As talks continue between the Trump administration and Cuban leaders, Sandro Castro, the controversial grandson of Fidel Castro, told a major American television news network that many Cubans on the island want to embrace capitalism and that the country’s hand-picked president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has done a bad job.
His statements to CNN’s Havana reporter, Patrick Oppmann, echoed the previous call by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for a change in leadership in Havana, and seemed to suggest that some people in the government would support striking a deal with the administration of President Donald Trump.
“There are many people in Cuba who think in a capitalist way. There are many people here who want to do capitalism freely,” Castro said. “I think most Cubans want to be capitalists, not communists.”
That is against the official line of the government, that communism is enshrined in the country’s constitution and has refused to open the country’s economy.
Castro’s comments contrast with a series of recent interviews by Cuban officials, including Diaz-Canel, in the US media and other international media, trying to convey a message to the Trump administration that Cuban leaders are united and do not want to discuss political change.
When asked about Diaz-Canel, who has vowed to resist American pressure, Castro said, “I can’t say he’s doing a good job, for me he’s not doing a good job because he should have done a lot of things a long time ago that he didn’t do well.”
