By Chandni Shah and Dave Sherwood
July 6 (Reuters) - Cuba's Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro — the grandson of former Cuban leader Raul Castro — has said that he is open to negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump, according to an interview published by USA Today on Monday.
"I can negotiate with anyone designated by the U.S.," Rodriguez Castro told USA Today during interviews conducted over the course of two days in June in Havana. "If given the opportunity, (of course with) Trump."
The highly unusual
interview — Rodriguez Castro's first with a U.S. media outlet — and the offer to negotiate directly with Trump stand out because the 42-year-old holds no formal government office in Cuba.
Rodriguez Castro serves as one of his 95-year-old grandfather`s bodyguards and is known on the island as "El Cangrejo," or "The Crab," because he was born with six fingers on his right hand.
The interview comes just days after Cuba`s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told reporters that Havana was "not interested" in the Trump administration`s opinion on issues of sovereignty, including recent free market reforms announced by the communist-run government.
Rodriguez Castro also told USA Today that Cuba was willing, under the right conditions, to release "people deemed political prisoners."
In May, the United States announced murder charges against his grandfather Raul Castro. The U.S. has sanctioned several Castro family members, including Raul`s only son, Alejandro Castro Espin, but not Rodriguez Castro.
His grandfather`s indictment in the U.S. marked a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals and came as Trump is pushing for regime change in Cuba, where Castro's communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
Also in May, Cuba released the names of thousands of prisoners granted freedom in a decree issued the previous month as the government held negotiations with the U.S. on a range of disputes including political prisoners.
The April decree granted "full and definitive pardon" to an extensive list of prisoners, describing the move as a "humanitarian and sovereign gesture."
(Reporting by Chandni Shah and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Andrea Ricci )
