Cuba says won’t accept U.S. threats or pressures

LIMA, April 15 — Cuba on Saturday slammed U.S. policy towards Latin America, calling it a return to a past of “domination and impositions,” adding that Havana won’t accept threats or pressure from Washington to modify its political system.
“Cuba won’t accept threats or pressures from the United States. It doesn’t want confrontation, but will not negotiate or cede one millimeter in its socialist principles,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in remarks at the ongoing eighth Summit of the Americas.
Rodriguez, who was leading the island country’s delegation to the meeting, highlighted that the thawing ties between Washington and Havana were maintained since 2015 until Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency and decided to roll back the detente.
“The U.S. economic blockade and the financial persecution continue, but at the same time Washington is further isolated when it comes to their policy towards Cuba,” he said.
According to the foreign minister, Cuba is currently in the presidential election process that will last until April 19, 2019 when Cubans decide a new president to succeed incumbent Raul Castro, younger brother and fellow revolutionary of Communist Cuba’s founder Fidel Castro.
In addition, Rodriguez said that the younger generations in Cuba are closely linked to the ruling Communist Party, and that they will “firmly” commemorate the Fidel-led revolutionary troops’ victory in defending the island against a U.S.-masterminded aggression in the early 1960s.
He was referring to the failed Playa Giron — literally Bay of Pigs — invasion of Cuba in April 1961 by U.S.-sponsored mercenaries comprised of mostly Cubans traveling in exile to the United States after Fidel Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
“Cubans, especially the younger generations, closely linked to the (Communist) Party, founded by (Jose) Marti and Fidel (Castro), together with Raul (Castro), will commemorate firm, secure and optimistic victory against the mercenary aggression in Playa Giron,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez warned of Washington’s aspiration to re-establish its “imperialist domination” in Latin America, imposing Cold War era policies and a return to the “Monroe Doctrine,” a 19th century strategy to control the region for political and economic purposes.
“Now the objective is to restore imperialist domination, destroy national sovereignties with unconventional interventions, overthrow popular governments, reverse social achievement and restore continental neo-liberalism in a continental scale,” he said.
The Cuban diplomat said Washington has returned to the “use of force” and the “imposition of unilateral coercive measures” in its policy towards the region.
“We will only advance through integration and unity within the diversity that led to the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Recent events show that the Organization of American States (OAS) and especially its secretary general are mere instruments of the United States,” he said.
The official also expressed the island country’s solidarity with Venezuela, saying the exclusion of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from the summit was a “historic setback” imposed by the United States.
The diplomat also condemned Saturday’s missile strikes on Syrian government facilities by the United States, Britain and France.
Suspended for decades by the OAS, Cuba only returned to the Summit of the Americas in 2015 when the seventh version of the gathering was held in Panama.

Xinhua