NEW YORK — Cuba won’t let its frustration with Trump administration sanctions and other actions against its government get in the way of cooperation with Washington on a range of national security issues, the country’s top diplomat told POLITICO.
In an interview Wednesday at Cuba’s mission to the United Nations in New York, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said that even though the State Department has been “undermining” bilateral agreements between Washington and Havana, the island’s communist government is still committed to productive engagement with the United States.
Rodríguez pointed in particular to the fact that Cuba continues to cooperate with the U.S. on the management of the border to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay. That cooperation, Rodríguez noted, exists despite Havana’s objections to U.S. control of the harbor and its use of the installation as a detention facility.
Since the Trump administration restored a gamut of restrictive economic sanctions against Cuba in June, it has been unclear whether Havana would react by slow-walking or halting cooperation with the U.S. on migration or other issues, including counterterrorism and the future of Haiti. Two other U.S. adversaries — Iran and Venezuela — have suspended participation in migration and nuclear nonproliferation treaties as the Trump administration has upped U.S. pressure on their governments.
Rodríguez’s comments provide confirmation that Cuba isn’t planning to renege on past commitments to continue working with the United States.
The Biden administration lifted economic sanctions on Cuba right before leaving office as part of a deal brokered by the Vatican that saw Havana release hundreds of political prisoners. But the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office has reimposed restrictions against Havana in the aims of overthrowing the island’s communist government.
Washington has also acted more forcefully against Cuban doctors working in other countries since Trump returned to the White House. The U.S. under the Biden administration called the medical missions programs, in which Havana sends brigades of doctors around the world sometimes for a fee, “forced labor,” and the Trump administration has used that designation as a way to punish Havana.
Since March, the State Department has suspended the visas of high-ranking Latin American and African officials accused of facilitating Havana’s medical missions programs as a way to limit Cuba’s economic lifelines.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment about Rodríguez’s characterizations of the state of the U.S.-Cuba relationship. A senior State Department official told Cuban exile outlet Radio Marti Noticias on Friday that “there is nothing to negotiate” with Cuba and called the Cuban government “a collapsed regime” run by “elderly people.”
Asked how long Cuba’s patience would last for, Rodríguez quoted the late Cuban leader and revolutionary Fidel Castro in saying Havana “had the patience of Jacob.”
“Even though the United States hasn’t fulfilled its obligations and its agreements, our desire for dialogue and agreements that benefit both of our peoples persists,” Rodríguez added.
Cuba, of course, has not experienced the same kinds of aggressive U.S. sanctions and reprisals as Iran and Venezuela. Iran was subject to military strikes on its nuclear facilities and Venezuela has faced military operations off its waters to combat drug trafficking since Trump took office. And Cuba lacks the oil reserves that allow Iran and Venezuela to partially stave off some of the pinch of U.S. sanctions.
Rodríguez, who has been Cuban foreign minister since March 2009, said he is taking a long view of U.S.-Cuba relations.
“President Trump is the 13th president who is in the 14th” U.S. presidency Cuba has dealt with, Rodríguez said. “We have all the patience in the world, and I’m absolutely convinced that a solution to this conflict and hostility of the United States against Cuba will prevail.”
