We spoke with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, about the high-level immigration talks held last week in Washington between the United States and Cuba. Fernández de Cossío suggests that the policies implemented by the United States to accelerate permanent residence permits for Cuban people in the United States play an important role in the movement of people between the two countries, but adds that the main element that drives migration is the blockade that the United States has imposed on the island for decades. “It is the economic conditions that push the people of Cuba to migrate and an important factor in the worsening of those conditions is the deliberate policy of the United States to destroy the Cuban economy and make it unviable.” Fernández de Cossío also analyzes the 2024 US elections and the policy overlap between the Trump and Biden governments. Additionally, he explains Cuba’s stance regarding Israel’s US-backed war against Gaza and discusses recent protests within Cuba over living conditions, among other topics.
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