Cuba Has Never Stood Idly By

May 15, 2024 from Havana

Interview granted by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, to Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish professor and journalist, at the Palace of the Revolution, on May 11, 2024, “Year 66 of the Revolution”.

Ignacio Ramonet: President, first of all I would like to thank you very much for your kindness in granting us this interview.

This is going to be an interview of about ten questions that we are going to divide into three blocks: one block devoted to domestic policy, to the domestic situation in Cuba; a second block on the economy, essentially the economy in Cuba, obviously; and a third block on international policy.

The first question then on domestic policy is the following:

For many families in Cuba for a short time now, two or three years, daily life has become particularly difficult: there are food shortages, there is inflation, there are shortages in public services.  The economic, commercial and financial blockade illegally imposed by the United States already existed, and what I would like to ask you is what has happened in recent times for things to have deteriorated in such a way.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Well, Ramonet, first of all I thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk to you, it is always very interesting to be able to share points of view with you and also to hear your comments on these issues.  And you asked me a very interesting question, because many people ask why, if there has been a blockade for so long, what is it that distinguishes the current blockade?

I think we have to start from the fact that, in the first place, today the blockade has a qualitatively different characteristic; today we are talking about a tightened blockade and, furthermore, this tightening is supported by another component, which is the inclusion of Cuba in a spurious list determined at will by the US government of countries that supposedly support terrorism.

Above all, I am going to make a comparison that I think is the best way to illustrate what changes from one moment to another, if we compare what life was like for Cubans until 2019 or until the second half of 2019, and what life has been like after the second half of 2019, which is what also frames or differentiates these two moments.

In the first place, we are a country that has suffered the limitations and adversities imposed on us by the blockade for more than sixty years; an illegal, unjust, anachronistic blockade as a policy and loaded, above all, with an overbearing perspective of the Government of the United States.

Cuba has never stood idly by and we have developed a capacity for resistance.  I would even say, after the experiences we had in COVID-19, that it is a creative resistance, because the country has not only been capable of resisting the onslaught of the blockade, but the country under these conditions has advanced, has contributed, has grown as a nation and, furthermore, has developed; in other words, it is not just resisting and doing nothing else.

Under all these concepts and all the strategies of the Revolution we have been able to maintain a certain level of economic activity, of exports, of support to social programs with a high impact on our population and we have lived, although our dreams have been stopped or all our aspirations slowed down, precisely because of the effects of the blockade, which I categorically tell you is the cause that slows down our economic development the most.  And I always say: if we have been able to do so many things blocked, what would we not have been able to do without being blocked; but these will be hypotheses that have to be turned into theses with studies, with verifications, with data analysis, which is not the case of what concerns us now.

In 2019 this country received income from exports from our exportable and competitive productions in the international market, because there was a vitality of the country’s economic activity; the country received a significant amount of remittances; it received notable income from the tourist activity -remember that we had almost four and a half million tourists in one year-, and we had credits from several financial institutions, government credits from countries with which we have very good relations and also credits from programs, from agencies, which allowed us to develop and support projects.

On the other hand, we had a stable supply of fuel on the basis of agreements with friendly countries, with sister countries, which meant that under those agreements we did not have to spend practically nothing of the foreign currency income we received on fuel, because all this was compensated by the services we provide to those sister countries.

Therefore, under all those conditions we had foreign currency income that allowed us to import raw materials to develop our main productive processes to the extent that we could have those things with the limitations of the blockade; we could buy food to satisfy the basic food basket, we could even buy food and other goods that we put in the stores -at that time they were the stores that operated in CUC, and in the domestic market in national currency-, therefore, our domestic market had a certain level of supply.

We had foreign currency available with which we could achieve a legal exchange market, controlled by the State, where it was possible to buy and sell foreign currency with its equivalent in local currency. We had an acceptable level of capacity to pay our debt obligations with countries or with companies that had invested in Cuba, even with foreign investment.  And we also had a capacity of money for the purchase of spare parts, of the most important inputs for our economy.

Therefore, there was a supply in the domestic market and there was an adequate supply/demand ratio that allowed inflation levels to be low.

All this caused a feedback loop: the productive processes, a good productive activity gave more exportable funds, more income; tourism developed, gave more income, and all of this was being revolved and we reached a certain situation, I would say, of stability, without yet achieving the prosperity to which we aspire, and we are in a process of perfecting our economic-social system, and, on the other hand, also with a whole group of proposals, visions, postulates and guidelines in relation to the National Plan for Economic and Social Development until 2030, and we lived in that way.

Ignacio Ramonet: That was until 2019.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Until the second semester of 2019.

In the second half of 2019 the Trump administration applies more than 240 measures that tighten the blockade, and this is where the first concept comes in: They tighten the blockade, and even Title III of the Helms-Burton Act is applied for the first time, which had never been applied before and which achieves a tremendous impact, above all, of pressure on foreign investors, on those who have already invested, on those who were thinking of investing, and it gives all the support to those who were part of the confiscations that the Revolutionary Government justly carried out in the first years of the Revolution.

From the humanist vision of the Revolution, the main objective of COVID-19 was to save people’s lives. Therefore, an important part of all the efforts and of the little currency that entered the country was used for that purpose.

With these toughening measures, all our sources of foreign currency income are suddenly cut off; tourism decreases notably, because the United States Government denies the right of the American people to do tourism in Cuba; the cruise ships, which were an important part of the influx of tourists to Cuba, are closed; an enormous energy and financial persecution is organized.  There are more than 92 banks or international financial entities sanctioned or pressured by the US Government, for which reason they have ceased their financial exchange relations with Cuba.

Remittances, which were an important source of income for the country, have been cut off and, on the other hand, they have also pressured and applied many sanctions against friendly and brotherly countries that supplied us with fuel on a stable basis.  Therefore, we began to have a fuel deficit; we began to have a deficit in the availability of foreign currency.

With these two elements, on the one hand, the national electric power system is destabilized, because we are able to guarantee the operation of the thermoelectric plants with domestic crude oil; but the thermoelectric plants do not cover all the country’s electricity demand, especially at peak times, and we have to start up other distributed generation plants which operate mainly with diesel and fuel oil; since we do not have these fuels, we are left with a deficit.

On the other hand, since we had less availability of foreign currency, we could not buy in time the necessary inputs and spare parts to maintain the entire national electric power system, which, in addition, is a system already with a certain level of obsolescence; this increases breakages, causes maintenance to be extended and all this conspires against the stability of the national electric power system and, under these conditions, we began to suffer from the annoying blackouts.  In order to reduce these blackouts, we even had to close or limit a little the level of productive activity, a group of activities of the economy.

And as part of these same limitations in foreign currency, we began to lack certain inputs and raw materials for important production processes.  And the little foreign currency we have, we have to use it to buy fuel, which we did not have to spend before because we had other mechanisms to solve this problem.

Prices on the international market are increasing, because this is also part of the multidimensional crisis the world is suffering.

Ignacio Ramonet: COVID-19 also begins.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is COVID-19, which we are entering the year 2020, later on.  There are the issues of rising prices in the international market as part of the multidimensional crisis; there are the effects of climate change, and we have been affected by intense droughts, intense rains all this time and also by hurricanes of certain intensities that have caused a lot of damage to the economy.  All this has created an environment of medicine shortages, food shortages and fuel shortages.

Ignacio Ramonet: Transportation difficulties.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In transportation.  And it is also affecting our social programs and the welfare of the population, and it is building a very complex reality.

In the first month of the year 2020, only when there were about eight or ten days left for Trump to leave the White House, he includes us in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

Ignacio Ramonet: Inclusion in the list of countries that favor terrorism.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And then, all of a sudden, all the banking agencies and all the financial institutions stop giving us credits.  Therefore, today we are a country that lives on the current account, that is to say, what you have earned this week and how you distribute it among a tremendous number of priorities that the country has which cannot be covered with the income of a single week.

Therefore, the availability of foreign currency for all those things that had increased is beginning to be affected, we no longer have the same capacity to cover and honor our commitments to pay dividends to foreign entities, to pay debts to countries or companies with which we have them, in a timely manner.

Ignacio Ramonet: Or to the Paris Club.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We cannot develop the economic activity with all the intensity and capacities we have and which we need to offer goods and services; a tremendous imbalance is created between supply and demand and, then, prices increase and inflation appears in a very large magnitude.

On the other hand, we do not have the availability of foreign currency to operate a legal state exchange market in an efficient manner and, therefore, an illegal market is created.

Ignacio Ramonet – Parallel, black market.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Parallel, which also manipulates the exchange rate and almost becomes an element that imposes prices and also contributes to the inflation issue.

COVID-19 came into effect under these conditions, COVID-19 not only affected Cuba, it affected the whole world.  And from our humanist vision of the Revolution, during COVID-19 our main objective was to save people’s lives.  Therefore, an important part of all the efforts and the little money that entered the country was put into saving the lives of the population:  first, on the basis of protocols for dealing with the disease, using or repositioning medicines and biotechnological products that had already been developed by the Cuban biotechnological industry for other diseases and that had a certain level of effect in the conditions of COVID-19 and, later, as is well known, with the enormous effort, the titanic effort and, I would say, the exemplary result of our scientists, which are part of the whole conception that the Commander in Chief had during the Special Period of developing a productive scientific pole, with a closed production scheme, where science and innovation are incorporated as a productive force, and production, distribution and commercialization processes are incorporated, which if we had not had that development from the 1990s until now, we would not have been able to face COVID-19 as we faced it.

Ignacio Ramonet: Then we are going to talk about COVID-19 and you will be able to develop it.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Yes, yes, we will talk about it later.  And, above all, the effort of the Cuban health system.

Ignacio Ramonet: Sure.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But, undoubtedly, all the other phenomena were amplified and have continued these years; because it should also be noted that one of the characteristics of this tightened blockade is that it was applied by a Republican administration, the Trump administration; but a Democratic administration has maintained the same, Biden.  It has been a cumulative, systematic process for four years, a very complex situation for our population, and, I would say, loaded with a tremendous perversity, which I am going to show you when we talk about COVID-19.

Ignacio Ramonet: I would like, Mr. President, to talk about an element that you have just mentioned, which is very annoying for the population in Cuba, and that is the blackouts.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The blackouts.

Ignacio Ramonet: I think it is one of the problems that bother many citizens the most. How can you evaluate the energy situation in the country?  You have just mentioned some elements, but, what perspective of solution can you announce to the citizens in Cuba?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, today, at this moment when we are holding this meeting, we are in an extremely complex situation in the energy issue.

Today we have an unstable electric power system for several reasons that I am going to explain now, and at the moment, this week we have suffered severe blackouts all over the country, we have been unable to shut down the national electric power system for more than five days, which means that at all times we have had some level of blackout, and that, successively, undoubtedly damages, complicates the situation, causes discomfort, causes misunderstandings and hardens the lives of Cubans.

There are several aspects here: first, we have an electro-energy system which has a component of thermoelectric plants, of thermal energy generation, which is solved with the production of domestic crude oil.

Ignacio Ramonet: National, which is a heavy crude oil.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It is a heavy crude oil, with a lot of sulfur; but it needs repairs, it needs systematic maintenance, more than 300 million dollars a year are needed to maintain that national electro-energy system, and that availability has not existed.  This leads to breakdowns and technological problems more frequently than what should be normal in a system like this one.

We have another group of sources of electric power generation, which are distributed generation engines, especially for use during peak hours, which require diesel and fuel oil, and we have not always had the levels of diesel and fuel oil we need.

As part of this whole blockade situation, we, for example, were from October until last month without diesel or fuel oil entering the country, and we were exhausting the reserves the country had -because we also have a savings program-, and this also caused us, due to lack of fuel, strong blackouts, especially in March.  At the same time, these generator sets also need spare parts and maintenance, which are affected.

We already have a small component with alternative sources, especially with the use of renewable energy sources.

Therefore, under the current conditions, our power generation may fail due to lack of fuel, lack of maintenance, or the coincidence of the two factors.

Today, at this time, it is not so much the lack of fuel that is affecting us as the technological problems, and on the other hand we have a maintenance strategy that we have been able to organize in the midst of this circumstance, above all, betting that in the summer there will be the lowest possible level of affectations to the population.  Therefore, in these days we have had the coincidence of several plants that had maintenance planned, planned and being carried out, but at the same time others have broken down.

Ignacio Ramonet: What about renewables, President, are you betting on renewables?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: So, now you were telling me about the solutions.

We are betting on renewable energy sources, both wind and photovoltaic, biogas, a whole group of concepts; but, above all, photovoltaic, because it is an investment that can be installed in less time.

Today we have a group of signed agreements, with guarantees, which will allow us to reach more than 2,000 megawatts in less than two years.  That would put us in a different energy situation, because it would lead us to achieve the objective we want, to have more than 20 % of renewable energy by 2030.  We are going to reach 25 %, maybe a little more, depending on how these issues can work.

Therefore, this is going to give us the first impact that in the peak of the day we will be able to have the distributed generation groups not working and we will be able to cover everything with this new energy.

Ah, because one of the elements that I forgot to explain to you is that as the thermoelectric plants go out of operation, the energy distribution groups that are planned, especially for peak hours, have to work at off-peak hours, therefore, they wear out more than what they were planned for and they do not always manage to compensate that deficit.

We have a whole program, which was explained by the Minister of Energy and Mines a few weeks ago to all our population.  We are now starting to successively set up and enable parks, and our electricity generation will grow by this means, that is to say, there will be a substantial change this year, and a consolidation next year.

Part of these photovoltaic energy parks will accumulate energy, therefore, they will be able to be used in the evening hours.  In addition to giving us this possibility, it will reduce the fuel consumption used for this purpose.

Ignacio Ramonet: Which is used to produce.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Here there are two ways out then: we will be able to devote more fuel to the economy, especially to food production, to agriculture, to productive processes which today are very limited because most of the fuel we have, since it is in deficit, we use it for electricity generation; and, on the other hand, our fuel purchase expenses will also decrease.

Ignacio Ramonet: On the purchase of hydrocarbons.

With the use of renewable energy sources, we will be able to dedicate more fuel to the economy, especially to food production, agriculture, to productive processes that today are very limited because most of the fuel is used for electricity generation. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But, in addition, thermoelectric plants will work in a more comfortable regime, therefore, we will consume less of our own national crude, which is also exportable; and one of the things we are doing, of the measures we have taken, is to take a group of steps to continue increasing the production of national crude, with that production of national crude we can export, and it also helps us to have a source of financing for all these investments that are costly, these investments are very costly, the investments in electricity generation.

This is, I would say, the most sustainable path, because, besides, it is totally coherent with everything we propose in environmental policy, with all the commitment we have in our programs and in our commitments with the COP conferences, to reduce the emission of CO2 into space, in other words, it is coherent and guarantees sustainable development.

We are also looking for foreign investments that will allow us to strengthen, update and improve the processing of some of our refineries, which would also allow us to process this national crude oil.

Ignacio Ramonet: To refine it.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: To refine it, and to achieve other products that would also be exportable or that would be useful for domestic consumption and we would have to import less of these products for domestic consumption.

There is also a whole energy saving program that goes from the culture of the population?

Ignacio Ramonet: To reduce consumption and not to waste.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: To reduce consumption, not to waste, and, on the other hand, there is a whole development of photovoltaic technologies, let’s say more in the domestic field, of equipment that work with photovoltaic energy sources.  There is also the replacement of luminaires with LED luminaires, which consume less energy and also last longer, and all this combined group of actions will lead us to a better electro-energetic situation.

This is well defined and well programmed.  Unfortunately, to get there we have to go through moments like these, but it is one of the ways in which we can overcome the effects of the blockage in relation to the energy issue.

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, in any case, this situation you are describing and the previous one, with the difficulties, the hardships, has lately provoked a sociological phenomenon that was unknown in Cuba, which are the social protests.  On the one hand, many people are emigrating because they cannot stand the current conditions and, on the other hand, the protests which, although they have not been massive, have been surprising because this is not usual.

So, I would like you to explain to us, first, how do you analyze the nature of these protests and what lessons are you drawing from this situation?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, first of all, I believe that our people have suffered the effects of the blockade, moreover, as I was saying, it is an accumulated effect of the blockade over more than sixty years.  My generation, which was born in the early years of the Revolution, is a generation that has lived blocked by the shortages caused by the blockade.

Ignacio Ramonet: The blockade has always been present.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But my children were born under blockade and our grandchildren were born and are living under blockade conditions.  Therefore, this has had a direct effect on the Cuban population.

Precisely, conceptually, what does the U.S. government and the imperial policy defend in relation to destroying the Cuban Revolution?

There is a reference called the Mallory Memorandum, based precisely on a memorandum written by a State Department official in the sixties in an assessment of Cuba, who said that, due to the level of popular support the Revolution had, the way to overthrow the Revolution was: economic asphyxiation, trying to do everything possible so that the people would suffer hardship, shortages and that this would lead to a break with the Revolution and, therefore, cause a social explosion that would lead to the fall of the Revolution.

That has been the policy, that has been the reference, the fundamental concept, and that is what they are doing with the tightening of the blockade.  In 60 years they have not been able to break us, and they have gone to a tightening of the blockade to break us. They are not going to break us either!  I continue to believe in the capacity of response, in the heroism of this people and in the creative resistance I mentioned to you.

Now, in these times in particular, with this intensification of the blockade, on occasions we have had the coincidence of several factors on this population: prolonged blackouts, transportation problems, the shortages of life, problems in guaranteeing the basic food basket, problems with food, problems with medicines.

When there are blackouts, the water supply is affected, because the water supply sources also work with electricity; which, by the way, we have made a very important investment now in transforming pumping systems into photovoltaic systems as well, and this is part of the things we are doing to overcome this situation.

At certain times, there have also been demonstrations in some places and with a certain participation, I would say, in greater numbers, more massive in the events of July 11; less massive in that of March 17, although the media presented it as very massive as part of the other component of this aggressive policy towards Cuba of maximum pressure, which is on the one hand the economic asphyxiation with the tightening of the blockade, and on the other hand is the media intoxication where they try to discredit the Cuban Revolution, and where there is a virtual Cuba and a real Cuba.  Then, in a number of places, there have been popular protests.

 

What have been the characteristics of these claims?  Most of these claims have taken place in a situation of peaceful claims, where most of the population that has gone to claim what they have asked for is an explanation.  Look, they are not demands for a rupture with the Revolution, people have gone to Government institutions or to Party institutions.

Ignacio Ramonet: That was seen very well in Santiago.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In Santiago.

One premise is that we are looking for ways to stimulate national production, because by stimulating national production we gain economic sovereignty.

They have gone to ask for an explanation, to ask for ratification if the situation is due to certain circumstances, and who are the ones who have shown their faces? Who are the ones who have been talking to the people, because they are part of the people?  They have been precisely the leaders of the Party, the leaders of the Government and the administrations in those places, and without police repression, without repression of any kind.

Also, in those claims there have been small groups that have not behaved in that peaceful manner and that is one of the things that the media intoxication also promoted by the empire tries to distort.  Many of these people have been financed by subversive projects of the U.S. Government and they receive money systematically to take advantage of situations like this and demonstrate against the Revolution.  Nor do they have a repressive response for demonstrating against the Revolution.

Ignacio Ramonet: The Cuban Constitution guarantees the right to demonstrate.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It does not have a repressive response, they can have a popular response because the population…, it has even happened, there are people in these protests who say: “Wait, we have to talk with the Government and talk with the Party”, and they have confronted and have not allowed them to shout counterrevolutionary slogans or other types of things; but, even that opinion that someone who is not with the Revolution may have is not repressed.  What happens is that many times, because it is part of the same platform of subversion, those who protest in this way against the Revolution, who are the fewest, in these protests commit acts of vandalism and attempt against state properties, against social properties, alter public order, and this then leads to a response which is not due to ideology, it is a judicial response, a legal response as they would do in any other country, because they are altering public order, they are altering the tranquility of the citizens, they are committing misdeeds or committing acts of vandalism.

What happens is that this is not presented in this way by the international media, it is presented in another way, because there is a script, a script of unconventional warfare which proposes: first, social outbreak, claims or protests; second, the mounting of police repression; third, the mounting of political prisoners, that is, repression with political prisoners in quotation marks; then demonstrate that because of these things there is a failed State, and then the alleged humanitarian aid and the change of regime.  That is the script and the script of the Unconventional Warfare that today is applied against Cuba, that is applied against Nicaragua, that is applied against Venezuela.

So, there is a distortion there and, I would say, this type of protests that have existed in Cuba, as you say, which is a relatively new fact – the world has also changed and our society has changed, also the conditions caused by the tightening of the blockade make our lives change – are attended to, they are explained, they do not cause a rupture between the people and the Revolution, because, besides, we also have a working system where we are visiting the places, we are constantly talking to the population, we provide information on these problems.

Why is there no mention of the protests in the United States, which generally end with police brutality, especially against black people or humble people? Why is there no mention of police brutality during the protests that have taken place in the United States these days, in the universities, which were peaceful, totally peaceful, in favor of the Palestinian cause and against the genocide committed by Israel, supported by the United States, against the Palestinian people? And what has been the response of the United States government to these events?  Police repression, mistreatment of students, mistreatment even of teachers, with boots on people’s necks.  We have seen scenes of a teacher, an elderly person, subdued, reduced, humiliated on the floor.  That does not happen in Cuba, that does not happen in Cuba!

Why were there no criticisms of the protests in other European countries in which demonstrators were also shot or in which in less than two days there were more than 3,000 prisoners and which were indeed peaceful protests? Why are those in Cuba the ones that are amplified and why are they the ones that take on such dimensions?

For example, I tell you, on March 17, when we were in direct contact with the three places where social protests took place, around seven o’clock at night everything was already in complete order, and, besides, that day in the country there were different activities in which people were participating as part of a Sunday, and still at one o’clock in the morning the media platforms of intoxication were saying that there was a massive protest all over Cuba: a total lie, a slander, a construction.

I say, Ramonet, what can you expect from a government of the main power in the world that in order to attack a country, whose only sin can be that it wants self-determination, independence, sovereignty and wants to build a model different from the one imposed by the United States Government as part of its hegemonic policy, that for that reason that power resorts to a brutal blockade for so many years and that in order to overthrow the Revolution it has to resort to lies?  It is so perverse, such constructions are so vulgar.

I say, if we are so wrong, if we are so inefficient, if we are really such failures, don’t apply any sanction to me, let me fall.  But no, I know that the example of Cuba, and I say this without any expression of boasting, much less, without any Cuban chauvinism…, we know what we represent as an example for Latin America, the Caribbean and for the world, because one constantly sees how many people in the world have made solidarity with Cuba the center of their lives, and this is not by choice, this is because there is an example, because there is trust, because there is a guiding light, with which we assume a tremendous commitment, because we cannot let it down. That is the only thing that explains why such a powerful government has to resort to such practices to try to subdue a small country.

Ignacio Ramonet: We are going to pause here, Chairman.

Chairman, we are going to address the second block of our interview, which are questions on the economy, we are essentially going to ask four questions.

The first one is the following: I would like to know your assessment of the current state of the Cuban economy and what measures your Government is taking to face some of the current challenges, besides the blockade, obviously, such as, for example, inflation, which you already addressed in part; the partial dollarization that is taking place, and also the lack of significant foreign direct investments taking place.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, I think that part of the question, as an answer, we advanced it when we were describing what the blockade meant, because it is precisely that blockade that is giving rise to the new economic situation, which is the one described.

So, to summarize it, to focus more on what we are going to do to overcome this situation, we have to say that it is an economy that today operates under complex conditions and where there is a whole group of economic imbalances.

So, to face this, what are we proposing?  First, we have designed a Macroeconomic Stabilization Program that will be developed over a long period of time, let us say, until 2030, and which will have to be constantly adjusted in order to achieve the macroeconomic balances that the country needs in the shortest possible time.  It addresses the problems of inflation, the problems of the exchange market and, of course, the exchange rate; it addresses monetary policy, fiscal policy, incentives for domestic production and exports; it also includes elements of salaries, pensions, employment and all the reorganization we must make of the economic system, and the policies that have to do with the use of our finances, with the allocation of resources, with the role of the state enterprise, with the relationship between the state enterprise and the rest of the economic actors.

Now, it starts from several premises.  One premise is that we are looking for ways in which we can stimulate national production, because by stimulating national production we gain economic sovereignty; by stimulating national production we can also satisfy the country’s domestic needs, so that the domestic market becomes a source of development.

Ignacio Ramonet: Are you thinking above all about agriculture, for example, for food sovereignty?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We are precisely talking about it.

We can produce an important part of the food the country needs and import less food.  Today we have to have more than 2 billion dollars to import food, and because you invest them you do not always import the same amount or even more; on the contrary, you import less because prices and freight costs go up.

Furthermore, from this increase in domestic production and the efficiency of this domestic production, we must also achieve competitiveness in exports in order to earn foreign currency and make this domestic production sustainable.

We are taking this concept of stimulating national production and, above all, agriculture, not to the country scale, but we are taking it to the country scale to be built from the local scale: how each municipality has a municipal self-supply program, how each province has a provincial self-supply program, and that all these efforts and all this construction from the community, from the neighborhood, by the municipality, the province, reach the country and stabilize the food situation of the country.

That is why we have developed a Food Sovereignty Policy and there is a Food Sovereignty Law.

Ignacio Ramonet: Is it giving results, and do you see the results?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I have an experience.  Since January we have been visiting every month all the provinces of the country and in each province we are visiting a different municipality every month.

What have we observed?  We have observed good experiences where workers and workers’ collectives, with the leadership they have, do things differently, and in conditions of an intensified blockade, just like all the others, they find answers to what we have to achieve, including many of them in the area of food production.  I have seen very interesting things in that sense.

Ignacio Ramonet: That could be extended to other parts of the country.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Anjá, but let’s say that today they are exceptions.

So, we also have other places we have visited where the performance is not adequate, and where the collectives are perhaps more overwhelmed by the weight of the restrictions of the blockade and not by the thinking we want to develop, which is the thinking of creative resistance: “I am affected by the blockade in this and this, but in conditions of blockade I can do this, this, this and overcome and move forward”.

What we intend is that these are inspiring, that inspired by the example of those who do things differently, they acquire that experience and go to a better performance, and then what today is an exception becomes the rule.

We have opted for a Government Management System based on Science and Innovation to be applied in all areas. That is how we faced COVID-19 and now we are taking it to the field of agriculture, to the industry, to food production.

But there is already something interesting, because, I tell you, these convictions and these criteria that I am sharing with you are not a call nor is it our propaganda, it is that one has it as a conviction precisely because of what one is appreciating in these visits to each place in the country.

So, for example, in the tours of March and April we began to observe that places that closed 2023, last year, with unproductive, unprofitable, inefficient performances, are starting to leave this situation behind and begin to approach this. Now, what do we have to achieve?  That this transformation is sustainable over time.  I think that’s where the answers are, we have the answers ourselves.

What are we telling them later when we share with the management of the territories?  We have to take this one that does not do it well to the concepts of this one that does it well; they have the experience right there.

It is very stimulating to see how in every part of the country there are things that still do not have the productive levels of activities, of contributions that we need, but there are also lights in those examples.

Ignacio Ramonet: On the part of the State, the necessary reforms of laws have been made to facilitate a new production.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We still have to guarantee that the state enterprise can operate under the same conditions as the non-state sector, but today the state enterprise has a group of powers that have been given to it, which are not always well used.  To the extent that it is used with a more advanced and flexible business culture, it will undoubtedly have an impact.

So, a fundamental concept: science and innovation.  A poor country like ours, with scarce natural resources but with a lot of talent, has a construction founded by the Commander in Chief, which was continued by the General of the Army and which continues to be expanded and updated in the midst of these conditions: that the answers to our problems must be found in scientific research, taking all this to innovation.  That is why we have opted for a Government Management System based on Science and Innovation to be applied in all areas.  That is how we faced COVID-19 and now we are taking it to the field of agriculture, to the field of industry, to the issue of food production.

There is also the attention to people and families in vulnerable conditions.  Each of the measures that we are going to apply must have a treatment so that vulnerable people and families in vulnerable situations are not affected, because our purpose is not to create more inequalities; on the contrary, it is to reduce the inequality gap, and that we are capable of producing with the awareness that the wealth that we are capable of generating is what we can distribute and that we are going to distribute it with social justice.

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, among the changes that have taken place in Cuba’s economy in recent years is the emergence of a market economy, right?  In particular, this has expanded lately with the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which here are called MSMEs. What is your assessment of this phenomenon that is transforming Cuba’s economic fabric?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: In this sense, I think there are some clarifications to be made.

First, we have a planned economy that takes into account market signals, but it is not an economy based on pure market economy, there is a concept of social justice where market laws are not the ones that drive economic development, because above all, we think a lot in terms of people.  And sometimes the efficiency of the Cuban economy is criticized from a purely economistic conception, but I say: that blocked economy, which still does not satisfy all our needs, maintains important social conquests that today in Cuba are assumed as a right; but in many places they are still not a conquest.  So, I believe that there is also a certain level of injustice in assessing exactly the behavior of the Cuban economy.  On the one hand, it is a planned economy but it takes into account, it recognizes the signals of the market and the laws of the market.

On the other hand, the MSME sector.  First, there are state MSMEs and there are non-state, private MSMEs, that is to say, it is not only a private sector field.  And the private sector existed in Cuba, but here it has expanded, because an important part of agricultural production is in the hands of private farmers and agricultural cooperatives.

There was self-employment, what happened is that since we did not have the development of MSMEs, self-employment was confused with self-employment and it already generated certain articulations or certain relationships that were more than self-employment and became organizations.

Ignacio Ramonet: Yes, they were already small companies with employees.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Those companies that, although they were not recognized, worked like that.  In other words, what I believe is that we updated the situation we had, and that something very coherent has been proposed, which is to take advantage of all the potentialities the country has.  So, it is a state-owned company that must play a fundamental role in the socialist construction, but which has a private sector as a complement to the economic activity.

Ignacio Ramonet: What does this private market sector currently represent?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Today when people talk about the dynamics of MSMEs, they say: “No, but they are growing a lot”.  They are growing, it is a relatively new process, and let us say that we already have around 10,000; but one of our concepts, as part of the socialist construction, is that the main means of production are in the hands of the State and are represented by State enterprises.  Therefore, the greatest weight of the economy is in the state sector, without denying the important contribution of the non-state sector.

I believe that this has also been a relatively new area in the improvement of our economic-social system.  Now what we have to do is to correct some distortions in the relations between state enterprises and state entities with non-state entities, so that all of them, as part of a group of economic actors in our society, contribute and are inserted in the National Economic and Social Development Plan.  And that is why, in exchange with this non-state sector, in exchange with the Cuban business sector, we are now updating a whole group of rules so that this may work more coherently and really boost the country’s economy from the contribution of the state and from the contribution of this non-state sector.

Here we are also insisting that many of these companies are formed on the basis of the concept of high technology companies and innovative companies, and we can have them in the state sector, because one of the characteristics of MSMEs, whether state or private, is that they are companies which by their conception, by the way they operate, adapt more quickly to changes and have more capacity for innovation.

Ignacio Ramonet: They are also smaller.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They are smaller, they operate in a more flexible way and, therefore, the contributions and dynamics they can bring to the economy are very important.

Ignacio Ramonet: Do you think this sector will continue to expand?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think this sector will continue to expand, it will continue to be part of our network of economic actors, and it will not be an enemy of the Revolution; it is a sector that will contribute, because, besides, it is a sector that has been created under the conditions of the Revolution.  Although there is a very direct attempt, as we know, by the Government of the United States to try to turn this sector into a sector of opposition to the Revolution.

Now there is an enormous contradiction: there are senators, congressmen, opinion leaders in the United States who say that we should not support the state sector, but that we should put money into it to turn MSMEs into agents of change.  There are others who say that the MSMEs, since they are the spawn of the Cuban State in order to achieve a certain façade, must be cut down.  Even they themselves have a contradiction, a contradiction that is not generated in Cuba, in Cuba they are part of a business fabric necessary to continue advancing in the socialist construction, involved and committed to the National Economic and Social Development Plan, and yes, attentive to ensure that there are no distortions in this endeavor.

Ignacio Ramonet: Chairman, we are going to talk about COVID-19, although you said some important words before; but let us remember that Cuba, thanks to its scientists, thanks to its biopharmaceutical industries, was one of the few countries in the world that was able to vaccinate its entire population with its own vaccines, an exceptional feat in the context, above all, of a country under blockade and with limited resources. What lessons did you learn from that crisis?  It is also important, what new contributions could Cuba make to the world in the field of health?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, first I think we have to talk about the fact that the world was shaken by COVID-19, and that the world should learn lessons from COVID-19.  I believe that the first lesson the world should learn from COVID-19 is that we must dedicate more resources, more funding and more money to achieve powerful health systems in all countries.

Ignacio Ramonet – Public.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Public, resilient and for everyone and not for a minority.

On the other hand, international cooperation on COVID-19 is important and not selfishness.  I, perhaps a little idealistically -it has to do with the convictions one has, with the formation within the Revolution- aspired that after COVID-19 the world was going to be more supportive, the world was going to cooperate more, the world was going to complement each other better, and the opposite has happened: the world has gone to war, to the increase of sanctions, to blockades, to the construction of walls to solve international problems.

Ignacio Ramonet: Hate speeches, the extreme right.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Hate speeches, the whole issue of social networks where there are murders of reputation, bullying, viciousness, lies, slander and, above all, what you highlighted: that hate speech, that vulgar speech, that banal speech that does not help to improve international relations.

This shows us that we need a New International Economic Order that is inclusive, that guarantees equity and that is fair.

Ignacio Ramonet: That shows solidarity.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That it be supportive, which is the opposite of the current International Economic Order.

What did we learn with COVID-19? A first lesson has to do with the learning we have from Army General Raúl Castro. COVID-19 was going around the world, the first news of COVID-19 were already beginning, there was no case in Cuba yet -we are talking about January 2020-, and the Army General told us: we have to study immediately what is happening in the world and prepare a national plan to face the epidemic.  In other words, we learned that we had to have the capacity to design an integral work program or a strategy to confront COVID-19 that would involve all State institutions, social institutions, the non-State sector of the economy, in short, that as a country we would assume a plan/country that would allow us to get ahead and prepare conditions to face this situation.  That is a first lesson, because it was because of that plan, because of that strategy that we were able to get ahead.

Ignacio Ramonet: You started, to a certain extent, before COVID-19 was extended to the world.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We prepared ourselves before the first case arrived.  That meant training our personnel in the experiences that existed in the world, studying the disease and other things that I am going to explain to you now, which are also experiences and which come out of that; but the concept that most encompasses what we did and the learning is that vision of the Army General, who said: prepare a strategy, prepare a program, prepare a plan to face the disease.

Secondly, international cooperation.  We immediately sent Cuban medical brigades to more than 46 countries, where at that time, in some of them, the epicenter of the disease was.

Ignacio Ramonet: In Italy, in Lombardy.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Italy, for example, in Lombardy. That allowed us to support those peoples, to help, to cooperate.

Ignacio Ramonet: And to learn.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: But we also learned, we learned!

I remember that we had the practice that every time a brigade returned we met with them and they brought us all those experiences, and all those experiences were incorporated into the plan.

Third, to develop a network of molecular research laboratories, molecular biology laboratories, which become important elements to be able to process all the samples, which in cases of these epidemics are massive at a certain time, especially when there are pandemic peaks; but when there are no pandemic peaks, they become the possibility of having references, data with samples to know what levels of spread of the disease are.

The role of epidemiology as a science within the health system, because many of these diseases must also be confronted with concepts?

Ignacio Ramonet: They have a particular logic.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel.  An epidemiological logic: how to cut transmission, how to avoid it, how to work; the integral work of all the organizations of society and in particular the link, in the Cuban case, of the Health System -which is a robust system, we have to say, in the midst of the current situation, notice that we are facing the COVID-19, as I was telling you, in the midst of the tightened blockade and already included in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism-, the linkage and articulation of the Health System with the Cuban drug regulatory agency, CECMED, and with the biopharmaceutical industry, because this shortens the timeframes for clinical trials, provides capacity for clinical trials, provides capacity for generating new drugs or for proposing the use of existing drugs to improve the protocols for disease care.

The Management System based on Science and Innovation.  This was a fundamental role, we systematized a meeting, which we still have, every Tuesday at two or three o’clock in the afternoon, generally, with the experts, scientists and institutions that worked in the COVID-19 confrontation, from which a whole group of scientific researches came out.  There was a program of more than a thousand scientific researches, scientific research topics; evaluation of the results of those researches, and from there came the generation of our vaccines.

I remember when we started to have the pandemic peak with the Delta strain, and we saw that the vaccine distribution mechanisms in the world were totally unequal and favored the rich and not the poor?

Ignacio Ramonet: Besides, they had to be bought.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We had to buy them, and we asked our scientists: “We need Cuban vaccines to have sovereignty and face this”.  And after three months there was the first vaccine candidate, and then we know the story: five vaccine candidates, today three are vaccines well proven in efficiency and efficacy; two others are still in clinical trials, and they are going to be very promising vaccines, and since we started applying…. Ah, that is another lesson: you can have the capacity to generate vaccines, which is not very frequent; no more than ten countries have been able to generate their vaccines, none of them from the South.

Ignacio Ramonet: Some powers were not able to do so.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There were powers that did not succeed, and we shared and transferred that technology to other countries and shared it with other nations.

It is to have the capacity to make your vaccines, but to have the capacity to face a massive vaccination campaign in a short time.  We applied 40 million doses of vaccines in less than two years, for that you have to have a system organized at the social level, at the community level, because vaccination was not only done in polyclinics, there were institutions such as schools where vaccination clinics were almost organized and where health personnel were present, but together with the social institutions to carry out that vaccination.

Ignacio Ramonet: And that in the midst of this intensified blockade that you described earlier.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There is a piece of information I do not have, I think it was impossible for us to calculate it under those conditions.  When I saw and studied -at that time we studied a lot what was going on in the world with COVID-19- the billions that were given to pharmaceutical companies to develop research, I assure you that we could not even give more than 50 million to our scientific institutions.

Of course, you tell me: “That can’t be”, there is what I was explaining before, all the knowledge.

Ignacio Ramonet: Here the whole apparatus works…

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: All the previous development resulting from the visionary idea of the Commander-in-Chief, which later had a transformation when the General of the Army, what had been a budgeted system of the Scientific Pole also became a powerful closed-circle business system for the production of medicines, particularly biotechnological medicines.

Ignacio Ramonet: And exports as well.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: If there had not been all that preparation, we would not have been able to face that, and vaccines saved the country!  When we had vaccinated more than 60% of the population with a single dose, the pandemic peak was immediately lowered.

Ignacio Ramonet: “The pandemic curve went down….

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: After we opened the country’s borders, the Omicron strain entered, which caused higher pandemic peaks in the world, in Cuba a third of the previous pandemic peak and it only lasted two or three weeks, because the level of immunity our people had with the effects of the vaccine was already high.

Ignacio Ramonet: It was high.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: So, those are other lessons learned.

The role of social sciences, because when you face an issue such as an epidemic…

Ignacio Ramonet: COVID-19, the same epidemic.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That you cannot only see it as a health problem, there are psychological effects, society moves differently, in other conditions, in conditions of isolation or physical distancing, how you take care of people with fewer possibilities, more vulnerable.  All this led to proposals.

Ignacio Ramonet: Then, also mortality, with what that affects.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: All this led to analysis and proposals from the social sciences, which were integrated to this whole system.

Honest, clear, timely and systematic information.  Every day there was a space in our media where even one of our most brilliant epidemiologists became an opinion leader.

Ignacio Ramonet – He became a popular personality.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Every day he explained what was going on, how many deaths were occurring, how many cases were coming in, how the rates were going up or down and how they were behaving.

Ignacio Ramonet: Cuba demonstrated or confirmed at that time that in spite of all the difficulties we have talked about here, it was a power in the field of health. What announcements could you make to mankind about the contributions that Cuban scientists could announce?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: At this moment, based on these learnings, what have we proposed?  A compendium was prepared with the experiences and lessons learned, and we are designing an exercise, which we are going to do at a national level, to include those lessons learned in our Health System.

Secondly, the program is being defended, and has already been presented in these same meetings that we systematically hold, with the concept of a single health, which links everything related to diagnosis, emergency treatment and all the integral analysis of diseases.

Among the lessons learned, there are things that confirmed our ideas, for example, the role of primary health care, also designed by Fidel with the concept of the family doctor.

Ignacio Ramonet: From the neighborhood, from the family.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: COVID-19 confirmed how useful primary health care is, and now we are updating within primary health care those lessons learned from COVID-19.

We continue to develop the capacity of diagnostic means.  We, in addition to using PCRs and that, we came, at the time of COVID-19, to design with our scientific institutions our own diagnostic mechanisms and diagnostic techniques that they also supported.

We have continued and we can share with the world the studies of the sequelae left by COVID-19.  The issue was not only to face the disease, it was not only to save lives, it was how to guarantee quality of life to those who were patients of COVID-19, and there is a group of researches.

Ignacio Ramonet: Those who survived the disease.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We have maintained the development of the science and innovation system that we apply in COVID-19, that is why we hold weekly meetings to analyze and update certain topics.

I want to tell you that there are important advances, the time will come to announce them, we will wait for the clinical results; but there are important advances in the study of many diseases and, above all, of therapeutic solutions with biotechnological drugs and advanced techniques for diseases, for different types of cancer.  We are working -our population has aged- on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, studies on an important group of degenerative diseases; in other words, there is a wide range of scientific results that I believe will have an impact at the country level to continue strengthening the quality of Cuban health, but also at the international level.

At the moment, with licenses granted by the United States Government in the context of the tightening of the blockade, we are carrying out two important clinical trials together with American institutions: One of them is a vaccine against lung cancer, which has already been tested in Cuba and has very good results, and a clinical trial has recently been authorized in relation to the Heberprot-P drug, which is a drug that helps people suffering from diabetes, the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, at impressive levels, how it cures diabetic foot ulcers and avoids one of the most unpleasant things for a person, which is amputation.  Today in the world an amputation costs thousands of dollars in any country and, in addition, there are many patients with diabetes, many patients whose solution to the progressive progression of this disease is unfortunately amputation. These are also important results.

Ignacio Ramonet: These words, I think they are going to be much commented, that is to say, they are going to give a lot of hope to many people in the world, and let us hope that Cuban science achieves these results, President.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That Cuban science can unravel these mysteries.  And we are also working on the research to reach the vaccine against dengue.

Ignacio Ramonet: There is already a Japanese vaccine against dengue.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Here we are working on a vaccine, there are around four strains, there are several strains of dengue, which does not work only on one strain but on all the existing types of dengue.

Ignacio Ramonet: Excellent!

Chairman, the last question of this block on economy and technology.

You are an advocate of the use of technology, and we all know that technology, artificial intelligence, digitalization, are transforming our societies.  You have been particularly committed to the computerization of Cuban society, could you tell us how this project is progressing and what does the computerization of society bring to Cuban citizens?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We defined three priorities of the Government Management, which are: at first, Informatization of Society, which now we have advanced in the concept and we have taken it to Digital Transformation of Society, it seems the same but it is not the same, the issue is not only to take everything to digital platforms but to have a concept of life and a way of acting in a digital way.  In other words, we defend digital transformation as a pillar of Government Management together with science and innovation and social communication.  These are the three pillars of government and they are very closely related.

Ignacio Ramonet: In the financial sector it is also very important.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Notice that one of the elements that I highlighted as a learning experience was the social or institutional communication that took place with COVID-19.

Then, I would say that the digital transformation of society is a reality.  We have 7.7 million people registered with mobile telephony and around 8 million accessing the Internet, we have expanded the mobile networks although we still need to achieve more coverage, it also has to do with the fact that it takes investments in technology and it goes through all these problems, but we have managed to maintain a level.

Ignacio Ramonet: That is costly.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Today we are above the world average.

There has been a very up-to-date debate on the issues of digital transformation, artificial intelligence, digital economy.  As part of this debate, a few years ago we founded the Union of Computer Scientists of Cuba, where all the people and experts on these issues are also gathered and where a lot of debate and outings are also promoted to support the digital transformation processes.

When the United States denied Cuba oxygen and lung ventilators, in the worst times of COVID-19, “we gave the task to a group of young scientists from one of our institutions, and the prototypes were made and today they are already high performance lung ventilators, with levels of digitalization, I tell you, brilliant, excellent”.

In the coming weeks, the update of the Country’s Digital Transformation Policy, the Country’s Digital Agenda and the Policy for the Use of Artificial Intelligence will be presented to the Council of Ministers, here with a holistic approach, that is, we do not only see artificial intelligence for the results it can give us in the productive processes of services to the population in terms of efficiency, but also in the ethical aspects and a whole group of elements that must be taken into account around artificial intelligence.

We are bringing the digital transformation and we will also bring the contribution of artificial intelligence to the following areas: to the area of the productive sector of goods and services, because digital transformation and artificial intelligence can help us a lot in achieving efficiency in the productive and service processes, especially when we have to face a demographic dynamic where the country is getting older, therefore, we have to seek that our productive and service processes are more efficient, that with fewer people we have more productivity to serve most of the people, and hence automation, computerization, digitization are tools that give a good result.

Digitalization is also applied to the field of public administration, because an important element in which we are developing the digital transformation is the Electronic Government, the interaction of citizens with all government activity, which also guarantees greater spaces for citizen participation in government management.  We have achieved, for example, that all the municipalities of the country, all the provinces, all the ministries and most of the institutions have digital portals or web platforms with which they interact with the population.

In recent times, the draft laws that have been taken to the National Assembly for approval have been placed in digital platforms, and the criteria of the population have been collected with interaction and this has led us to the National Assembly with modifications that strengthen and improve this process of creating regulations.

Soon we will make it public, it is ready, the last results are being achieved, we are going to present the Cuban Citizen’s Portal.  It will be a platform where the Cuban citizen can build his or her profile and access a very important number of procedures without having to go through offices, without paper, which will make his or her life much more feasible.

In fact, many of those procedures are already in platforms of certain agencies and institutions, but now you will have in a single platform with your profile the possibility of all those procedures and, in addition, a lot of information to the population also as part of that; that one can search for any questions you have about a process, about a procedure, about a law, about a particular problem, you can work on it, and it will be another leap in that.

We are supporting this whole process of digital transformation and the use of artificial intelligence with the development of cybersecurity, to avoid cyber attacks, to have security in all these platforms.

An important element in which we are developing the digital transformation is the Electronic Government.

In a very creative way, and these are things that one is constantly impressed by and especially by the activity of young people, our country today has a whole suite of computer applications, mobile applications developed locally by Cubans, which work perfectly, even, we already have the variant in our store, which is an application called Apklis, where you can download Cuban applications and applications from other places, but they are there, there are several Cuban applications, many of them are becoming a reference for the population.

We have Cuban operating systems, we have designs and productions that are still limited due to financing problems, Cuban computer equipment, laptop, Tablet, PC.

Ignacio Ramonet: There is robotization.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We also have robotization experiences.  One of those examples is COVID-19.  When COVID-19 wanted to expand the intensive care wards to avoid hospital collapse, every time we went to a company to buy pulmonary ventilators they denied them to us, due to the blockade laws.  We gave the task to a group of young scientists from one of our institutions, and the prototypes were made and today they are already high performance lung ventilators, with levels of digitalization, I tell you, brilliant, excellent.  Their use and quality have been confirmed by the best experts in intensive care and anesthesia in our country, by highly qualified medical personnel, and I tell you that this is another of the prides that one feels as a Cuban, that one demands something from our scientific personnel, including young people, and that there are immediate answers, but high answers, that is, answers that are at the level of any international development.

Ignacio Ramonet: Are you developing your own applications for artificial intelligence?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Yes, we have our own platforms that are being developed, our own applications, our own designs to incorporate them into production and service processes.

Ignacio Ramonet: Are you working on quantum computing?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Also.  Of course, we are already acquiring quantum computers and that is going through all these problems, but we are ready.

Ignacio Ramonet: You have the specialists.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: We have the preparation, we have trained specialists, there is a whole level of knowledge and updating and international exchange.

Ignacio Ramonet: Do you think that we could work within the framework of Latin American integration on those issues in particular?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think so, it was one of the things we proposed.

Now, when we were at the ALBA anniversary and the ALBA Summit in Venezuela, the need to create platforms to integrate Latin America and the Caribbean, the ALBA countries in relation to the issue of digitalization and artificial intelligence was raised.

We, modestly, said we were willing to cooperate with the developments we have in the country.

Ignacio Ramonet: Even with teaching units, right, especially specialized universities?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Teaching units, training, participating in joint projects; also making our applications available to the rest of the countries.  This is one of the things that are already having an effect.

We have started a process of bankarization, that is, digitalization of Cuban banking, which has to do with these things we are achieving.

Ignacio Ramonet: This also helps financially to the disappearance of material money, which has to be manufactured, transported and bought.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Of cash. We also have a lot of application in process georeferencing systems, process geolocation; the work for crop estimates through the use of these technologies.

There is an enormous appetite for knowledge and development among young Cuban scientists and Cuban professionals.

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, we are going to address the third block of this interview, which is about international politics.

For years Cuba has been winning a great victory in the United Nations General Assembly against the illegal blockade of the United States against your country; but clearly that victory has not led to concrete results, the United States does not give in and does not lift the blockade. What new initiatives could you announce to move towards the lifting of the blockade?  I ask you, for example, have you tried to talk directly with President Biden?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Ramonet, your vision of the issue is true, which also calls for some reflections: How is it possible that the main power in the world, or the most powerful power in the world does not receive any support, a minimum support, only from the State of Israel; the rest of the countries vote in favor of Cuba in relation to the Cuban resolution against the blockade, which is presented year after year at the United Nations General Assembly, which last year was the 31st meeting in which the blockade was condemned by a majority, and there is no response?   That only shows the arrogance of the empire, and it shows -something that I would say is more serious and from which everyone should have learned a lesson- the contempt for what the rest of the world thinks.  It is contempt for our peoples, when the whole world sees it as a shameful fact that a small country is subjected to a criminal and genocidal blockade, such as the blockade of the United States Government against Cuba, that they turn a deaf ear to that worldwide claim.

It is contempt for our peoples, when the whole world sees it as a shameful fact that a small country is subjected to a criminal and genocidal blockade, as is the blockade of the United States government against Cuba, that they turn a deaf ear to this worldwide claim. Photo: Cubaminrex

And, mind you, this demand is not only expressed in the vote at the United Nations, it is becoming more and more common the number of countries, organizations of countries, regional blocs and international institutions that, year after year, also pass resolutions against the blockade or measures condemning the blockade.  More and more leaders of countries are speaking out against the blockade in the United Nations General Assembly with full names.  For example, at the last General Assembly of the United Nations where the blockade issue was debated, 44 leaders of countries of the world pronounced themselves…

Ignacio Ramonet: “Of all kinds of ideologies”.

Miguel M. Diaz-Canel: From all kinds of ideologies, they spoke out against the blockade, for example, the African Union, the Group of 77, CELAC, ALBA, they are all regional blocs.  A group of institutions, including institutions that make recommendations to the Report of the Secretary General of the United Nations supporting Cuba’s position against the blockade.  And there are more and more events, I would say already on a daily basis, of protest activities against the blockade that are taking place day by day, week by week, weekend by weekend all over the world.  We have registered more than 2,000 demonstrations of support for Cuba, in this sense, last year alone, and already in the months that have elapsed this year there have been countless moments of support against the blockade.

We have made it known, through direct and indirect channels, to the current administration of the Government of the United States that we are willing to sit down at a table under equal conditions, without impositions and without conditions, to talk about all the issues that have to do with the relationship between Cuba and the United States, all the issues they want to discuss; but without conditions and under equal conditions.

Because, at the end of the day, in the blockade there is a, let us say, unilateral relationship: Cuba has not affected the United States, Cuba has not taken any measure against the US Government; the US Government was the one that unilaterally imposed the blockade, therefore, the US Government is the one that has to unilaterally remove the blockade.  We neither ask for favors nor do we have to make any gesture to get the blockade lifted, it is simply a right of the Cuban people.  A right of the Cuban people to be able to develop in an environment of peace, of equality, without coercive measures, without impositions, and we are willing; but the US government has never responded to that.

Ignacio Ramonet: This current administration?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This current administration.

We are convinced that this current administration has no will to change the situation towards Cuba, especially because it has prioritized its policy towards the interests of a minority, which is the Cuban-American mafia based in Florida, and that distances us from the possibilities of having a relationship as we would like to have.  With ideological differences, which we will always have, but a civilized relationship between neighbors, where there could be cooperation, economic, commercial, scientific, financial, cultural exchange, in all areas of life.  It could be a normal relationship, as the United States has with another group of countries that do not share its positions either.

Ignacio Ramonet: Countries that were also great adversaries.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Great adversaries.  Then, why this cruelty towards Cuba?

And we have raised the issue because, besides, we make a difference, we have nothing against the American people, this is an issue with the Government of the United States.

Ignacio Ramonet: How do you explain that President Biden, who was Obama’s vice-president for two terms and Obama had changed the atmosphere, let’s say, of relations, and relations were restored, has this position?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It is inexplicable.

Obama began to build a different relationship.

Ignacio Ramonet: Biden’s wife was in Cuba, she had a very good relationship of experiences, because she is a professor, how can that be explained?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That can only be explained by the fact that in the United States the issue is not one of parties, a Democrat acts just like a Republican.  There is a military industrial complex, there is another power construction behind, in the shadows, which is the one that decides the positions of the US Government, which are the imperial positions.  And there is this situation of subordination to a group of interests, especially for electoral purposes, to the positions of the Cuban-American mafia.

Ignacio Ramonet: And do you have any hope that the next elections will change this situation, modify this situation?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I wish they would change and I wish we could have the space to discuss face to face all our positions and that there would be another type of relationship and that the blockade would be lifted; but my conviction is that we have to overcome the blockade by ourselves, with our capacity, with our work, with our talent, with our intelligence and with our effort, and that would be the best response to this stubbornness of maintaining this genocidal blockade against our people for so many years.

Ignacio Ramonet: In particular, what is surprising is that Biden has maintained the list of countries that help terrorism, which Trump adopted minutes before leaving the White House.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Everything, he has kept everything.

But, in addition, the Biden administration has had very perverse expressions and actions against Cuba.  I told you about the lung ventilators in COVID-19.  In COVID-19, our medical oxygen production plant is affected, and when we went out to buy medical oxygen from countries in the area, where we could have the necessary product in the country in less time, the US government pressured companies that could supply us with medical oxygen so that this oxygen would not reach Cuba; this is a totally criminal action.  Imagine in the midst of a pandemic, with intensive care wards, with people with respiratory problems, to deny service to these people, they were condemning them to death.  We had to make a tremendous effort, where we had the help of other countries to overcome that situation.

That is something that is not forgotten, Ramonet, it was such a perverse action.  The way they manipulated the COVID-19 situation in Cuba, when they had a more complex situation than we did.  We handled the response to COVID-19 better than the U.S. Government itself, which does have money and wealth.  They called for the SOS Cuba, all the media manipulation, all the events of July 11.

Today they are so cynical that they are capable of stating that they have not gone to another moment in the relationship with Cuba because of what happened on July 11.  That is a tremendous cynicism and a tremendous lie with which they want to justify their position before the world.

Ignacio Ramonet: Especially what you say about oxygen, they claim that the blockade does not apply either to food or to medicines, and evidently that proves that it is not true either.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Yes, the blockade applies to everything.

Ignacio Ramonet: There may be a hope in this information we have, which is circulating at the moment, and that is that President Biden would announce in the primaries who would be his Vice President, that it would no longer be Kamala Harris, but it would be Michelle Obama. Do you think that if that were true, if it were confirmed, it would leave certain hope?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I think that today everything is purely speculative, I think that today in the situation in the United States, in the internal situation of the country, it is not possible to objectively predict which side is favorable or not in the vote of the population which, in addition, today is very much affected by the facts of the internal economy of the United States; very domestic issues such as the abortion issue; international issues such as Palestine, the war in Ukraine.  In other words, there is a whole group of situations that are in the opinion of the American people, in the life of the American people, and I do not think that today one can accurately say which side a vote of the American people can be on.  There are many undecided people, there are positions within the parties themselves of isolating themselves from the position.  In any case, an announcement by a person like Michelle Obama could have a different reading.

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, you are returning from Moscow where in addition to participating in the ceremony to commemorate the Victory over Nazism, you also participated in the inauguration of President Putin and took part in the Plenary Session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. Are you looking for new economic alliances? Is Cuba counting on integrating, in one way or another, in the BRICS platform?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This was a very interesting trip, because it was a trip of anniversaries, as I would say, and of interesting and important events.

First, we arrived in Moscow at the moment when President Putin was at the inauguration ceremony, we were not invited and we did not participate, that is to say, it was a very internal ceremony.

Ignacio Ramonet: Private.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Very private for the country, but we were present in this trip to Russia at the invitation of President Putin.

Then, we participated in the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union for the first time in person, because all the other participations we had had in the Supreme Council were during the years of COVID-19 and we had done it virtually through the possibilities of videoconferencing.  Therefore, it is not a question of entering into a new alliance, it is an alliance that we have been in for a long time.  And when the Supreme Council was in session, it was the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union.  Therefore, it was also a time to take stock of the results of that regional integration in which we have the status of Observer Country.  And it was the same date when we were commemorating the 64th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba, which are the relations that have continued now with the Russian Federation, but with an important element: the member countries of the Eurasian Union -and this was a remark made to me by Lukashenko, the President of Belarus- were former republics of the Soviet Union, therefore Lukashenko told me: “This anniversary then belongs to everyone, because we were all also part of the Soviet Union”.

Ignacio Ramonet – Members of the Soviet Union.

“We participated in the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union for the first time in person”. Photo: Alejandro Azcuy

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: I believe that the Eurasian Union in ten years has shown a significant capacity for economic and commercial dynamics, and has greatly increased the gross domestic product among these countries in the region, and defends very fair principles in relation to economic development and complementarity among these countries.

For us it is a space of opportunities, because we can contribute especially in areas such as biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry, we can take advantage of this space by having our medicines recognized by the regulatory agencies of these countries, and also enter a market that is more affordable for us, because they also have intentions and needs for these medicines and for the transfer of technologies and for making joint investments.  It also opens a space for investors from these countries to participate in the economic and social development programs in our country.  And there is also the issue of food sovereignty to share with them, which is one of the points of the whole Union; the issue of environmental sustainability, that is, sustainable development and respect for the environment and the development of a culture of sustainability, which is also a principle that we take into account in our development; food sovereignty and the development of renewable energy sources.  So it is an important space for us.

I believe that the BRICS is one of the alternatives in the world today, a bloc of countries that opens an expectation of breaking the North American hegemony in international relations.  Therefore, the BRICS become an alternative, inclusive space; the BRICS are open to the countries of the South.

Ignacio Ramonet: They have just been enlarged last January 1st.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The BRICS have just been enlarged, they have shown a willingness to establish relations with the African continent, with Latin America and the Caribbean; a relationship of more consensus, more equity and respect is being established.  On the other hand, the BRICS are also proposing an alternative to the dollar, and they are promoting trade with the currencies of each country or compensated trade based on the exchange of products and services generated by each of the countries.

Ignacio Ramonet: They also have a Development Bank presided by Dilma Rousseff.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: They have a Development Bank presided by Dilma, who is a recognized leader with a political vision towards the problems of the South.  And the five countries they headed, founders of the BRICS, are countries that maintain an excellent relationship with Cuba.  We are studying, we are observing, we are also commenting it now in the meeting with President Putin, that Cuba aspires to join the BRICS.

Ignacio Ramonet: The next summit will be held in Russia, precisely in October, in Kazan.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: It all depends now on how events unfold.

Ignacio Ramonet: It seems that they want to create a new type of member, which would be the associate or partner member, there would be room for Cuba.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: There would be room for Cuba and it also depends on the consensus reached with the countries leading the BRICS; but, for example, they were very consistent and allowed Cuba to participate in the South Africa Summit not only as a country, but also representing the Group of 77 and China, because at that time we were President pro tempore, and it must be said that they paid great attention to the proposals of the Group of 77 and China that Cuba put forward on their behalf, and also to the Cuban position.  I believe that this is a very propitious environment for South-South relations, and that it opens a new perspective for the New International Economic Order that is necessary.

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, we are coming to the end of this interview, it is the last question, it is about Latin America.

Crises are multiplying in Latin America and the Caribbean, there was that assault on the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador; the US Southern Command is creating military bases in Guyana, which represents a threat to Venezuela and its historical claim to the Essequibo; in Argentina President Javier Milei is destroying decades of social progress; in Haiti there is no end in sight to the difficulties. What is your reading of these situations? And what can Cuba contribute to promote sovereignty, peace and progress in this region?

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: This is an expression of all the contradictions that exist at the global level and that are also manifested at the regional level in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean.  I think it is also an expression of the persistence of the empire to maintain the Monroe Doctrine, with that imperialist concept of America for the Americans, which is not Latin America and the Caribbean for all of us who live in the continent; it is Latin America and the Caribbean subordinated to North America and to the power of the empire.  Therefore, this is also an expression of the North American vision of contempt for our peoples, and of the North American vision of Latin America and the Caribbean as its backyard.

Now, a Latin America and the Caribbean that, on the one hand, has a group of governments that have maintained revolutionary processes subjected to the greatest setbacks, pressures, sanctions, insults, aggressions and interferences, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

A whole group of progressive governments that also provide a favorable correlation of left-wing forces in the Latin American region, such as: the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Lula, in Brazil; López Obrador; Xiomara, in Honduras; Boric, in Chile; Petro, in Colombia, which help to bring about stability and ease of cooperation and exchange.  But the United States does not stand still with this and is constantly trying to mobilize right-wing forces with, I would say, very dirty mechanisms to provoke instability in these countries, to prevent left-wing processes or left-wing governments from staying in power, and to encourage that where the left has lost power and the right is established, that right-wing does not lose power.

Ignacio Ramonet: To be maintained.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: And that this right wing is a right wing that is totally submissive to the United States Government and to the design of the United States, and also stirring up fights on certain issues that have a historical component; encouraging ruptures, slandering, feeding divisions to provoke the disunity of the region.

What this is explaining is that today there are some governments that facilitate the entire U.S. policy in the continent, even governments that are favoring the presence of NATO troops in the territory of Latin America and the Caribbean, governments that are denying the right to sovereignty and self-determination of territories of their own country in which there have been wars and where there are heroes and martyrs who died for the independence of those territories, for the sovereignty of those territories, and what they are doing is flattering the powers that became the metropolis of those geographical spaces that belong to the region, in something that one can consider totally absurd, irrational and unpatriotic.  Governments that, in addition, have a media projection where they express their principles, but totally of offense, of insults against those who think differently, against those who think of doing things in a different way or against those who defend another way of building the world.  I always aspire and we will devote all our efforts to that better world that is possible and to which Fidel summoned us.

When we have to defend a position we defend it head on and when we have to discuss a position we discuss it head on; but we are not given to the media show, to insults, to offenses, to that type, I would say, of political vulgarity to which others in the world lend themselves.

As Cuba’s position, we will always maintain and defend, with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, respect for the sovereignty and independence of those countries; respect for self-determination over the socio-political system they assume, and the willingness, regardless of systems and ideologies, to have the most respectful, supportive and cooperative relationship with any of these countries, and we have this with most of them.

We never break off relations with Latin American countries and we try to solve, through dialogue, through discussion, through argumentation, any issue on which we may have some differences, on which we may have divergent positions.

I believe that Cuba’s expressions of solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean are eloquent of the coherence with these convictions.  We have sent doctors and teachers, internationalist collaborators also in engineering and other fields of economy and society to several countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

We do not send military or armed forces to Haiti, nor do we make invasions; in Haiti we have medical brigades.  Today, in the midst of this situation in Haiti, when many are thinking of intervention in Haiti or interference in Haiti’s internal affairs, we have a medical brigade providing services to the Haitian people, a people that I believe deserve the greatest respect for all that they have suffered as a consequence of having been the first nation in the region to develop a revolution.

Ignacio Ramonet: Who became independent.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: A worthy people, a people that has been subjected to interventions for a long time; a people that had to pay a debt for its freedom, which is totally unfair. In other words, there has to be a reparation for Haiti, just as there has to be a reparation for slavery towards the peoples of the Caribbean, who are constantly subjected to pressures from the United States Government to break the unity with the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean.

We have a relationship of gratitude, as well as tremendous friendship and brotherhood with the Government of López Obrador and with Mexico.  The relationship between Cuba and Mexico is an intimate, historic relationship, it is a brotherly relationship, it is a family relationship. Mexico was the only country that did not break off relations with Cuba when the Government of the United States summoned the entire OAS to break off relations with Cuba.

We defend the cause of Venezuela, the Chavista Revolution, the civil-military unity and we support President Maduro, whom they have even tried to assassinate.

Ignacio Ramonet: To assassinate him several times.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Something that is unusual.

We support the Sandinista Revolution; we clamor for the self-determination of Puerto Rico; we defend the principles of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.  We are very interested in the role played by Xiomara in Honduras, and also in her role at the head of CELAC; at this moment we have a very close relationship with Lula.

Ignacio Ramonet: With the CARICOM countries.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: With the CARICOM countries, in the end, with all Latin America and the Caribbean; but always on the basis of respect, solidarity, friendship and dialogue to solve any situation.

On the other hand, we intend to defend the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which was approved precisely at a CELAC summit in Havana.

We also defend the Latin American and Caribbean integration that responds to the dreams of our heroes, responds to the highest ideals of Latin American integration, and I am thinking at this moment of Martí and Bolívar.  Martí, who always spoke so respectfully of Our America and was defining very well what Our America was; and Bolívar, who carried out a whole struggle to achieve the independence of many Latin American countries.

I believe that leading by example is the greatest support we can give to that Latin American unity.

Ignacio Ramonet: That Fidel always defended.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: That Fidel always defended, he taught us to defend it, and Raúl has also defended it. Ramonet, when we speak of dreams, of aspirations, we have such a common history, such a common culture, such wonderful, hard-working, intelligent, creative peoples.  I tell you, the pre-Columbian Latin American cultures have nothing to envy the Mesopotamian cultures or the cultures of ancient Greece.  Those were known first, but when you go back in history you see that ours in their development, in how they measured time, how they channeled water, how they produced, their development, were as developed as those, and they are part of our roots, and you can observe them in any of the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Our cultural wealth, the advanced thinking in Latin America and the Caribbean, the approaches of Latin American thinkers, Latin American philosophers, the Latin American academic sector, are advanced positions, of much study, of much coherence, of much defense of the roots of the Latin American and Caribbean identity, and, in addition, it is a continent with resources, which unfortunately today is where the greatest degree of inequality is manifested in its peoples.

I am convinced that with all those virtues, with all that wealth -and this is what I dream of- the Latin American continent could have such an integration that it could be an example for the whole world of what it can contribute to the human condition, to the future, to the dreams of emancipation, to the placement of the human being in the true center of everything that is done for the world.  I believe that this moment will come sooner rather than later, because our peoples are demanding a lot of justice because they have lived through many complex situations: they have experienced aggressions, they have experienced contempt, they have experienced interventions, they have experienced practices of inequality, they have been excluded from processes, they have been excluded from possibilities.

There is still a lot of illiteracy to be solved in Latin America and the Caribbean, there is still a lot of progress to be made on gender issues, a lot to be achieved for the emancipation of the wonderful Latin American and Caribbean women, a lot to be conquered in terms of equality for all our peoples and in terms of social justice.

But there is the historical potential, the cultural potential.

Ignacio Ramonet: There is the desire.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: The desire to do so, and I believe that we will continue advancing in integration and that this is the message, the conviction, the support and the example that Cuba can give.

A Latin American country will never feel that Cuba is a danger for them; on the contrary, in Cuba they will always find support, understanding and willingness to integrate and move forward.

Ignacio Ramonet: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your time.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: No, thank you.  It was a pleasure to have been with you.

Ignacio Ramonet: Thank you.

Miguel M. Díaz-Canel: Next time, I will ask you the questions (Laughter and applause).

Source: Granma, unofficial translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English