In an exclusive interview for Zeteo at the United Nations, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío tells Mehdi that US attacks on Venezuela are a “threat to the whole continent, the whole region,” and adds that if war were to break out, “Cuba will give its full political support” to its southern neighbor. Although when pressed about what that support looks like, de Cossío did not go as far as to say that Cuba would provide military support.
Experts are unsure of the role Cuba will play in a potential conflict, given that the country is under extreme economic pressure in addition to the US embargo, which de Cossío believes “damages Cuba in almost every sense of life.”
He explains that the US is “trying to cut Cuba off from the world economy,” and asks, “Which country can sustain its economy, develop itself, if the most powerful economy in the world has the capacity to threaten and to push other governments and other economies if they have links with Cuba?”
Mehdi and the deputy foreign minister go back and forth on Cuba’s human rights record, discussing whether its leaders are democratically elected, if the government truly supports a free press, and whether the island nation is hosting “terrorists” as claimed by the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, all eyes are on Gaza after Canada, Australia, France, and the UK became the latest countries to recognize a Palestinian state. De Cossío tells Mehdi, “It’s a genocide… It’s an issue of shame, we believe, for the international community and for the UN because of the incapacity of the UN to act.”
Paid subscribers can watch the full conversation above to also hear Mehdi press de Cossío on Cuba’s treatment of journalists, whether the government can continue to blame the US for its instability, and if Cuba’s elections are truly free and fair.
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