(Havana) Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday acknowledged “very discreet progress” in cooperation with the United States, particularly in the area of migration, despite the persistence of the American embargo against the island.
“We have made very discreet advances aimed at putting bilateral cooperation on the path to the execution of migration agreements and also in other priority areas between the two countries”, declared Mr. Diaz-Canel during the presentation of the its record before Parliament.
But the “fundamental characteristic that defines our bilateral relationship remains the economic embargo”, in force since 1962, recalled the Cuban president.
Washington and Havana resumed discussions on immigration in 2022 against a backdrop of record emigration of Cubans, particularly to the United States.
The US Embassy in Havana is due to resume issuing visas as normal in January after nearly a five-year hiatus. The service was relaunched in May, but on a limited basis.
In 2022, the United States also issued 20,000 visas to Cubans, according to agreements made between the two countries in 1994, but remained a dead letter in recent years.
The Cuban president on Wednesday highlighted the technical assistance provided by the United States in August during the vast fire that ravaged a fuel depot in Matazas (center) and the two million dollars in aid offered by Washington after the passage of the Hurricane Ian which devastated part of the island in September.
“This aid was offered without conditions,” the Cuban president stressed.
However, he accused Washington of “openly promoting a policy of subversion” and “attempts to destabilize” his country.
The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden has maintained the 243 coercive measures adopted against Cuba by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump (2017-2021), in a policy of “maximum pressure” against the island, denounced the head of state .
The Cuban president also acknowledged that 2022 has been “a particularly complicated year” for the “island due to the American embargo, the international crisis and “our own incompetence and our mistakes”.
“I feel enormous dissatisfaction at not having been able to obtain as the head of the country the results that the Cuban people need to achieve the long-awaited and hoped-for prosperity,” he said, self-critically.
Mr Diaz-Canel said he hoped 2023 would be “a better year”. “But getting there requires more than a comprehensive plan, it requires shaking off inertia, banishing bureaucracy, breaking down barriers and overcoming complacency,” he added.