Bogotá reaffirms support for Cuba as U.S. pressure and intervention threats intensify.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Sunday that surplus rice produced in Colombia will be purchased and urgently sent to Cuba to help counter the effects of the tightening U.S. blockade on the island.

RELATED: China Sends Rice Shipment to Cuba Amid U.S. Blockade

Petro made the announcement through his account on X, where he instructed members of his cabinet to expedite the implementation of the food assistance measure.

The Colombian president issued the statement while sharing a post from Chinese Ambassador to Cuba Hua Xin showing the unloading of 15,000 tons of rice donated by the Chinese government to Cuba.

Text Reads: If there are rice surpluses in Colombia, they should be bought and urgently taken to Cuba. I don’t want lazy and scared officials when it comes to feeding an entire nation.

In his message, Petro stressed that he would not tolerate “lazy or frightened officials” when “an entire people” needs to be fed, reaffirming his administration’s policy of international cooperation with the Caribbean nation.

Cuban Ambassador to Colombia Carlos de Céspedes thanked Petro through the same platform, expressing gratitude for Colombia’s solidarity during what he described as difficult times for the island. The diplomat also denounced efforts aimed at economically suffocating Cuba while it defends its sovereignty against the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade.

The initiative expands a series of bilateral cooperation measures announced in recent months. In April, Petro stated that Colombia was preparing an initial shipment of solar panels to Cuba. Earlier in May, he also rejected U.S. threats of intervention against the island, warning that any military aggression toward Cuba would constitute direct aggression against Latin America as a whole.

Petro has repeatedly defended Cuba’s scientific and cultural achievements. During a speech delivered weeks ago at the National University of Colombia, he described Cuba as the artistic and cultural vanguard of the region.

The Colombian president also referred to the Covid-19 pandemic, stating that Cuba was the only society in Latin America and the Caribbean capable of rapidly developing an effective vaccine against the virus. Petro argued at the time that a society with the scientific capacity to respond to a global emergency of that scale should be supported rather than threatened with invasion or bombardment.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also thanked Petro through X, stating that “so many voices cannot be wrong” and insisting that Cuba “will never be a threat.” Díaz-Canel expressed gratitude for what he called firm and unequivocal denunciations against a “collective punishment” that he said already qualifies as genocide.

Text Reads: So many voices cannot be wrong. #Cuba will never be a threat. Thank you very much for the solidarity and for the firm and unequivocal condemnation of the collective punishment to which our people are subjected, which already qualifies as genocide. The “maximum pressure” design that some preach in a sickening way from the US is part of the strategy to justify the false narrative of collapse and thus military intervention. Cuba is not alone.

The Cuban president further argued that the “maximum pressure” strategy promoted by sectors in the United States seeks to create a narrative of collapse that could later be used to justify military intervention, adding that Cuba “is not alone.”

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry also publicly thanked Petro for his solidarity and denounced attempts to suffocate a people defending their sovereignty.

IN THIS ARTICLE