President Miguel Diaz-Canel received this Wednesday in Havana US Senator Ron Wyden, with whom he discussed the current state of relations between the two countries.
According to what was reported by the Cuban president himself on Twitter, Díaz-Canel confirmed to the Democratic senator “the will to work together to improve bilateral relations for the benefit of our peoples.”
In addition, he assured that he had explained to Wyden “the impact that the extreme measures of the US government have had on the Cuban population.”
I received the US senator @RonWyden, to whom I ratified the will to work together to improve bilateral relations for the benefit of our peoples. I explained to him the impact that the extreme measures of the US government have had on the Cuban population. pic.twitter.com/S3QytJIkoE
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) December 28, 2022
In 2021, Wyden, who is a senator for the state of Oregon, presented legislation along with other Democratic congressmen to end the US blockade/embargo of Cuba, which he considered “a failure,” as reported the digital site cubadebate.
The newspaper itself recalls that in February of that year the senator, along with other colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the State Department Antony Blinken and the Joe Biden government in which they asked them to “put an end to failed and counterproductive policies” of the Trump administration against the island.
In that letter, the official outlet adds, Wyden “asked to reverse the coercive measures, remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and engage diplomatically with Cuba.”
Ron Wyden’s meeting with Díaz-Canel occurred shortly after the trip to Cuba by US congressmen James McGovern, Mark Pocan and Troy Anthony Carter. During their visit, Democratic lawmakers also They met with the island’s president, as well as parliamentarians and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
Díaz-Canel receives a delegation from the US Congress: “shared desire to improve relations”
Previously, at the end of November, a bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress made up of three members of its agricultural committee had met in Havana with the Cuban Vice President, Salvador Valdés, and also with Cuban representatives and producers.
These meetings have taken place after the recent defeat of the Democrats in the legislative elections, in which they were unable to maintain control of the House —which will be under Republican rule as of January— although they did retain that of the Senate.
In addition, they take place in a context in which the Biden Administration, even though it maintains the bulk of the sanctions against the island, has announced the elimination of some restrictions established during the term of Donald Trump, and meetings have been held between officials of both governments.
