The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, considers that Cuba must undertake, “without interference”, the necessary reforms that allow it to “enjoy rights and freedoms”, but still does not condemn the repression of some mobilizations that, in his opinion, reflect the problems caused on the island by a pandemic that “is hitting very hard” in the country.
During a live interview granted on Thursday night (Spanish time) to CNN en Español in Los Angeles, the head of the Executive did not want to comment on the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department of Joe Biden’s Administration against the Cuban Minister of Defense, Alvaro López Miera, and against the military unit of the Black Berets in retaliation for the demonstrations, which began last July 11. “Absolute respect,” he declared. “I have nothing to say,” it is an “internal matter of U.S. policy,” he added.
In any case, he continued, the position of the European Union and Spain with respect to Cuba is “well known”, and consists of the Cubans themselves “on their own, without interference from anyone”, who find “their way to be able to enjoy the rights and freedoms” that they have enjoyed in Spain “for many years now”. In an informal meeting with journalists in New York, during the first stage of the visit to the US, Sánchez recalled that all Spanish governments, both PSOE and PP, have lined up in favor of that position and against the embargo.
In any case, Pedro Sánchez harshly criticized, during the CNN interview, the embargo imposed by the United States against the Cuban regime (softened by President Barack Obama and retaken by his successor, Donald Trump), which are contributing to worsen an economic situation already greatly aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This has a translation in a fundamental sector, even more as a consequence of the embargo, which is the tourism sector, which in Cuba suffers terrible consequences,” he warned.
In the opinion of Pedro Sánchez, the protests that have been registered in Cuba should be analyzed from a “global” approach and starting from the fact that the coronavirus pandemic “is hitting very hard” in the country. “There are many aspects behind the mobilizations” and, therefore, “the International Community must make an exercise of solidarity with the Cuban people, donating doses of vaccines and helping to protect the society in Cuba”, he declared.
Pedro Sánchez put an end yesterday to his three-day working trip to the United States, which was almost exclusively economic in nature, in which he visited New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and which did not include any meeting with Biden or any other political representative. Thursday concluded with a meeting with the CEOs of major investors in the audiovisual sector, such as Netflix, HBO, Disney, Warner and Activision, at Universal Studios, where he took the opportunity to promote Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe, a government initiative to, in his own words, turn Spain into “the Hollywood of Europe”.
Yesterday, the last day of the trip, Sánchez traveled to Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where -accompanied by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto- he visited the Apple Campus to meet with Tim Cook, CEO of the company. Later, he attended a lunch with the CEOs of Intel, Qualcomm, PayPal, Levi’s and Microsoft, organized by HP’s CEO, at The HP Garage; he was interviewed on Bloomberg TV’s Bloomberg Technology program; he met with Spanish investors and entrepreneurs at the HP Campus and participated in an event with investors organized by the US Chamber of Commerce in Spain (Ancham Spain) and by investor Steve Westly.
