Cuban president tells NBC he won’t resign under US pressure, as Russia backs old ally

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, accompanied by his wife, first lady Lis Cuesta Peraza, greets relatives of Cuban officers killed during a US operation in Venezuela in January. Photograph: Adalberto Roque/AP

The Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, said he would not resign under US pressure in his first television interview with an American broadcaster, while Russia insisted it would never abandon or betray its ally.

Diaz-Canel told NBC News on Thursday: “We have a free sovereign state, a free state. We have self-determination and independence, and we are not subjected to the designs of the United States.