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I will never forget: on a Saturday night, in a public institution, more than 900 young Americans supporting Cuba and Venezuela.
Arleen Rodríguez: It was really impressive and moving.
I am done now, I will not take any more time from your family, from your rest, but I will come back to the subject of communication. Will we have to wait for another interview you can grant to the communication team or to any Cuban media facing situations like this one?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Arleen, I am always ready to communicate and I have also demanded from the comrades of the Party leadership, the comrades of the Government leadership, all of us who have responsibilities, we are public servants, we are servants of our people, we have to systematically inform the population about the matters within their scope; not only to inform and communicate, but also to be accountable. That is why in these days a dynamic has been moving around the problems we have; but the problem is not to do it only in complex moments, it is that it flows on a daily basis.
There is also a responsibility of the media, of the press media, which have to do it with a mastery, they have to do it with a professionalism, because if people are not provided with some information, it is worse if it is not done in an attractive way; but I make the commitment that we have the disposition to do it.
The Presidency's Press Team has been considering the idea, I believe they are designing it -I am willing to cooperate- of looking for more systematic spaces in which we are constantly providing information to the population.
Arleen Rodríguez: You have asked your team, I am aware of that.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I have asked the Team, but I have let the Team design it because they are the experts and because I have great confidence in my Team, because it is a young, talented, innovative and very enthusiastic team that also gives a lot of energy, that feels the country's problems with us, that is constantly looking for what can be done, how we can communicate better, and to whom I am very grateful for all the support they give. Maybe we will surprise and next week or in fifteen days we will be more present.
In any case, every day there is an opportunity to communicate something, because every day we are working on the country's problems.
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, it is leaked that there is going to be a space, which may come out of the networks.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And how shall we name it?
Arleen Rodríguez: You name it, because you are going to be the Director, I think, I have been told that you are going to be the Director.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think it is too much to expect me to be Director, I could be a participant.
Arleen Rodríguez: What name would you give it if you are going to give information?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Give me a hint.
Arleen Rodríguez: You are going to give information.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Is it official?
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, who knows if that is where the name comes from.
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, President of the Republic, who was preceded by heroes of this country such as Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, when he wakes up every morning knowing that the world is not better because bombs are falling on Gaza, or the issue of prices, food, climate change, etc., is still shaking, where does he find the energy to get up and go out to fight?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In the people, Arleen, in that heroic people. This interview or this meeting cannot pass without having the opportunity to always thank our people for their heroism, their support, their understanding and their contribution. That is why the Revolution is invincible, because of those people!
Arleen Rodríguez: Thank you.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Thank you.
Translated by ESTI
(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)
Arleen Rodríguez: I am thinking, there are people who think that since there are no tourism nor remittances and there is a lack of foreign currency, it translates into a lack of foreign currency to buy fuel or to make the production lines work.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is no way out.
Arleen Rodríguez: There is no way out, and people say: "I have to leave".
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is a high migration flow now. Is this the first time we have had these flows of migration? Let us look at the history of the Revolution. At various times, and especially when we have been under economic crisis, there have been excessive migratory flows. Let's remember the migratory flows of the first years of the Revolution, let's remember Boca de Camarioca, let's remember Mariel.
Arleen Rodríguez - 1994.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: These are flows that have occurred cyclically, always when the U.S. Government tightens the situation. In that way, they are inducing an illegal, unsafe, disorderly migration that costs lives, which is the worst thing.
Let us go back to the pre-Trump period. The situation was different, there were visas for citizens, it was easier to obtain a visa; there were consular services; there were more possibilities for Cubans to visit their family abroad, and for family abroad to visit their family in Cuba; there were more possibilities for remittances. All that changed with Trump.
At that time, even the repatriation flows were also high, that is, there was not only migration; there was a lot of repatriation. All that was brutally altered with Trump's measures, which also aimed at creating an unfavorable situation to seek social upheaval in relation to migration: consular services in Cuba were cancelled and moved to third countries, with limitations. People had to spend more money to be able to acquire a visa, with more ucertainty whether they would obtain one. They have even taken other measures to close off our income from tourism. They recently adopted measures that affect the automatic visa granted to European citizens: if European citizens visit Cuba they are stripped of the visa that facilitates them travelling to the United States. All this has further impacted the complx economic situation and has caused an increase in migration.
Arleen Rodríguez: All this while maintaining the Cuban Adjustment Act in place..
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The thing is that Cuban emigrants are favored by the Adjustment Act. What are we advocating for? For a legal, safe and orderly migration. Our immigration law guarantees that, but the attitude of the U.S. Government does not, and what it provokes is hopelessness and insecurity, making people embark on totally dangerous, insecure experiences.
Notice that Cuban emigrants leave Cuba legally and join the illegal migration flow in transit to the United States. They then fall into the hands of coyotes, fall into the hands of human trafficking networks and many lose their lives. Others lose their lives at sea when they leave on unsafe rafts. This creates a situation of bewilderment and, humanly speaking, it is regrettable.
People say: well, but we are also losing young people, professionals, women of reproductive age; all that is true. But why don't we also talk about those who stay, about those who do find a project in Cuba, about the thousands of Cubans we see every time we go to the territories, in the most complicated scenarios, with the same limitations but with another idea, with another mindset, with another disposition to contribute, and who have life projects where the personal project matches the social one and who have very heroic attitudes?
I am certain it will all change again as we overcome this situation, and that there should be no rupture with the Cubans who leave the country for economic reasons or motivated by the speculation that is made in relation to the migratory situation. In fact, there are many interested in having projects in Cuba, and they are moving forward with them, they are mutually benefitial projects, either for themselves or their families, which help the country advance. There are many who are really committed to improve the life of their family and to improve the life of the country. Unfortunately, others are filled with hatred.
I believe that in this hatred there is also a reluctance to admit failure. Some of the people who leave -I am not going to speak in absolute terms if there are more or less of them-, but they do not really find the American dream, they find themselves in a more disadvantageous situation, even more so than the one they could be in Cuba, they are at least in a situation of more social insecurity than the one they could have in Cuba. The hatred that has brewed inside them, they are unable to recognize that the country they migratedt to did not welcome them as they expected nor did it give them the possibilities they had hoped for, and so they turn against Cuba, against the Revolution, as if it was the Revolution that pushed them to make that decision.
These are phenomena that are in the order of social psychology, of social behavior in times of crisis, in times when relations between Cuba and the United States are tremendously asymmetrical and where they are marked, especially on the part of the U.S. Government that applies a policy of maximum pressure towards Cuba, a policy of genocide, a policy of strangulation, and it provokes all these things.
We have to know the real causes, we have to see what the origins are, and we cannot despair. We also have to work with intelligence to create the relations we want with those Cuban emigrants; we also have to come up with ways to work with the young people so that they do not have despair. In fact, we have just approved a policy for children, adolescents and youth that takes into account many of the things that may be problems for young people and I believe that it will help us overcome these situations.
The truth is that we have deep fiscal and monetary imbalances that have caused processes such as the inconvertibility of the currency, the accelerated inflation, the depreciation of the informal exchange rate, the appearance and development of an informal foreign exchange market; things that are present in almost all countries today. I will not focus on the world situation now because we are concerned about our problems.
The most visible element of all these imbalances is the lack of supply in state markets, with inflation, and that is where the criticism of MSMEs we have just seen is reinforced. These non-state forms have also found a space where the State today does not have many supplies and, in some cases, there have been abusive and speculative prices. The dragging effects of the pandemic in the country and the intensification of the blockade also factor in.
The fuel shortages, for the reasons we have explained, have particularly hit the country in this situation in this time.
Social problems, of course, have a lot to do with this situation of the economy, but we have taken measures to counter them. There is an Economic-Social Strategy that includes a program for macroeconomic stabilization, which, as I was telling you just now, are measures that will be gradually applied, in a very appropriate way to avoid further complication of the situations, because they all imply big risks. That is why we are proposing as a principle that everything we apply and design has to have a vision towards people in disadvantaged or vulnerable situations, towards women, young people, children and adolescents, the elderly, just to mention some sectors, so that the analyses are really comprehensive and we can manage the risks and the complexities.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, I wanted to stop for a moment here. When you talk about policies against racism, policies for the advancement of women, policies for the youth, for the elderly, etc., sometimes it seems that it is a political discourse, but they have concrete content in reality, let us say, is it to facilitate housing? What does the change in policy consist of?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They all deal with very different problems.
First, it is ideal to think that in 60 years of the Revolution, regardless of all the social work of the Revolution and its enormous dimension, all the vestiges of colonialism that brought with it patriarchy and racial discrimination have been solved. So, we are courageously recognizing this and there is a program to avoid manifestations of discrimination as much as possible, which includes legal aspects to protect the dignity of people and that people in those positions do not have disadvantages.
In the case of the National Program for the Advancement of Women, in addition to increasing the possibilities for the advancement of women, we are in an iron fight against gender violence, which is an issue that you know is very complex to deal with because women who are in risk situations with gender violence do not report it many times, so there must also be social support, comprehensive work, education work.
Sooner rather than later, we are also going to apply the measures that are related to subsidizing people and not products in a gradual way by calculating and measuring well the subsidy these people will receive. We are also proposing other things for the development of the country. First, the promotion of territorial development and generalize existing good experiences. I always say: Why is it that there are good experiences in some places of the country of almost everything that needs to be done in the country? That is one of the issues we are dealing with in these territorial meetings.
Arleen Rodríguez: Which are held via...?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: By videoconferences, I will explain later.
We are strengthening local productive systems; because they are essential for the municipality to be able to exercise autonomy, they are subordinated to the municipality and become their source of development. We are looking on local development projects whereseveral municipal companies have been created, for example, for food production.
There are measures that have been applied indiscriminately in one place or another trying to cap prices. These measures have not yielded many results and we are insisting that producing is what we have to do is to. In the same extent that we have more offers of products and services to the population, prices will decrease and the rest of the economy will be in order.
We have a whole group of proposals to promote the development of companies, both in the state and private sectors, through the exchange market, oriented towards fundamental productions and in that way take these companies, especially the private ones, from the illegal foreign currency market and, therefore, operate with an exchange rate that can facilitate better prices. But, what is the limit, the availability of foreign currency we have for that market?
We have made an analysis of how to face the problem of the wage-price relationship, when to raise wages, when to raise minimum pensions and minimum wages; it must be linked to a greater supply of goods and services so that the increase in wages is not reflected again in an increase in prices.
We continue to apply alternatives for people with lower incomes. For example, today, with food modules that come to us by donation, we are prioritizing people in vulnerable situations.
We have given more powers to state-owned companies, we have even broaden their objects, because we are defending that a company that is currently facing fuel or financing problems and does not have all the conditions to fulfill its main functions, but has other things it can do and to which it can link and take advantage of its workforce to also create goods and offer services, all this will improve the life of the population and will guarantee a better performance of the company.
All these issues are part of the daily debate of the Government's agenda and also of the Party's agenda. There are many people working on these things in order to move forward, such as groups of economists and jurists.
Arleen Rodríguez: There are many of them here, I know because I see them. Sometimes it looks like the University of Havana or the University of Cuba, to put it in plain words.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This is a science palace, and sometimes people criticize when we resort to science, when we hold so many meetings because of thise. I do believe science and innovation are going to provide the country with solutions, I am firmly convinced of this, Arleen, that there are no magic solutions. People say: Why don't they apply the measures of the Special Period? Everything of the Special Period has already been applied: foreign currency was decriminalized, foreign investment was opened, tourism was opened, and stores were opened in foreign currency, all that has already been done!
What I do believe is that we have to create material wealth and, in the current conditions, we have to be capable of producing and distributing the little we have with the greatest possible concept of equity and social justice while maintaining unity. This is how we are going to get ahead, and find ways to to get out, I am convinced of that.
Now, is it going to be fast? No, because the issues are complicated. Will it happen overnight? No. But we have to work and we have to create the conditions and, above all, we have to create the awareness that we can do it, to believe that we can do it.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, these meetings that you mentioned are taking place, with the local governments, the provinces by videoconferences, and what you were saying just now, do they mean that the solution could be at the local level?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: First, these meetings with the provincial bureaus of the Party in each province, which we are holding by videoconference, were going to be held face-to-face during a tour..
The background of this: in January we toured all the provinces and held these meetings with the Government, the Party, the administration, the business system, economic actors, because we have said that this year had to be a better year, and the provinces presented their strategies for development this year.
Then, in mid-April, we made a tour to check the advances of these actions -all in the midst of these situations-, and now it was our turn to do it in September, we postponed it a little bit due to the international commitments we had as part of the Presidency of the Group of 77, and we were going to do it in October, but the energy sitution arose. It was irrational to show up now in the provinces with a certain number of colleagues, because no matter how much rationalization there was in transportation vehicles and gasoline, it was an expense, and we decided not to waste time and to do it virtually, through a secure videoconference system we have. We have done it province by province and this has not affected the quality at all, we have been able to make very deep analyses.
First, understanding of the moment, that is to say, of everything we have experienced during the year and particularly of this moment, therefore, they have also been focused on how a group of indications we gave to overcome the current situation have been fulfilled; and also how we continue working on everything we programmed and planned since January, under the concept that we can all contribute, that we have to emphasize energy efficiency and energy saving. We have looked for and reviewed experiences from the Special Period; we are also discussing which of the actions that we have applied now should be maintained so if we fall into a situation like this again, we will already have the solutions to the problems.
We have insisted a lot on the demand and on the fulfillment of the functions of the state institutions in all areas because there are times when we observe cracks that have nothing to do with the blockade or with economic problems and have to do with the malfunctioning of state entities or institutions.
We highly value the fight against corruption and crime. We have analyzed the fight against the enemy's plans of political and ideological subversion; and we have proposed that it is necessary to work in an organized way from the community, from the municipality to promote development. If the municipality is capable of producing, developing and overcoming the problems, the province and the country will overcome them. However, it does not mean that we are leaving the municipalities alone or that now the municipalities are to blame for everything; but we have to produce, we have to expand the offer so that prices decrease, we have to continue with the social transformation programs in the neighborhoods, the attention to the most disadvantaged people.
The entrepreneurial system has to take advantage of all its potentialities and not hide behind the lack fuel or financing, and do everything else it can do without limitations. Let's say, if I can no longer do this, but what about everything else I can do? How many companies there are that have forces that can go to repair schools, to repair school furniture, to repair polyclinics, hospitals, to participate in the housing program, to produce food to change the food situation of their workers and the families of their workers who are part of the population, and how many services they could provide to the population, how many things can be done that are not being done. We also reflected on that.
The other thing is food production, which is fundamental: how to achieve food sovereignty at the municipal level; what has to be done in each community, in each municipality; how to control land use, how to use idle land.
Arleen, there are times when we see contradictions: in the midst of all this situation I have come to rural communities where there is not a banana plantation, there is not a grove of fruit trees, you do not see a chicken, you do not see a cow or a pig, and you say: what are they waiting for, for their food to be what the country needs, when they should be producing for themselves and to contribute to others? So, we have to see all this, this is part of the process of analysis of insufficiencies, of errors that we are developing to later share it publicly and to debate it publicly.
There are all the exports that we can promote, there is also how we manage innovation to solve the problems, how we support bankarization, starting with the state entities that, although gradually -it is not for the time of the Greek calends- have to create the gateways so that e-commerce can be developed.
We have talked about MSMEs, about how to achieve adequate relations between the state and non-state sectors, to clarify all this and to see the linkages that are taking place between the state and non-state sectors, and how we can arrive at a precise, clear and coherent regulatory framework.
We have talked a lot about the work systems. The Party has to take care of everything, with the Party's methods and style, without supplanting functions; in taking care of everything, it is also necessary to ensure that the Government rules, that the administration does it job, that the enterprise, the economic actors of the non-state sector, and social organizations play their role in society. For this we must make rigorous and demanding analyses, there must be more than ever a tremendous link with the people and with our people. There must be a constant debate with the population. We must continue designing spaces through which the population can present its problems, propose solutions, and be receptive to incorporate all this. The need for a more coordinated work between the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, which is made up of the district delegates, who were nominated, postulated and elected by the people and represent the people, and is the highest body of the State and the Government at the municipal level; and the Administration Council, which is the executive, operative and administrative body in the Municipal Assembly of People's Power for the implementation of everything it approves.
Therefore, there has to be a very coordinated work between the president of the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, the mayor and, in addition, the governor of the province has to be able to promote the articulation of all national, provincial and municipal policies, without taking away from the autonomy of the municipality, that Provincial Council of Government where the president and vice president of the municipal assemblies and the mayors of all the municipalities are present.
All this, Arleen, focused on territorial management, for the same reason you were asking me just now and which we are defending as a concept. All the processes we are dealing with: food production, crime fighting, adequate relations between the state and non-state sectors, territorial development, innovation management, attention to people who have certain disadvantages, attention to social programs, search for endogenous development potential, strengthening of local productive systems, all this is generated in the municipality, it has to be done in the municipality. So, we have to ensure that this territorial management is strong in order to make progress in everything we want.
Arleen Rodríguez: President, I would like to go into the subject of your trips abroad, which also seem to me to be of great interest, but I would like to close this subject of the national dynamics and the most recent problems.
Many of my colleagues tell me: the most serious problem is communication, and I know that you give a lot of importance to that as well; but they talk about: one, meetingism, that there are too many meetings in the News or in our media, etc., and that the value of those meetings is little seen, that is one, However, there is another phenomenon that occurred recently. When there was a rumor, a rumor, a fake news, as you say, that the availability of fuel was going to be zero, the Minister of Energy and Mines and the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning appeared on television, and the Minister of Energy and Mines convinced us all that this was not going to happen, he announced a date: "By October 3rd Energas must begin operation, we are going to have a better situation," and many people say: why do we give dates if we depend on so many external factors, because afterwards there were some of the strongest blackouts we have ever had.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Before we get to that, I would like to talk to you about some elements of your question.
I insist, one thing is meetingism as an excess and another thing is the space where you can say meeting, you can say encounter, you can say workshop, but where a group of people have to agree and have to build consensus to face the situation, because we do that even in the family, doesn't the family meet? It seems to me that there are criteria that are hyperbolized and which purposes is distorted a little, distort reality, without objecting that there are things that are done in an improper way and that need to be improved.
In a family, when there is a problem, do we not get together to try to solve it? Do we always find the solution, do we always do the right thing or do we also make mistakes? Well, that is what life is all about, because families are the fundamental cells of society. That also happens to us at the social level and it happens to us with the institutions.
Now, with what you were referring to, to the Round Table where Alejandro and Vicente, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Mines, respectively, reported, and that in these days we have systematically taken different ministers who are more associated to the situations we are living to inform the population.
We are not telling lies, the information we had and the perspectives we had at the time they reported were the ones Vicente said, What happens is that, in life, unforeseen events also happen: the fuel ship came in and there was not all the foreign currency available to make the payment and the fuel delivery was withheld; therefore, the fuel deficit was extended a few days with respect to what Vicente informed; in other words, he did not tell a lie, he told the information and what we were working for that day, and the situations changed. Every day in the morning we explain how the energy situation and the power generation situation is going. We do it because that is what we learned, not to tell lies; no matter how hard the situations are, we have to face them with the truth, which is one of our concepts.
We always defend ethics in the way of doing politics, which is to work on the trut. Ther must be law, which is the defense of what is fair, and there must be culture and history, because there are the antecedents and the answers to the solutions to our problems.
I believe that we are also going to overcome this situation, we have already been working to ensure the fuel shipments we need, not in abundance, but the ones we need to return to a situation like the one we had before this month of October, and we are already working to have stable supplies for November and December.
Arleen Rodríguez: Under the conditions we have just seen, even a donation can be...
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Under conditions of pressure. For example, now a U.S. agency wanted to put pressure on a Mexican company because they were "giving away" oil to Cuba. In other words, pressure appears everywhere, everywhere it is followed. One often sees posts and news reflected in the cables, from the haters, where they are saying: a ship from such and such a country is entering Cuba with fuel, in other words, there is a follow-up, an energy of persecution of the country, all with the evil, perverse objective that the country does not have the fuel it needs to live. What can one expect from people who act in this way and condemn a people to live with limitations?
Arleen Rodríguez: Those same haters, every time you make a trip abroad, a visit to another country, even in your capacity as the head of a state temporarily leading the Group of 77, for example, or to a meeting as crucial and important as the BRICS meeting in South Africa, thwy speculate and the less aggressive ones say: "What are the benefits of these trips?”
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In these trips, negotiations and agreements of mutual benefit are reached, investments are unlocked, payment facilities for debts are obtained and a level of international relations is achieved that avoids the isolation they want to provoke in relation to our country.
This year in particular, there have been many trips motivated by the responsibility we have at the head of the Group of 77, and we have not gone just as Cuba, we have gone on behalf of the Group of 77, and there is a group of international events where the Group of 77 has to be present that have required our attendance.
Now, there have been, first of all, political results, and we have to see the opinion on Cuba's participation in the Summit of the 77, in the BRICS Summit, in the United Nations General Assembly. In all those trips, agreements have been signed and we have achieved an almost unanimous support for the condemnation of the blockade and the demand to remove Cuba from the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
There are concrete investment and trade agreements derived from those trips, which can only be achieved when there are high-level meetings, they cannot be achieved at any other level, and that is the achievement. Now, the implementation of these agreements requires the work of technical teams, diplomatic teams, and all negotiations are not done in days, they take months. Therefore, of all these things that we have achieved in the last trips, there is a group of things that are in process and that in the medium term will be implemented.
Unfortunately, we cannot make public all the things we have achieved in these trips, because the enemy is behind us trying to destroy everything we do. We know of places where we have gone and we have achieved an important negotiation and behind them they have been pressuring that country not to carry out what it has committed itself to.
Arleen Rodríguez: On the basis of these same pressures, of this harassment, of this unleashed wickedness, on your recent trip to New York you had private meetings, to which the press, not even your press, did not have access, with American political personalities, what understanding did you find towards the situation in Cuba?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: First of all, these meetings were an opportunity to talk, to explain, to put forward points of view and to remove doubts that these personalities had regarding certain events in Cuba due to the propaganda and the disinformation or discrediting campaign against the Cuban Revolution, and I think we achieved that, in all cases there was understanding, there were people who even embraced us when they were convinced that they were right. Therefore, I believe that in these meetings we achieved understanding of the situation in Cuba, admiration for what the Cuban people have been able to resist and under what conditions we have done it and, above all, sensitivity for Cuba's problems, and a tremendous willingness to do everything possible within their reach to achieve a change in the policy of the United States Government towards Cuba and to get Cuba removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Another element, Arleen, several people have felt pity and obvious shame -they have told us so- for the actions of those governments towards our country.
Arleen Rodriguez: President, Cuba has just been reelected, well, not reelected, but elected, but for the sixth time, as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It has irritated a lot, because there was a huge campaign against that possibility. How do you see the issue, an issue that has been a hot topic inside and outside Cuba?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We are talking about the issue of human rights, an issue that has been manipulated for many years, with an ill intention and a discourse of double standards by the so-called international community and the supposed leaders of that international community. Let us not forget that we have lived through many events in which 50 States of that community, which is more than 190 countries, support something and that something is legitimized as if it were being approved by the majority, because everything is manipulated.
Cuba, a country with a humanist vocation, with a calling of solidarity, with a calling of service to the world, sharing what we have, not what we have too much in spare, they have wanted to put us in the dock. The same Cuba that sends doctors and not bombs; the Cuba that sends teachers where others send soldiers; the Cuba that does not intervene and cooperates in solidarity when others "support" with interventions and aggressions; the Cuba that faced the pandemic inside and outside the country under principles of human solidarity that cannot be renounced, even under the worst circumstances. That is the Cuba they want to condemn.
I ask myself, Arleen, with all logic and I believe also with all right as a Cuban: When is the international community going to put the Government of the United States in the dock for violating human rights? When is the United States going to have to answer for the violation of human rights constituted by the genocidal blockade it has applied for more than 60 years against Cuba? When is the United States going to answer for stirring up international conflicts as it stirred up the European conflict? And when is the United States going to be held accountable as a violator of human rights when it has violated the rights of the peoples of the Middle East, of Palestine, of the Syrian people, who have constantly lived under attack and bombing by Israeli troops supported by the Government of the United States? Why has the United States never been accused of violating human rights, when it is probably the government that has violated the most human rights in the world, of its own people and of other peoples of the planet?
So, I believe that the election of Cuba again to the Human Rights Council is, above all, recognition of the coherence, of the courage, of the way in which we have firmly defended our principles, and also recognition of the solidarity with which Cuba has supported others in the world. Therefore, it is an expression of recognition and I would also say of admiration, of respect for Cuba and of support, and therefore this election is a political and diplomatic victory for the Cuban Revolution, it is a victory for the Cuban Revolution!
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, several victories in a row, which I think are the ones that have made some people uncomfortable.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Summit of the Group of 77, United Nations General Assembly.
Arleen Rodríguez: The Summit of the Group of 77 helped us to see this world with its complexities.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And it built a consensus with which the countries of the Group of 77 went to the United Nations General Assembly.
Arleen Rodríguez: Exactly, and Cuba's participation in the United Nations, I know, because I saw it and I saw two opposing worlds, some servants "of the past in a new cup," as Silvio Rodríguez would say, trying to demonstrate against their own country of origin and absolutely in the minority there, recognizing it themselves, and the North American people in solidarity with Cuba.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I will never forget: on a Saturday night, in a public institution, more than 900 young Americans supporting Cuba and Venezuela.
Arleen Rodríguez: It was really impressive and moving.
I am done now, I will not take any more time from your family, from your rest, but I will come back to the subject of communication. Will we have to wait for another interview you can grant to the communication team or to any Cuban media facing situations like this one?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Arleen, I am always ready to communicate and I have also demanded from the comrades of the Party leadership, the comrades of the Government leadership, all of us who have responsibilities, we are public servants, we are servants of our people, we have to systematically inform the population about the matters within their scope; not only to inform and communicate, but also to be accountable. That is why in these days a dynamic has been moving around the problems we have; but the problem is not to do it only in complex moments, it is that it flows on a daily basis.
There is also a responsibility of the media, of the press media, which have to do it with a mastery, they have to do it with a professionalism, because if people are not provided with some information, it is worse if it is not done in an attractive way; but I make the commitment that we have the disposition to do it.
The Presidency's Press Team has been considering the idea, I believe they are designing it -I am willing to cooperate- of looking for more systematic spaces in which we are constantly providing information to the population.
Arleen Rodríguez: You have asked your team, I am aware of that.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I have asked the Team, but I have let the Team design it because they are the experts and because I have great confidence in my Team, because it is a young, talented, innovative and very enthusiastic team that also gives a lot of energy, that feels the country's problems with us, that is constantly looking for what can be done, how we can communicate better, and to whom I am very grateful for all the support they give. Maybe we will surprise and next week or in fifteen days we will be more present.
In any case, every day there is an opportunity to communicate something, because every day we are working on the country's problems.
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, it is leaked that there is going to be a space, which may come out of the networks.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And how shall we name it?
Arleen Rodríguez: You name it, because you are going to be the Director, I think, I have been told that you are going to be the Director.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think it is too much to expect me to be Director, I could be a participant.
Arleen Rodríguez: What name would you give it if you are going to give information?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Give me a hint.
Arleen Rodríguez: You are going to give information.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Is it official?
Arleen Rodríguez: Well, who knows if that is where the name comes from.
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, President of the Republic, who was preceded by heroes of this country such as Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, when he wakes up every morning knowing that the world is not better because bombs are falling on Gaza, or the issue of prices, food, climate change, etc., is still shaking, where does he find the energy to get up and go out to fight?
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In the people, Arleen, in that heroic people. This interview or this meeting cannot pass without having the opportunity to always thank our people for their heroism, their support, their understanding and their contribution. That is why the Revolution is invincible, because of those people!
Arleen Rodríguez: Thank you.
Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Thank you.
Translated by ESTI
