A Rare Interview with the Cuban General Dir. of U.S. Affairs

CARLOS FERNANDEZ DE COSSIO, U.S. DIVISION GENERAL-DIRECTOR, CUBAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Well, there’s a lot of misinformation. But I will tell you which is the situation today. As is natural, there have been detentions in Cuba, and there have been arrests and people have been prosecuted. You have the example of January 6 in the United States, where hundreds of people were detained. Hundreds of people have been arrested, and some are being prosecuted. The same thing is happening in Cuba. Now, there are many allegations as part of a very strong, very intense campaign of misinformation about people that have been disappeared, of people that have not been heard of. It is not true. Everybody who has been detained, their family know about it, their people who are close to them know about it. They have been — everything has been done according to the law. And you cannot listen to allegations that are aimed and planned to discredit Cuba with a deliberative purpose.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You talk about due process. You’re absolutely right. And we’re watching the reckoning of January 6, and there are hundreds of people who have been charged and many arrested. But they do have due process, in terms they have lawyers. There are all sorts of rule of law efforts in place there, not the case in Cuba, at least no lawyers, in some case, according to those who’ve actually been released to house arrest now, including a couple of journalists. What is the situation for people who have simply protested what by your own admission is a failing economy, desperate needs, the lack of food, the rising cases of COVID, the idea that they are not being cared for, they don’t have the right vaccines? Now, today, your country has announced a record number of daily COVID cases? Why are these people who simply shouted libertad or life and freedom on the streets being put in jail?

FERNANDEZ DE COSSIO: I’m surprised about what you’re saying. Everybody in Cuba that has been detained or arrested has been done with due process. Everybody has had access to a lawyer. Everything has been done according to judicial practice, which is in Cuba common to what happens in most countries around the world. So I’m surprised that you’re saying that this is not the case. Evidently, you are being misinformed, as a good part of the world is being misinformed. As I said, there’s a very intense campaign led by the U.S. government to misinform and to try to create a virtual reality that, though widely spread, it is not the real world. It is not reality. People in Cuba that have had shouted libertad or shouted whatever have not been detained for shouting that. The people that have been detained in Cuba have been detained because they either broke the law, they vandalized, they practiced aggression against people, against the police. Those are — they broke shops. They destroyed private and public property. Those are the people that have been detained in Cuba. And you would agree with me that that is natural. It happens in any country.