US Hopefully Avoids Intervening In Latin America After Afghan 'Failure' - Cuban Envoy

US Hopefully Avoids Intervening in Latin America After Afghan 'Failure' - Cuban Envoy

The United States will hopefully resist any temptation to use Latin America as a staging ground for a revanchist campaign following its problematic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Cuban Ambassador to Canada Josefina Vidal told Sputnik

OTTAWA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2021) The United States will hopefully resist any temptation to use Latin America as a staging ground for a revanchist campaign following its problematic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Cuban Ambassador to Canada Josefina Vidal told Sputnik.

In mid-August, the Taliban terror group (banned in Russia) completed their takeover of Afghanistan. Washington has taken the brunt of the criticism for a poorly planned and executed withdrawal.

"I see that the US doesn't learn those lessons, and that has happened to them after Vietnam after now in Afghanistan, there are many other examples. In the case of Cuba, they have always failed," Vidal said. "But there have been many interventions in Latin America, and they have failed. They failed in Central America. You know, I hope one day they will learn those lessons."

When asked about the possibility of the US intervening in Latin America or Cuba in light of the situation in Afghanistan, Vidal said, "I hope it doesn't." He also called the US mission in Afghanistan a "total failure" and evoked late Cuban leader Fidel Castro's prediction that the American invasion would end unsuccessfully.

The United States has waged short military campaigns to rehab their image following international shortcomings, most notably the invasion of Grenada in 1983 after successive hits to Washington's reputation abroad from the unsuccessful Vietnam War campaign and the Iran hostage crisis.

Vidal, the Cuban foreign ministry's former chief for US Affairs, noted she could not predict what Washington's next steps are but stressed that Cuba always stands ready to defend to defend itself.

Many Cuban-Americans, emigres and the descendants of those who left the Caribbean island for political reasons, have called on Washington to come down hard on Havana by imposing additional sanctions, while others have advocated for direct military intervention in hopes of triggering regime change.

When asked if those most actively seeking regime change in Cuba should be worried about triggering another humanitarian crisis at a time of multiple humanitarian disasters around the world, Vidal said, "they don't care, they just want revenge and they want to control [Cuba] once again."