Cuba Blasts OAS for 'Perverse' Efforts to Destabilize Venezuela

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blasted the Organization of American States Monday for promoting "capricious manipulation" and "dark compromises" in the region by attacking Venezuela and being complicit in Washington's interference in the region's integration.

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Speaking in Havana during a meeting of representatives of the leftist bloc the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, known as ALBA, Cuba's representative criticized OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro for promoting the "perverse, unworthy and crazed action" of applying the organization's Democratic Charter against Venezuela amidst an economic and political crisis. Rodriguez argued Almagro has been acting on behalf of "imperial interests, political mafias in Miami and vulgar mercenaries."

Referencing the "Declaration of Caracas" in support of Venezuela that will be discussed in Havana during the ALBA meeting, Rodriguez criticized the United States for applying "arbitrary sanctions" against the government of President Nicolas Maduro and warned of coordinated attempts to destabilize the country he dubbed a "bastion of anti-imperialism" in the region.

"The inexplicable executive order of the U.S. president who declares Venezuela an unusual and extraordinary threat to that country's national security must be repealed," said Rodriguez.

"Venezuela is the cradle of freedom for our America, the driving force behind regional integration and anti-imperialism."

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Cuba Sunday evening and was received at the Havana International Airport by Rodriguez and Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez.

According to organizers, the meeting of the ALBA political council will serve to reinforce the "regional unity and capacity for concerted action" as well as the "integration process" of the region.

ALBA was launched in Havana in 2004 with the goal of promoting social, political and economic integration in Latin America and the Caribbean as an alternative to the Washington-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas and a counterweight to U.S. imperialism in the region.

The bloc is made up of Cuba and Venezuela, promoters of the initiative, together with Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Granada.