Cuba warns against US belligerence in the Caribbean

Cuba has warned the world against increased militarisation via US belligerence in the Caribbean. The US has militarised the region in recent weeks. The Trump administration claims to be countering the Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Agua (TdA).

Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez appealed to the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday:

I call on the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council to fulfill their obligations and to exercise their prerogatives under the mandate of the Charter to preserve peace in our region.

The United States is today the main financial center and the primary center for money laundering of foreign assets that originate from transnational organized crime, fundamentally drug trafficking.

March to war

US journalist Ken Klippenstein has warned the Trump administration is framing drug cartels as terrorist organisations to justify war. He published leaked internal documents which showed how a rationale was being built for full-scale war.

The US has already drone-struck a boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing 11 people on 3 September. Venezuela has claimed that the boat had no drug traffickers on board.

Rodriguez said:

The interception and destruction of boats, the extrajudicial killing of civilians, the interception of fishing vessels… create a dangerous situation that threatens peace and security.

And he warned that:

What is new this year is an international context characterized by increasing unilateralism… and the strengthening of the U.S. aggressive policy against Cuba and against virtually every country on the planet.

The US claims that Venezuela is using drug trafficking to attack its citizens. But internal US documents claim Venezuela “probably does not” direct TdA in the United States.”

And UN and US reports do not generally classify Venezuela as a major drug-producing country on the level of Colombia. The country is a transit corridor for narcotics, but the main sea route lays in the eastern Pacific.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee