The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, assured this Thursday that he will not resign from his position during an interview with the NBC television network. «Resignation is not part of our vocabulary,» the Cuban leader responded when the NBC journalist questioned if he had considered resigning to «save his country.» «In Cuba, those who hold leadership positions are not elected by the U.S. government nor do they have a mandate from said government,» added Díaz-Canel during the interview, the first he has granted to an American network. «We have a free and sovereign state (...) we enjoy self-determination and independence, and we are not subject to the designs of the United States,» he concluded in his response. Díaz-Canel's statement comes amid an increase in pressure from the Donald Trump administration on his country in search of a regime change. Trump has referred to Cuba as a «failed nation» and since the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, he has blocked the oil shipments that Venezuela was sending to the island. The Cuban president showed annoyance when the interviewer asked if he considered resigning and retorted that he could ask the same question to Trump or if the questioning was an order from the Department of State. «We can negotiate but at the table without pressures or attempts at U.S. intervention,» added Díaz-Canel. Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured that Cuba's economic system is failed and suggested the possibility of a government change. This Thursday, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, visited Havana to announce a second shipment of oil from Moscow to the island in an attempt to break the blockade imposed by the Trump Administration.
