Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that U.S President Donald Trump had no intention of invading Cuba, following a high-profile meeting at the White House. The two presidents discussed the current regional security climate and the ongoing pressures on the island.
Trump and Lula’s engagement was reportedly two-hours long and was closed to the press.
“I heard him, assuming the translation was correct, and heard him say that he has no intention of invading Cuba; that is what the interpreter conveyed here,” said Lula at a press conference at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, DC, according to The Hill.
He revealed that Havana has expressed a willingness to engage in discussions, noting “Cuba wants to talk, and Cuba wants to find a solution to put an end to the blockade.”
The United States had imposed decades-long economic restrictions on the country, which Lula said “prevented Cuba from becoming a fully integrated, free nation ever since the victory of the 1959 revolution”.
Tension between Washington and Havana has heightened since Trump’s invasion of Venzuela, leading to the capture of its President Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration subsequently blocked the country’s oil exports to Cuba and put pressure on international governments to deny fuel to Havana’s communist government.
U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently in charge of negotiating an agreement with Cuban leaders, putting an emphasis on the “country’s economy and changing its communist leadership.”
Rubio also announced a new set of sanctions against the nation on Thursday as Washington maintains its accusation of state-sponsored terrorism. The sanctions are targeted towards GAESA, described by the Trump administration as “a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise”, along with its Executive Vice President Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera.
The Hill reported that the sanctions also affected MNSA, a joint venture between the Canadian mining company Sherritt and the state-owned La Compania General de Niquel.
Rubio accused MNSA of exploiting “Cuba’s natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people”.
Sherritt immediately confirmed suspension of its operations in the joint venture in response to the sanctions, according to The Hill.
