“The purported accusation against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, which the US government has just announced, only shows the arrogance and frustration that the unwavering resolve of the Cuban Revolution and the unity and moral strength of its leadership provoke in the representatives of the empire,” the head of state declared in a message on X.

He also stated that “this is a political action, without any legal basis, which only seeks to bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” “The United States is lying,” he asserted, adding that U.S. authorities are manipulating “the events surrounding the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue narco-terrorist aircraft in 1996.”

Diaz-Canel emphasized that “there is ample documentary evidence” to confirm that “we did not act recklessly nor violate international law, as U.S. military forces have been doing with their coldly calculated and openly publicized extrajudicial killings of civilian vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific.”

He stressed that “on February 24, 1996, Cuba acted in legitimate self-defense within its territorial waters, following repeated and dangerous violations of our airspace by notorious terrorists, about which the U.S. administration at the time was warned on more than a dozen occasions, but ignored the warnings and allowed the violations.”

“The ethical stature and humanist spirit of his work refute any slanderous accusations leveled against Army General Raul Castro,” he asserted, emphasizing that the Cuban revolutionary leader, “as a guerrilla leader and as a statesman, earned the love of his people, in addition to the respect and admiration of other leaders in the region and the world.”

“These values ​​are his best defense and a moral shield against the ridiculous attempt to diminish his heroic stature,” the Cuban president declared.

jdt/ro/raj