Cuba is ready to develop respectful relations with the United States, however it does not accept the "language of force and threats," First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro said
MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd January, 2019) Cuba is ready to develop respectful relations with the United States, however it does not accept the "language of force and threats," First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro said.
"We are not intimidated by the language of force and threats. The unity of the people is an indisputable reality. Today, we are a people defending [the Cuban] revolution. However, I reiterate our readiness for a civilized coexistence and respectful relations with the United States," Castro said in the city of Santiago de Cuba in a speech on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution , as broadcast by the Telesur tv channel.
He also called for release of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year prison term on corruption charges, and end to prosecution of ex-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is accused of misusing public funds.
Following the victory of the Cuban revolutionaries over US-backed regime in 1959, Washington severed diplomatic ties with Cuba and imposed a trade embargo on the country. In 2014, Washington and Havana expressed their intention to start working on normalizing bilateral relations. As a result, many restrictions on exchanges between the United States and Cuba were eased under then President Barack Obama.
In June 2017, US President Donald Trump reversed the policy of his predecessor and abandoned attempts to normalize relations with Havana. Since that, Trump set new limits for US citizens traveling to Cuba, and banned payments to a military-linked organization that controls the island's tourist industry.
