Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz has moved to project unity within the country’s leadership, insisting there were no internal divisions in Havana days after Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, told USA Today he was open to negotiating directly with US President Donald Trump, an admission that has set off an unusual public rift within Cuba’s Communist establishment.
“Conversations have been held with representatives of the U.S. government aimed at seeking solutions, through dialogue, to bilateral differences,” Marrero wrote on social media, seeking to reframe the controversy as a coordinated government effort rather than a sign of factional infighting.
He added that every step taken by Cuban authorities was intended to defend “the Revolution and our sovereignty,” while warning against what he described as deliberate attempts to sow division and distrust among Cubans.
Rodríguez Castro, known across Cuba as “El Cangrejo,” or The Crab, holds no formal government or Communist Party post, yet has emerged as the central, if unofficial, figure representing Havana’s outreach to Washington.
“I can negotiate with anyone designated by the US,” the 42-year-old told USA Today during interviews conducted over two days in June in Havana. Asked whether that extended to Trump personally, he said it would, “if given the opportunity.”
A Party Split Over an Unlikely Emissary
The USA Today interview, published Monday, has exposed rare public friction inside Cuba’s ruling establishment over how the country should engage with an American administration that has taken an unusually hard line toward Havana.
Elier Ramírez Cañedo, deputy head of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Ideological Department, moved swiftly to defend Rodríguez Castro’s role, confirming in a social media post that he was participating in the negotiations under instructions from the country’s “highest leadership,” a phrase widely understood in Cuba to refer to Raúl Castro himself, despite his lack of any current formal title.
The endorsement followed a wave of criticism directed at Rodríguez Castro from within the Cuban political establishment itself, some of it striking a notably personal tone.
Former Culture Minister Abel Prieto publicly praised Ramírez’s defence of Rodríguez Castro on Facebook, framing unity as essential to avoiding what he called “our enemies’ traps.” Others were far less forgiving. One widely shared critical comment described the interview as “a total disrespect toward the Cuban people,” arguing that a supposedly secret negotiator ought not to have discussed sensitive diplomacy so openly with American media.
Michael Bustamante, a history professor at the University of Miami who studies Cuban politics, told USA Today that the episode reflects genuine confusion within Cuba’s political establishment over Rodríguez Castro’s newly prominent role, even as his position as Havana’s key interlocutor with Washington has become undeniable.
Groomed for Power, Untouched by Sanctions
Rodríguez Castro’s path to this moment traces back to his childhood. The eldest grandson of Raúl Castro, he is the son of the late Gen. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, who once ran GAESA, the opaque military conglomerate that controls large portions of Cuba’s economy. He grew up in the same building as his grandparents and moved in with them at eighteen, spending his formative years surrounded by senior military and intelligence officials.
María José Espinosa, executive director of the Washington-based Centre for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas, described Rodríguez Castro’s significance in stark terms, saying he effectively serves as his grandfather’s stand-in and wields considerable influence while Raúl Castro remains alive. USA Today noted that Rodríguez Castro is notably the only member of Cuba’s ruling family not currently under US sanctions, a detail that Ricardo Herrero, executive director of the nonpartisan Cuba Study Group, said reflects a deliberate choice by the Trump administration.
According to Herrero, American officials chose to engage with Rodríguez Castro rather than Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl Castro’s son, who had led an earlier round of negotiations with the Obama administration that Trump has since largely unwound, a decision intended to ensure any new agreement would not be seen as a simple continuation of that earlier opening.
“This administration has helped create Raulito,” Herrero said, adding that Rodríguez Castro had managed to build consensus among competing factions inside the Cuban state in favour of opening the country’s market.
A Fraught Backdrop: Indictments, Sanctions and a Struggling Economy
The diplomatic opening comes against an unusually tense backdrop in U.S.-Cuba relations. In May, American prosecutors announced murder charges against Raúl Castro himself, a move that marked a new low point between the longtime Cold War adversaries as the Trump administration has pushed openly for regime change on the island. The indictment has not derailed the quiet contacts described by both Marrero and Rodríguez Castro, though it underscores the delicate and высоко personal nature of the negotiations now underway.
The talks have also unfolded alongside a sharp public clash between the two governments at the United Nations this week, where Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused Washington of imposing “collective punishment” on the island through sanctions and fuel restrictions tied to the decades-old U.S. embargo. U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz rejected the accusation, telling the General Assembly that Cuba’s economic crisis stemmed from the government’s own policies rather than American sanctions.
An Uneasy Bet on a Man Without a Title
Whether Rodríguez Castro can ultimately deliver the kind of agreement his American interlocutors are seeking remains uncertain, not least because of the very ambiguity that has fueled this week’s controversy: a negotiator operating with the tacit blessing of Cuba’s highest leadership, yet without any formal position that would make his authority to strike a deal legally or politically binding.
For now, Marrero’s public defence of the negotiating team, paired with the Communist Party’s own endorsement of Rodríguez Castro’s role, suggests Havana intends to press forward with the channel despite the discomfort it has caused within parts of the country’s political establishment. Whether that arrangement can produce a durable opening with Washington, or simply exposes deeper fractures within Cuba’s ageing revolutionary leadership as it navigates life after Raúl Castro, is likely to become clearer as the quiet talks between the two governments continue.
