Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba’s nonagenarian communist dictator Raúl Castro, said Thursday that her father is actively involved in the “decision-making” of the Cuban regime’s negotiations with the United States.
Mariela, 63, is the second of Raúl Castro’s four children and the head of CENESEX, the Cuban regime’s National Center for Sex Education, which enforces communist ideology on the nation’s LGBT community. The younger Castro spoke with Agence France-Presse (AFP) about the current situation in Cuba as well as the recent negotiations between Cuba and the U.S. as confirmed by both countries.
“My father is closely following all the news and contributing to the analysis that informs decision-making,” Mariela Castro told AFP.
The interview, AFP detailed, occurred during an event in Havana commemorating the Cuban regime’s interpretation of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. On that day, a group of U.S. armed and trained Cubans attempted to liberate their country from communism, but were ultimately betrayed by Democrat President John F. Kennedy, who lied to them about American support and abandoned them to be massacred by the communists.
The dictator’s daughter reportedly asserted that the Cuban people “want dialogue” to resolve tensions with the United States, but “without calling our political system into question.”
“We are preparing for the worst,” she claimed.
Following weeks of widespread speculation and public remarks from President Donald Trump, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the figurehead “president” of Cuba, acknowledged that Cuban officials have engaged in conversations with U.S. government representatives. The admission occurred at a time when the dysfunctional communist regime in Cuba finds itself unable to resolve an extremely complex situation after one of their top benefactors, Nicolás Maduro, was arrested in Caracas in a U.S. law enforcement operation on January 3.
Maduro’s downfall left his Cuban mentors without access to the frequent shipments of Venezuelan oil that Maduro provided the regime with and which the ruling communists desperately relied on to maintain the nation’s ruined infrastructure working in a barely functional state.
This week, the newspaper USA Today, citing anonymous sources, reported that the Pentagon was allegedly undergoing preparations for “attacking” Cuba. The report, however, contradicts statements issued by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief Gen. Francis Donovan on March, who told the Senate at the time that the Pentagon was not “rehearsing an invasion” or “actively” preparing to attack Cuba.
“Cuba is a failing nation, and we’re going to do this, and we may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” Trump said this week, referring to the conflict in Iran. “Cuba is a nation that was … horribly run for many years.”
Díaz-Canel, who participated in the regime’s Bay of Pigs event in Havana, stated that his country is “ready” to face a military attack by the United States and reaffirmed the “socialist” nature of the Cuban state. AFP noted that the figurehead “president” was dressed in a military uniform.
As is customary of the Cuban regime, Díaz-Canel did not acknowledge any responsibility on the part of the ruling communists — and their 67 years’ worth of disastrous policies — in the current ruinous state of Cuba, and instead attributed the suffering of the Cuban people to the United States’ “embargo,” which he classified as “genocidal.”
“The main cause of our problems is the U.S. government’s genocidal blockade against our people,” he said, per the Cuban state media outlet Cubadebate.
“Long live socialism, homeland, or death, we shall prevail,” he proclaimed.
“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state.” He added, and claimed, “Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression […] a threatened state that will not surrender.”
According to Cubadebate, Díaz-Canel delivered a new defense of socialism, claiming it as “the only guarantee of social justice” and, instead of using Cuba as an example, listed China, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.
“We call for a national and international solidarity movement that will carry the truth about Cuba to every corner of the planet,” Díaz-Canel said, and reiterated that although they do not want military aggression, they are “prepared to face it.”
On Thursday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the Wall Street Journal that the United States does not want a humanitarian crisis but, rather, to force change and let the Cuban people be free, and emphasized that Cuba could see its economy rapidly grow if they got rid of its communist system, listing the recent example of Venezuela.
“Would be great for Cubans, would be great for America, would be great for the Hemisphere,” Wright said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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