Landau denied Díaz-Canel’s words and denied the existence of a “blockade.”
MIAMI.- An exchange on the social network The altercation reflects the growing diplomatic tension on the eve of the annual debate in the UN General Assembly on the US embargo on Cuba.
This Wednesday Díaz-Canel accused Washington of “pressuring and deceiving” foreign governments to modify their vote in the resolution that, since 1992, has called for the end of the embargo in force for more than six decades.
“The US Government pressures and deceives several countries to change their traditional position against the Blockade of our people. They fear the rejection of the overwhelming majority of the international community to their genocidal policy and economic asphyxiation against Cuba”wrote the president on your official account.
The publication caused a tough replica of Landauwho denied Díaz-Canel’s words, directly accusing him of lying, and denied the existence of a “blockade.” Instead, he blamed the Cuban regime itself for the economic crisis that the island is going through.
“Not even you have to believe their increasingly blatant lies. There is no ‘blockade’ on your country; if so, how would all that Mexican oil and those German and Canadian tourists get there? The only ‘genocide’ there is the one you commit against your own people, subjecting them to hunger and misery due to your failed communist policies that did not work in the USSR or Cuba. (…) Why “Do they not allow their own people to vote?” responded the American diplomat in the same thread started by the Caribbean dictator.
Landau, lawyer and former United States ambassador to Mexico between 2019 and 2021, has held the position of Undersecretary of State since the beginning of 2025, and is considered one of the most critical officials of the Cuban regime within the current US government.
Complaints from the Cuban regime
The statements occurred in the context of a diplomatic offensive by the Cuban government, which accuses Washington of developing a “campaign of intimidating and deceptive pressure” on governments in Latin America and Europe to alter their traditional position in UN voting.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrillahe stated Wednesday at a press conference that has “credible information” and “irrefutable evidence” that the US State Department instructed its embassies to persuade several countries to abstain or vote against the resolution.
According to the chancellor, the documents show an “active strategy of diplomatic coercion” that would include warnings about possible sanctions and visa restrictions on governments that maintain their support for Cuba.
Rodríguez read fragments of two communications allegedly sent by Washington on October 8 and 17, which stated that “there is no blockade against Cuba” and urged governments to reject the resolution. “It ends with the most direct threat that I have seen in this brutal gunboat campaign,” said the chancellor, describing the texts as “mendacious and slanderous.”
The official also assured that the embargo constitutes “the main cause of the problems of our economy” and “the fundamental obstacle to the development of the country”, a position that contrasts with that of the State Department, which attributes the Cuban crisis to corruption and the internal policies of the regime.
The United Nations General Assembly plans to debate on October 28 and 29 the resolution titled “Need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
