KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The Cuban Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment and, by ex­ten­sion, Cari­com, to raise their voic­es against what he de­scribes as im­mi­nent threats of mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion from the Unit­ed States.

At a hu­man­i­tar­i­an aid do­na­tion cer­e­mo­ny held at the Cuban Em­bassy in Bayshore yes­ter­day, Am­bas­sador Gus­ta­vo Daniel Veliz Oli­vares made a di­rect plea for diplo­mat­ic in­ter­ven­tion, stat­ing that Cu­ba faces a dan­ger­ous mul­ti­di­men­sion­al ag­gres­sion that in­cludes tight­en­ing eco­nom­ic sanc­tions, en­er­gy block­ages and the threat of mil­i­tary ac­tion.

The Am­bas­sador said, “Cu­ba is fac­ing threats of mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion, and I take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to de­nounce this deeply con­cern­ing and dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion. Noth­ing can jus­ti­fy an act of ag­gres­sion against a sov­er­eign na­tion. I call up­on all peace-lov­ing coun­tries, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, to raise their voic­es in de­fense of peace and to help pre­vent any es­ca­la­tion.

“Ag­gres­sions against our na­tion threat­en the peace and sta­bil­i­ty of our na­tion. To­day, we call once again for di­a­logue, re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty, and the prin­ci­ple of peace and in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion. Let Cu­ba live! Pa­tria o muerte, vencer­e­mos!”

The Am­bas­sador firm­ly re­ject­ed claims that Cu­ba is plan­ning any hos­tile ac­tions against US ter­ri­to­ry, call­ing the al­le­ga­tions false and em­pha­sis­ing that there is no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for threats made un­der the Don­ald Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“The Cuban peo­ple will de­fend their sov­er­eign­ty, in­de­pen­dence and dig­ni­ty. Sur­ren­der is not an op­tion for the Cuban peo­ple,” he said.

“Let me be clear. Cu­ba is not pre­pared to un­der­take hos­tile ac­tions against the ter­ri­to­ry of the Unit­ed States or any oth­er na­tion. This is false. This is a lie. Cu­ba pre­pares on­ly to de­fend it­self and to safe­guard its sov­er­eign­ty.”

The Am­bas­sador em­pha­sised that Cu­ba re­mains firm­ly com­mit­ted to pre­serv­ing Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean as a zone of peace.