Cuba acknowledges secret meetings with US as Trump dials up threats

Source: msn/Washington Post

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Amid crippling U.S. sanctions, an oil blockade and threats of a takeover, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday said his government has held direct talks with the United States “aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between the two nations.”

The acknowledgment came in a publicly broadcast speech during a meeting in Havana of the top levels of the government and Cuban Communist Party. It confirmed widespread reports of recent secret meetings between senior Trump administration officials and Cubans close to Raúl Castro, the still-influential former president and party head.

“We want to avoid manipulation and speculation,” Díaz-Canel said in a news conference following his speech. The talks, he said, were still “in their first phase ... to establish an agenda” that high-level groups of officials on both sides would address. “We have to construct the space that lets us move forward,” he said.

Just hours before Díaz-Canel spoke, the government said it would release 51 prisoners, the latest in a gradual granting of pardons following mass arrests during 2021 anti-government protests. The names of the prisoners were not released, and it was unclear whether they were political detainees.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/cuba-acknowledges-secret-meetings-with-us-as-trump-dials-up-threats/ar-AA1YzxRG