Cuba open to talks with US ‘without pressure’ after months of Trump threats

Miguel Díaz‑Canel says Cuba is willing to engage Washington amid the island’s deepening economic crisis

After months of threats from Donald Trump, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said that his government is willing to talk to the United States, just so long as it is “without pressure”.

Standing in front of a life-sized photograph of Fidel Castro carrying a rifle during the 1959 revolution, Díaz-Canel, the 65-year-old president, said on Thursday that his island nation had been subject to an “intense media campaigns of slander, hatred and psychological warfare”.

Nonetheless, he said, the country was “willing to engage in dialogue with the United States, a dialogue on any topic, but without pressure or preconditions”.

The speech was broadcast on television, radio and YouTube. The Cuban government has found itself facing mounting threats of regime change from US officials, particularly since the 3 January US military capture of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela and the island’s traditional ally.