Marco Rubio says "there are no escape valves" on U.S. pressure campaign against Cuba

Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed an international gathering of communist and workers’ parties in Havana on Saturday, defending recent economic reforms as socialist and blaming U.S. sanctions and fuel shortages for severe deterioration in health care, medicine availability, and electricity. Speaking days before the centennial of Fidel Castro’s birth, he brought up remarks U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made to Axios about Washington’s pressure campaign against Cuba. Díaz-Canel also noted a July U.N. General Assembly vote in which 136 countries supported another debate on the embargo. The exchange highlights confrontation between U.S. policy and Cuba’s deepening economic crisis as the government adjusts its economy while insisting it remains socialist.