He links ongoing economic difficulties to Washington’s arbitrary sanctions.

On Wednesday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel criticized those who still dare to deny that the U.S. blockade has negatively contributed to the development prospects of the Cuban nation.

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“Now they cynically say there is no oil blockade against Cuba, that everything our people suffer is the fault of the Cuban government. They lie again and again without any shame, with alarming audacity, without presenting a single piece of evidence to support their claims.

The blame lies with those who order the closing of all access to material and financial resources. Or was the Jan. 29, 2026 executive order suspended? The one that penalizes with irrational tariffs any country that supplies fuel to Cuba?

How then can it be understood that the Treasury Department continues restricting fuel shipments to Cuba in its systematic updates?

Only highly twisted minds could deny before the world that collective punishment is being carried out against an entire people, which is already becoming an act of genocide. This empire has waged wars and exterminated peoples on the basis of lies.

Facts, not words, are the answers Cuba and the world are demanding. Remove the blockade and we will see how we perform,” the Cuban president leader stressed.

U.S. Accusations Against Raul Castro Are Part of Destabilization Strategy

Diaz-Canel’s statements on the consequences of the U.S. siege on Cuba come on a day in which the Washington launched a new offensive against the Cuban revolution and its historic leaders.

On May 20, the U.S. Department of Justice presented charges in federal court in Florida against former President Raul Castro, accusing him of allegedly ordering the downing of four aviators from the “Brothers to the Rescue” organization in 1996, when he was minister of the Cuban Armed Forces.

The legal action also includes other Cuban military officials allegedly involved in the incident: Emilio Palacio, Jose Gual, Raul Simanca, Luis Gonzalez-Pardo, and Lorenzo Perez-Perez.

The indictment comes amid President Donald Trump’s threats to “take control” of Cuba, which have been accompanied by sanctions against Cuban leadership and the military business conglomerate Gaesa.

In response to the charges against Castro, which come 30 years after the aerial incident, Diaz-Canel was emphatic in stating that they are clearly a political maneuver framed within a broader strategy of destabilization.

“The alleged accusation against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, which the U.S. government has just announced, only demonstrates the arrogance and frustration caused to representatives of the empire by the unbreakable firmness of the Cuban Revolution and the unity and moral strength of its leadership.

This is a political action with no legal basis whatsoever, aimed only at expanding the case file they are manufacturing to justify the recklessness of a military aggression against Cuba.

The United States lies and manipulates the events surrounding the downing of the aircraft of the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.

It knows very well, because documentary evidence is abundant, that no reckless action was taken and that international law was not violated, unlike what U.S. military forces have been doing through their coldly calculated and openly publicized extrajudicial executions involving civilian vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuba acted in legitimate self-defense within its territorial waters after repeated and dangerous violations of our airspace by well-known terrorists, about which the U.S. administration at the time had been alerted on more than a dozen occasions, but ignored the warnings and allowed the violations to continue.

The ethical stature and humanitarian spirit of his work dismantle any slander that may be raised against Army General Raul Castro. As a guerrilla leader and as a statesman, he earned the love of his people, in addition to the respect and admiration of other leaders across the region and the world. Those values are his best defense and a moral shield against the ridiculous attempt to diminish his stature as a hero,” Diaz-Canel posted on X.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: Minrex – X

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