HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Wednesday the election of U.S. President Donald Trump meant more of the same for Cuba and said his communist-run government does not fear its northern neighbor.
“The results of these elections are nothing new for us,” Diaz-Canel told state-run media on a visit to a town in Cuba’s Cienfuegos province. “The country is ready. We will continue on, without fear, trusting that with our own effort, with our own talent, we can get ahead.”
The brief statement, broadcast on Cuba’s midday newscast, was the first official reaction to Trump’s election by the island’s government.
Trump doubled down on the decades-long trade embargo on Cuba by the United States during his first administration, ordering restrictions on travel to the island, as well as clamping down on remittances and immigration. He also placed Cuba once more on a list of nations that the U.S. says sponsor terrorism, a move that piled additional financial sanctions on the island.
The hard-line measures effectively snuffed out what he called a “terrible and misguided deal” struck with Havana by his predecessor, Barack Obama, during a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries.
The fresh sanctions also contributed to an unprecedented economic crisis in Cuba, with shortages of food, fuel and medicine that have stoked a record-breaking exodus from the island.
Trump’s nomination of Marco Rubio, an outspoken critic of the island’s government, as secretary of state suggests Trump will maintain a similar approach during his second administration, which begins on Jan. 20.
Diaz-Canel on Wednesday left the door open to negotiation with the U.S., but only on “equal terms,” he told local reporters.
“We have always stated that we have nothing against the people of the United States and that we are willing to dialogue on equal terms with the U.S. government,” he said.
“Without impositions, with respect and nothing that affects our sovereignty or our independence.”
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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