A Cuban Foreign Ministry official said the exchange with Washington was \u2018respectful and professional\u2019 and devoid of threats.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 21 Apr 2026<\/span>21 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Cuban government has confirmed that it held recent talks in Havana with officials from the United States, as tensions remain high between the two countries over Washington\u2019s energy blockade of the Caribbean country.<\/p>\n Alejandro Garcia del Toro, deputy director general in charge of US affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that the US delegation included assistant secretaries of state, and the Cuban delegation included representatives at the level of deputy foreign minister.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Garcia de Toro said that the US delegation did not issue any threats or deadlines as had been reported by some US media outlets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire exchange was conducted with respect and professionalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In comments reported by Cuba\u2019s Communist Party newspaper Granma, Garcia del Toro emphasised that ending the three-month-old US oil blockade was \u201ca top priority\u201d for the Cuban government in the talks, and accused Washington of \u201cblackmail\u201d for threatening countries that export oil to Cuba with tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis act of economic coercion is an unjustified punishment for the entire Cuban population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is also a form of global blackmail against sovereign states, which have every right to export fuel to Cuba, in accordance with the principles of free trade,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n US news outlet Axios reported on Friday that officials from US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration held multiple meetings in Havana on April 10, including with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of former President Raul Castro. The meetings marked the first time that American diplomats had flown into Cuba since 2016 in a new diplomatic push.<\/p>\n According to reports, US officials laid out several conditions for negotiations with Cuba to continue, including the release of prominent political prisoners, an end to political repression, and liberalising the island\u2019s ailing economy.<\/p>\n The Reuters news agency said that US proposals for Cuba also include allowing Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink internet terminals into the country and providing compensation for Americans and US corporations for assets confiscated by Cuba after the 1959 revolution. Washington is also concerned about the influence of foreign powers on the island, a US official told the news agency.<\/p>\n Trump has hinted at military intervention in Cuba and warned of tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. The fuel blockade has aggravated Cuba\u2019s economic and energy crisis, leading to warnings of a humanitarian disaster.<\/p>\n Cubans have also braced for a possible attack following Trump\u2019s repeated warnings that the country will be \u201cnext\u201d after his war on Iran and the US military\u2019s abduction of Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro in January.<\/p>\n Last week, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that his country was prepared to fight if the US carried through on its threats.<\/p>\n The leaders of Mexico, Spain and Brazil on Saturday voiced concern over the \u201cdramatic situation\u201d in Cuba and urged \u201csincere and respectful dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday there was no evident justification for the US to attack Cuba.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability to defend oneself does not mean the right to intervene militarily in other states when their political systems do not match what others might have in mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A Cuban Foreign Ministry official said the exchange with Washington was \u2018respectful and professional\u2019 and devoid of threats. Published On 21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026 The Cuban government has confirmed that it held recent talks in Havana with officials from the United States, as tensions remain high between the two countries over Washington\u2019s energy blockade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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