New Cuban ambassador to speak in Vancouver as part of first B.C. visit

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Cuba’s new ambassador to Canada is in British Columbia this week. Josefina Vidal is in Vancouver Saturday to talk about strengthening ties between our two countries. While Vidal has been in her role since last year, this marks her first visit to the province.

On Thursday, she was in Victoria, meeting with members of the legislature including the Minister of Jobs, Trades, and Technology. “[We discussed] possibilities of how to increase the presence of B.C. companies in Cuba because we are opening Cuba in a big way to foreign investment,” she explains. “We need that for the development of the Cuban economy and Canada is a very important market for Cuba in that regard.”

This openness comes at the same time that a chill has fallen over relations between Havana and the United States. “The Trump administration has decided to replace dialogue with confrontation,” she says. “This is frustrating.”

It’s likely frustrating to Vidal because she was one of the negotiators that helped achieve the diplomatic breakthrough between Cuba and the US in late 2014. “My hope is that in the future we can continue this process but, again, it will depend on the will of the United States government.”

She notes Canada has always been a friend, “Since the very beginning of the Cuban Revolution when the United States government at that time, Eisenhower and then Kennedy, started to put lots of pressure on the countries of the region to break relations with Cuba.”

She hopes that whoever wins the 2020 U.S. election will look back on the work her government did with the Obama administration as a way forward. However, regardless of what happens, Vidal says Cuba must diversify its economy and strengthen relationships with the friends it does have in the region, which is the purpose of this visit.

Ambassador Vidal speaks at the Vancouver Public Library on Saturday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is by donation.