AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York. Juan González is in Chicago.

As world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly here in New York, we turn now to look at Cuba, which is facing a growing humanitarian crisis amidst an escalating economic war waged by the Trump administration. On Friday, millions in Cuba lost power in what was at least the sixth major blackout since President Trump cut off fuel shipments to the island in January. The fuel blockade comes on top of the six-decade-long U.S. embargo. Residents of Havana say they have no water or electricity in their homes.

VALENTIN PARRA: [translated] It’s very bad for everyone, because everyone gets desperate in a house without water and without light. It’s a phenomenon that isn’t seen anywhere else in the world, only here. And when people don’t have water — look, I myself was without water for 15 days, without water or light for 15 days. The luck is that I could bathe over here and bathe on the other side. But tell me: What does someone do who doesn’t have that possibility?

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the CIA recently formed a new secret Cuba task force as part of a widening U.S. effort to pressure Cuba. According to the Times, the CIA is adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, as well as officers who conduct cyber operations and specialize in covert influence operations.

The U.S. has made many attempts to overthrow the Cuban government over the past 65 years, hundreds of attempts. In 1960, the CIA formed a Cuba task force that oversaw the failed Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17th, 1961. The Guardian recently reported allies of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have already begun vying for control of Cuba’s assets if the Cuban government falls under the U.S. pressure. The Wall Street Journal just published an article headlined “The Backroom Meetings in Miami Where Cuba’s Future Is Being Plotted.”

To talk about all of this, we’re joined by Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: It is an honor.

AMY GOODMAN: Thanks so much for being with us. I’m glad we’re within the 25-mile zone that you’re allowed to travel in in New York. Right? Twenty-five miles from Columbus Circle?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: Columbus Circle, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Number one, if you can talk about what is — as the foreign minister addresses the United Nations, what’s the Cuban government’s message to the Trump administration as it tightens the economic sanctions and embargo?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: We will be speaking to the international community at the U.N., not necessarily to the U.S. government, but the U.S. belongs to the international community. We live in a world which has become very dangerous, where expansionism, the ambition of domination, the attempts to take over the natural resources of developing countries has come back to the stage. The U.N. was created precisely for that not to happen, and has developed precisely for not that to happen, yet as reality today as a result of a foreign policy that is conceptualized as peace through force, which implies imposing the will of the U.S. through intimidation, aggression, coercion and so on. So, that’s one point that we need to talk.

We need to talk about the plight of the people of Cuba, because the aggression of the United States against Cuba today has a very serious human face. You spoke about the total blackout that occurred just this past week. That is an incident in Cuba. More serious than that is the daily life of Cubans, when you have two to three hours a day of electricity for many months already, an accumulation, and weeks without running water. It’s hugely uncomfortable and detrimental to the daily life of our community. And then we can speak about its impact on health, on education, and if we had time, I could expand on all of that. So it’s something we want to raise.

The U.N. has had a long-standing position on a topic that is titled the need to put an end to the economic blockade of the United States against Cuba. Yet it continues to be there, and it’s reinforced. Cuba is ready to engage with the United States on talks — we’ve proven; traditionally, we’ve done it — but to solve bilateral issues, not to discuss about a takeover of Cuba or the control of Cuba, as is being claimed in Washington frequently.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Deputy Foreign Minister, I wanted to ask you about this Times report about yet another CIA task force. Has the Cuban government identified cyberattacks in recent months or years likely from the United States?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: Yes, we have. And we have been used for decades for the CIA to have task force teams, mercenary armies, terrorist organizations, all kinds of schemes to try to overthrow the government of Cuba. So, we wouldn’t be surprised by the creation of the new task force that’s being talked about. But, yes, we’ve been subject of cyberattacks.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, the State Department accused the Cuban government of, quote, “waging a sustained campaign of subversion” against the United States, and it claims that Cuba is backing groups like the National Lawyers Guild, CodePink, Pastors for Peace. Your response to those claims?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: The report of the State Department, if you read it — I don’t know how many people have read it — seems like a fable. And it gives Cuba credit for things that it’s impossible for a nation of Cuba to carry it out, and it discredits the genuine movements for justice, the genuine movements for civil rights and the genuine movements even for freedom that have existed in the United States for decades. So, it’s an exaggeration to try to place Cuba in the absurd position of being a threat to the most powerful nation on Earth, and it’s also a way to blur a very clear and undisputable truth: that between Cuba and the United States, there is one country that is the aggressor, and one country, which is Cuba, that is under aggression. And that’s the aim of these slanderous reports and claims by the U.S. government.

AMY GOODMAN: So, according to the Times, the CIA is adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, as well as officers who conduct cyber operations and specialize in covert influence operations. The Guardian recently reported allies of Trump and Rubio have already begun vying for control of Cuba’s assets if the Cuban government falls under U.S. pressure. It sounds a little bit like what’s happened with Venezuela, and I was wondering if you can comment on that. We’re not that far from where the Venezuelan president and his wife, the first lady, are imprisoned.

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: Schemes like these have been — have occurred several times in the past 60-something years. They always end up in a fundraising, and sometimes end up in hoax. People want to earn money saying that they promise that they’re going to distribute land, that they’re going to provide this bank and that they’re going to distribute Cuba. That will not happen. That would imply taking over Cuba. And we will do all we can to stop any nation, the U.S. or any nation, from taking over Cuba.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And have there been any further negotiations between the governments of Cuba and the Trump administration on the sanctions or on the oil blockade?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: We cannot say that we’ve had negotiations with the U.S. We’ve had contacts, and we’ve had some meetings. But these do not progress. You cannot say that there is any progress or any advancement in these meetings if the U.S., on a weekly or biweekly basis, continues to impose sanctions and coercive measures against the people of Cuba, punishing the people of Cuba, and until the U.S. is capable of reaching a point in which it respects Cuba for what it is, a fully sovereign nation, and we can work together on bilateral issues that are of interest of our peoples, of our nations, and could be meaningful and could — in spite of the huge differences, could be meaningful and beneficial to both countries. But that respect — that requires a serious sit-down and really talk about, in a responsible manner, of issues of a bilateral nature.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the bombings the U.S. has proudly touted of ships in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, of boats, of vessels, saying that these are narcoterrorists, announcing they’ve killed well over 200 people? What is Cuba’s position on this? And have you talked to the United States?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: We have a clear public position: This is state-sponsored terrorism, assassination sponsored by the state. And even though none of these vessels are Cubans, or none of the individuals involved are Cubans, the U.S. claims that these are traffickers of drugs, without any evidence, without any hearing, without any charge. They just kill these people. It shouldn’t be the way law enforcement operates anywhere in the world. That’s why we call it state-sponsored terrorism.

But the most important claim in the case of Cuba is that they use the same tactics to harass some shipments that are heading to Cuba with fuel, for example. They don’t attack them, but they harass them, and this provokes fear. It provokes intimidation for totally legitimate commercial activity related to Cuba. And it is an extension of the economic and energy blockade that the U.S. has imposed on Cuba.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m also wondering — here, the U.N. General Assembly is starting this week, and I’m wondering your concerns, the Cuban government’s concerns, about what is happening in Latin America, as one right-wing government after another comes to power and welcomes the United States in the so-called war on terrorism that’s suddenly been shifted over to Latin America, as well. Your concerns about the impact on the region?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: We strongly reject the Monroe Doctrine. There’s a history of Cuban patriots opposing the Monroe Doctrine. And we’ve had — we have no problem with right-wing or left-wing governments being — taking power or being elected in Latin America, if they are the result of the will of the respected people. But the U.S. interference in different countries and different governments in Latin America, and trying to choose or influence who is the leader of those countries, we look at it with great concern. And we see it, with great concern, the ambition declared by U.S. politicians that the natural resources that are — that belong to the people of Latin America and the Caribbean are under the domain of the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you, finally, about U.N. experts comparing Cuba, calling it a “silent Gaza.” You have what’s — in August, U.N. human rights experts condemning the blockade on Cuba, urging the international community to avoid, I should say, a silent Gaza from unfolding. Infant mortality in Cuba has more than doubled. Your final comments, and also, speaking of Israel, the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran?

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: Well, first, I should say that we have a huge sympathy, solidarity with the people of Palestine. And the genocide that’s being committed against the people of Palestine, basically in Gaza, and the numbers are appalling. That’s why we try ourselves not to make comparison.

But the approach in the case of Cuba, in different dimensions, is similar: try to asphyxiate the people of Cuba into submission, to cater to the interest of a very narrow, influential group in the United States, not to the interest of U.S. citizens as a whole, not to the interest of the national security of the United States or the well-being of Americans, but of a narrow and influential group, mostly concentrated in southern Florida, even though not only there. And it’s trying to — again, to impose the will of the U.S. through asphyxiation and starvation.

Now, the child mortality rate, the fact that it’s almost more than doubled, from 4 to 9.4 or .5, implies that there are newborns that have died in the past two to three years that should not have died. In a robust public health system like the one that Cuba has, those children would have been saved. And this is — this is not collateral damage of U.S. foreign policy. It’s a deliberate damage and deliberate harm caused by design by the U.S. government. The secretary of state has said that he will shut any valve that the Cuban economy has to try to overcome the current situation, which implies shutting any valve of oxygen, to asphyxiate the people of Cuba.

We reject strongly the aggression by Israel and the United States against Iran. We reject aggression in general around the world. We are a country of peace, and we believe that peace and understanding among nations is the only future that the U.N. could look at if it wants to survive and have a sustainable world.

AMY GOODMAN: Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío, we thank you very much for being with us.

CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ DE COSSÍO: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Coming up, a new documentary on the revolutionary Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. The film is called Reading the World. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Grateful,” performed by Patti Smith in our Democracy Now! studio.