Cuba’s Ambassador to Botswana H.E Patricia Pego Guerres has exposed Washington’s designs to launch a military aggression on Havana using the all too familiar pretext of ‘humanitarian assistance’.

Here she tells The Pan Afrikanist what really transpired on that dreaded July 11^th, 2021.

The riots and vandal acts occurred in Cuba on July 11^th, 2021 by counterrevolutionary elements in response to the immense, brutal political and media operations orchestrated and financed by the US government and propagated via social media, replicated automatically to generate hundreds of thousands of tweets and a similar number of followers, with the intensive use of robots, algorithms and accounts newly created for the occasion; all with the support of the international media and the information transnationals.

They have incited to violence, to crime, to disorder, and to social indiscipline, while portraying to the world a totally, scandalously twisted view of our reality as part of unconventional warfare against our country aimed at changing the system freely and sovereignly chosen by our people as endorsed by the Constitution approved on 10^th April 2019, by 86, 85 percent of those who vote, in a democratic election with a high turnout.

The tranquillity of the citizens in Cuba, the right of all to live in peace, is today threatened. With absolute shamelessness, they have disseminated worldwide, manipulated images of the events in other countries to demonstrate, as instructed in their manuals, that Cuba lacks governability, that the nation is in chaos while creating an image of instability and alleging internal repression which does not exist in Cuba.

In the throes of the pandemic of such gravity of mankind which in Cuba, as the statistics show receives permanent, proper attention – the US government, not satisfied with having escalated the criminal genocidal blockade and financial persecution to perverse extremes and having applied 243 inhuman measures during the last four years in an attempt to stifle our people; now they are planning to prepare the ground for military aggression, with the familiar pretext of ´humanitarian intervention´, in violation of our laws, 0f international law and of the UN Charter.

As is apparent from the images that have been disseminated, there have been disturbances, and furious groups in certain localities have committed acts of vandalism, caused physical damage, made death threats, and committed serious assaults, disrupting with flagrant criminal acts the state of law and order that characterize our country.

As a result of over 60 years of blockade, we have accumulated problems that are aggravated by the pandemic, the huge expense it implies, and the economic crisis it generates.

The Cuban people, united, determined and enterprising, must seek solutions and – as always in the past – build on and implement socio-economic strategies, progress with creativity and rectify where necessary, while confronting with intelligence and daring the economic war waged against it, which constitutes the primary obstacle to development and the full exercise of human rights.

Do not be deceived: The Cuban people will advance with its party and government headed by President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, with the National Assembly of the people’s power and its Council of State which represents them, and with their civil institutions and organizations.

The social uprising so vigorously promoted and carved by Washington has not happened.

Our people are imbued with the value of peace, concord, respect, solidarity, love, and patriotism, not hate, and ready to defend their independence, sovereignty with boldness and courage, at any cost.

Our people are united by the commandment to defend the Revolution and not to get on our knees before an empire.

Once again we implore the governments, peoples, and civil societies worldwide to raise their voices and call:

• For an end to the genocidal blockade and application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act
• For removal of Cuba from the spurious and illegal List of Countries that Sponsors of Terrorism
• For an end to interventionist actions, to attempts to bring about a ‘soft coup’, to this massive campaign of lies to justify their crimes, which in the present case contributes to the propagation of the pandemic.
• For respect of the self-determination and sovereignty of the Cuban people
• For the US government to listen to the International Community which has repeatedly expressed its voice at the UN, the millions worldwide and the people of Cuba demanding the lifting of the economic, financial and commercial blockade against our country.

While Cuban government works hard and busy searching for solutions to the main problems afflicting its citizens, and makes an immense effort to overcome the difficulties and crisis generated by the pandemic of Covid, with the opportunistic reinforcement of the unilateral policies of blockade; while the Cuban people receive donations and messages of support, encouragement, friendship, and solidarity from all over the world, the US government promotes, just as an example, a Join Revolution among the Latin America and Caribbean Ministries of Foreign Affairs at the Organisation of American States.

These actions from the US government are carried out amid an international crisis due to Covid 19 and the tightening of the blockade against Cuba.

All the countries, governments, and people are struggling with this trouble pandemic. All the countries have domestic situations to solve and difficult daily challenges, but it is only Cuba, the one that deserves a ‘humanitarian interventions’, whose real intentions are very well known in accordance with the historical objectives of the US political and ideological system.

Cuba reiterates the importance to respect its rights to self-determination and sovereignty, as well as defending its achievements, as part of the society that we decided to build.