Cuba Statement Rejects US Slander to Justify Blockade

Cuba rejected this Wednesday the US accusation of alleged responsibility for widespread demonstrations in several Latin American nations, describing the claim as an unbelievable excuse to justify and tighten the US blockade and hostility against the island.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) issued a statement assuring that such US slander proves useless to conceal the failures of capitalism, to protect repressive and tottering governments, to conceal parlamentary, judicial and police coups and brandish the spectre of socialism to intimidate nations.

The statement also stressed that the US is attempting to excuse the repression and criminalization of social protests witnessed recently in the region.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a threatening tone, accused Cuba and Venezuela of attempting to hijack democratic protests in Latin America.

Cuba responded by stressting that the US official distorts and manipulates reality, and withholds as a key cause of the region’s instability, the permanent interference of the US itself in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The statement explains that the legitimate protests and mass popular rallies in the continent, especially in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, are triggered by poverty, growing inequality in wealth distribution, and the certainty that neoliberal formulas only worsen the exclusionary and unsustainable situation of social vulnerability.

Among other causes, Cuba mentioned the absence or precariousness of basic services; unemployment and the restriction of labor rights; privatization; the shortage and suspension of public services; and the rise of citizen insecurity.

‘They (protests) reveal the crisis of political systems, the lack of true democracy, the discredit of traditional conservative parties, the protest against the typical historic corruption of military dictatorships and right-wing governments, the limited popular support for official authorities, the distrust of institutions and of the justice system,’ the text points out.

MINREX argues that in the countries concerned, the people also protest against brutal police repression, against impunity, against the use of anti-riot weapons, which have caused deaths and serious injuries, in addition to the assassinations of social leaders, demobilized guerrillas and journalists.

Likewise, Cuba assured that its only responsibility is that of the nation’s example to defend sovereignty, endure aggressions, and practice solidarity and cooperation with the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The document also reaffirmed Cuba’s commitment to the principles of sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of States, and the right of every nation to freely choose and create its political system in an environment of peace, stability and justice, without threats, attacks and unilateral coercive measures.

MINREX called, in that sense, to comply with the tenets of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

The Cuban government ratified that it will continue paving the way for the integration of Our America, including making all efforts to ensure that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), soon to be presided by Mexico, continues to advance the common interests of our nations by strengthening unity within diversity.