Mariela Castro Says the World Jokes about Trump, but in Cuba They’re Worried

BILBAO, Spain – Cuban lawmaker Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raul Castro, said that while the entire world jokes about US President Donald Trump, people in Cuba are worried about what his presidency could mean for the future of relations between the two countries.

“What we fear is a return to extremist positions and an aggressive policy toward Cuba. Trump is still a surprise, we haven’t the slightest idea where he’s going, nor can we take what he says in his speeches and interviews as a guide,” she said

Castro, who is also director of the National Sexual Education Center (Cenesex) of Cuba, took part in a series discussions and meetings in Spain’s Basque Country this week, organized by the Euskadi-Cuba association.

In an interview with EFE, she spoke of relations with the United States and the consequences of the US economic, financial and trade embargo on her country, and recalled that during the Barack Obama presidency one glimpsed “a certain light” that allowed diplomatic relations to be reestablished between the two countries.

“But that couldn’t go any further,” she said, “precisely because of the embargo, which is the prerogative of the US Congress.”

“Power pays big media and decides what they should say and how, and the media in turn transmit a distorted image of the leaders of the revolution…they present Cuba as a dictatorship, almost a monarchy with rights of succession, and in which freedom of speech does not exist,” she said.

About the social situation in Cuba, she said its citizens live “poorly and with scarcities” because hers is a country with limited resources and with “very few economic and commercial opportunities” thanks to the US embargo, which “also punishes third countries that would otherwise invest in the country.”