The diplomat, head of the US mission in Cuba, is completing one year of service on the Island.
MIAMI, United States. – The head of the United States diplomatic mission in Cuba, Mike Hammer, completed one year stationed in Havana and marked it with a video message in which he thanked the “ordinary Cubans” for their support, denounced the daily difficulties that he has seen in his tours of the Island and confirmed that the current US Administration will continue to press for respect for human rights, the release of political prisoners and the right of Cubans to elect their leaders.
Hammer’s first year in Cuba after an escalation of disagreements with the regime, which accuses him of “interference and unfriendly conduct” and gave him a verbal note of protest for allegedly violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
In his message, disseminated by the United States Embassy in Cuba on social networks under the hashtag #ConCubanosDeAPie, Hammer stressed that in these 12 months he has traveled a large part of the country. “Now I have been in Cuba for a year and I have visited almost all the provinces,” he stated. “What has impressed me the most is the love and friendship of the Cuban people towards the United States, because there they see the freedom and economic opportunity that they want to have here in their country,” he added.
The diplomat took the opportunity to directly thank the hospitality received in Cuban neighborhoods and homes: “I want to thank the many ordinary Cubans who have approached me and invited me to enter their homes to share their concerns, their family stories, their wishes for a better future for all,” he said in the video.
Furthermore, he added that these visits have allowed him to see first-hand the precariousness of daily life: “I tell you that I was very shocked when they invited me to have that coffee, the difficulty and challenge that ordinary Cubans experience every day.”
According to him, Washington shares the aspiration for change of a large part of the Cuban population. “And on the part of the United States we do not want [otra cosa] more so that you can enjoy that freedom, that economic opportunity that we have in our country,” he stated.
At the same time, he insisted that from the outside the internal deterioration is not fully understood: “From abroad you cannot appreciate the true suffering of the Cuban people. You have to tour the Island, you have to talk to the people, ordinary Cubans, to appreciate how difficult the circumstances are.”
Hammer presented himself as a representative willing to listen to criticism, as long as it is expressed in a respectful tone. “As in our democracy in the United States, I am willing to listen to criticism and ideas of how we can do things better, as long as it is in a respectful way,” he commented.
Already in the political field, he directly linked his work to Washington’s strategy towards Havana: “Know that the Trump Administration, under the leadership of our Secretary of State Marco Rubio“We are going to be closely following how we can advance on these human rights issues, how we can free all those political prisoners, how we can reach a situation in which the Cuban people have the opportunity to choose their own leadership.”
The head of the diplomatic mission closed his message with an optimistic tone about the future of the Island: “I am going to continue touring the country and I remain optimistic that the day is approaching when the Cuban people will be able to choose their future and in which Cuba will be the pearl of the Caribbean that it should already be,” he stated.
As he has done in numerous publications, he invited citizens to approach him on his tours: “See you in the streets, let’s have a coffee, tell me about your experiences and know that the United States is always with you.”
Hammer arrived in Havana in mid-November 2024 as Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Cuba. The diplomat has more than three decades of career and previous experience as ambassador in Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in addition to other high-level positions in the State Department and the White House.
Since then, the diplomatic headquarters has documented on its networks an intense agenda of trips to almost all the provinces, visits to vulnerable communities and meetings with believers, private entrepreneurs, artists and families affected by the crisis and by phenomena such as Hurricane Melissa.
