It was a warm conversation full of arguments, in the intimate sobriety of a room in the Palace of the Revolution, where Fidel and Raúl walked so many times. Patricia Villegas brought her backpack full of questions for the Cuban President; the closest and also the questioning. From Cuba to the United States and Latin America, from the President to the human being, the first interview that Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez granted to a media outlet since he assumed the maximum responsibility of the state and government in our

country.

Openness, sense of collective work, enormous commitment to the people, dimension of the complexities that are faced  and the strengths that we have, responsibility to sustain the revolutionary continuity, was the impression left by Diaz-Canel during the almost hour and a half of fluid dialogue with the President of the multinational TeleSur chain.

The greatest commitment is with the people

Patricia Villegas opened fire inquiring about how the President felt these first four months of Government.

Díaz-Canel summed up the intensity of all those days directly: "They have been months of great experience"

He said that after April 19 they began to reflect on the direction of the Government, in the Council of Ministers, on the guidelines of Raúl's cardinal speech that day in the National Assembly of Popular Power, with the aim of translating them into elements that would reinforce the vocation and condition of a Government of the people and for the people, which is the same as being the Government of the Revolution.

He enumerated the four pillars that were defined for the exercise of government, together with the exemplary nature of the leaders: That they be able and accountable to our people; that they maintain a relation, debate and permanent dialogue with the population and go to the places of more complexity; that they be able to use social communication; that they know the complexity of the problems that we face and look for several alternative solutions, with the help of scientific research.

In answering another question about the implemented style of visits to provinces, he said that the purpose is to arrive at least twice a year to each territory accompanied by the Council of Ministers to be closer to the town. To this is added that the National Assembly and its work commissions also visit the provinces, which allows having a vision of the whole country.

He said that an honest, transparent dialogue with the people is essential, to find solutions to the problems and to explain those that now have no complete solution. He said that he is talking to his colleagues about problems that we do not have immediate solution for, but we can tear them apart and the problem does not move forward. A synergy of solutions is created. "There are also problems that can be solved immediately, but there is some bureaucratic decision that prevents it"

He noted that one of the objectives they have focused on is to strengthen the relationship between the central government and territorial and local governments. To this end, the First Vice President has been given powers, who have a structure to interact with the governments of provinces and municipalities and address the problems that fall within the framework of what the territories can achieve.

"I think it is very important to create according to the localities, to the territories. That is why the autonomy that we want to give to the municipalities in the new Constitution has much weight, "he said.


Generate contents in front of neo-colonizing platforms


On the field of communication, which he insisted on as a government priority, the Cuban President remarked that we are now in the middle of implementing the Social Communication Policy, which is not only in the media, but is about prolonging a communicational culture, which must also establish the foundations of electronic government. This should be an instrument, he said, to contact the population, to use it in making decisions.

Questioned about dissatisfaction with the Cuban press, Díaz-Canel said that under the conditions in which the Cuban press has had to make the communication, they have known how to defend the Revolution with professionalism and efficiency, but we have also faced apology and non-reflection of some subjects. We have to match the public agenda with the media agenda, he emphasized.

The Cuban President alluded to the need to generate exalting contents in a world where neocolonizing, demobilizing platforms prevail. He insisted on the importance of the use of social networks and the creation of communication spaces to spread our ideas. "It's a necessity of the Revolution."

He revealed that in the mornings the first thing he does is read Cubadebate and the opinions of the population, as well as other means.
The main obstacle to our development

In his assessment of the challenges we face, Díaz-Canel was emphatic in defining that the main obstacle to the development of the country is the blockade of the United States government, which he described as a brutal practice, which seeks to condemn our people to die of needs, and violates the territorial and imposes norms on the relationship of the world with Cuba.

He pointed out that his generation, that of our children and grandchildren were born and raised under the Blockade and highlighted the heroic resistance of a people that has overcome this obstacle.

On this hostile policy of the United States against Cuba for more than half a century, he explained that it has intensified significantly with the current administration, so today the flow of investment from the world to Cuba is subject to greater pressure.

In response to the question whether the blockade or the internal knots that have to be unleashed has a greater impact, the president pointed out that not a few subjective obstacles are linked to a defensive attitude towards the blockade, which slows down decisions due to concerns about whether something weakens the country or if it favors the enemy strategy.

"We are not a threat to anyone, what we want is to build a better country, a better world, what we have is a high vocation to have greater social justice, which we want to accompany with prosperity; and the main threat to achieve it remains that brutal blockade, "he said.

In another moment of the interview he said that everything would be more favorable without the blockade, but we are prepared to do things in the worst scenario.
The Constitution will be strengthened with popular debate

Before several questions of Patricia Villegas on the new project of Constitution and its popular debate, Miguel Díaz-Canel emphasized elements that are among the most analyzed or controversial from the perspective of our people or from the outside.

He described the constitutional project as "a responsible, objective, realistic view" of our current society and said that it responds to the economic and social changes that we have experienced from the agreements of the VI and VII Congresses of the PCC, such as the new forms of property and non-state management, the steps in the autonomy of the municipalities, and others.

He pointed out that the lifting of the blockade does not depend on us and, therefore, we should not subordinate our efforts of social justice, prosperity, progress, to the action of any foreign government. "We depend on our efforts, determination, will".
He opined that the population recognizes the value of the constitutional text presented and recalled that all three editions of tabloids put on sale have been exhausted. He noted that he has participated in 6 debate assemblies and has seen people participating, with his tabloids full of "scribbles." "The constitutional text is going to be strengthened by this popular debate."

He made the anecdote of a debate in which he participated and a worker proposed a change to a paragraph of the project. He intervened to make him notice that in another article his proposal was contemplated, after which the worker replied: "I agree with what the President said and I want to withdraw my proposal. And I said: no, leave it, that a doubt can alert us. The next day in Cubadebate there was a comment from a lady that praised that exercise of democracy. "
We do not renounce communism

Asked about the absence of the term communism in the Constitution proposal, Díaz-Canel responds that "If one goes to classical Marxism, the mode of production to which we aspire is communism. Therefore, communism and socialism are intimately related. If you want to build socialism, it is because you want to reach communism "

"I do not understand it as a resignation. I understand that any of the two terms (communism and socialism) implies the other. “But, he explains, we look for a Constitution that is objectively closer to what is possible, and which is still a socialist Constitution. We believe that today we are closer to the construction of Socialism, which is what we are talking about. To achieve communism we do not depend solely on our country, it depends on the construction of its bases at an international level.

He ironized with the fact that those who are most concerned with the communist term in the Constitution are the same ones who from the outside have permanently questioned the Cuban Revolution for its projection.


The Party of Unity


On the existence of a single Party, he said that "the issue of the leading role of the Party, which we do not renounce and which is supported by the majority of the people, responds to historical conditions." He pointed out that the Communist Party, under the conditions of Cuba, does not submit to elections.
He recalled that José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which is the basis of what is now the Communist Party of Cuba, to develop the Revolution; a Party that was totally open and democratic enough to include the interests of the majority and achieve unity without giving rise to ruptures.

"When we have had divisions, when unity has been broken in our history, we have suffered setbacks," he remarked, revealing examples of the failures suffered in our liberation wars due to the division of revolutionary forces.

He recalled that the Cuban Revolution triumphed with the participation of different forces and that Fidel later achieved convergence in the unity and founding of the Communist Party. "That's why the PCC is a people's party to achieve unity."

Díaz-Canel affirmed that for the enemy the main bet is to fragment our unity; towards there they direct their subversive plans, fundamentally towards youth.
I defend that there is no discrimination

Urged by the journalist and president of Telesur, the Cuban leader addressed two of the issues that have generated the most interventions in the debates.

On the issue of limits to private property and wealth, the President replied that "it goes without saying that I agree with everything that is proposed in the Project, but I think it is a legitimate concern that people worry about those two themes. In this scenario where salary-price relationships are noticed, where there are people who receive certain income not related precisely to work, which for us is something exalting ... it is legitimate that they worry ... But people are not asking us to remove the article, but to emphasize that there is no concentration of property and we add that neither of wealth. "
"We will have to make an extensive legislative exercise now. Here we are understanding what it is that people are proposing and how to include it in the Constitution, which is a document of the minimum. The contribution of the youth sector is still lacking, which is very important, but undoubtedly I think it is a subject in which we must stop not because there is dissent but because the consensus is telling us that we should point out how the accumulation of wealth is going to stop "

On the new conception of marriage that recognizes the draft Constitution, the President recalled that "the country has been changing and we are not alien to these realities. There is an emancipatory will of the Revolution, a humanistic vocation. We have transformed thought; many taboos that were once very established things have been broken. Youth has pushed a lot in this; they also understand it that way. You have your opinions, but you are also open to the opinions of the population. The history of the Revolution has shown us that every time we take things to the popular debate it strengthens us ".
He acknowledged that there are some contrary opinions that respond to cultural traditions, conceptions, concerns about issues such as adoption, responsibility with children. But he defended his support for the proposal based on the concept of eliminating any type of discrimination in our society. "Let's not give way to any kind of discrimination," he said.

He also called for acting with civic responsibility when voting on the constitutional text; do not close yourself because your proposal does not appear collected, because it is about the construction of a consensus. "We must remember what is most important for the country and the role of responsible citizens we have."

He was confident that the majority will vote favorably and disdained the efforts of the counterrevolution to call for the rejection of the Constitution. "What they want does not respond to the desire to improve the country. This counterrevolution is paid and financed by the United States Government, sometimes in a more covert or uncovered way. They do not have popular support. "