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Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, at the closing of the Second Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power, held in the Convention Palace, on December 22, 2023. Photo: X/@clashreport.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) condemned unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US State Department against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Revolutionary Armed Forces Minister Álvaro López, and Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez.
In a statement issued on July 11, ALBA-TCP declared, “These illegal and morally unsustainable sanctions—including immigration restrictions and persecution against families—reflect imperialism’s fear of Cuba’s resistance, dignity, and sovereignty.”
“Washington’s baseless pressure mechanisms expose its historical failure,” the statement added. “Obsessive hostility toward Cuba is an anachronistic policy punishing Cubans for choosing sovereignty.”
Criticizing the US maneuver, ALBA-TCP expressed its “firmest and unwavering solidarity with Cuba’s people, government, President Díaz-Canel, and the nation’s legacy of human-centered struggle.”
#Comunicado | ALBA condena sanciones del gobierno estadounidense contra autoridades cubanas
La Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) condena de forma categórica e inequívoca las infames sanciones impuestas este 11 de julio por el Departamento de Estado… pic.twitter.com/buc399hj6h
— ALBA (@ALBATCP) July 12, 2025
“When the empire attacks, it is because the people are advancing. When it sanctions, it is because it is afraid,” the statement emphasized, noting that the US government “is afraid of Cuba’s example of conviction and justice. Cuba is not alone; Our America stands with it.”
The State Department sanctions also target Díaz-Canel’s and officials’ immediate family members, banning US travel. Visa restrictions for other Cuban judicial and prison officials are under consideration.
Simultaneously, the White House updated its Restricted Properties and Prohibited Accommodations lists in Cuba, adding 11 government-linked properties including the Torre K hotel, aiming to block “US funds from reaching the island.”
Venezuela condemns ‘imperial arrogance’
Venezuela condemned US State Department’s targeting of Díaz-Canel, calling it a display of “hatred, morbid obsession and imperial arrogance.”
The Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement repudiated the sanctions as “financial piracy disguised as false morality,” and reiterated Venezuela’s “absolute support for Cuba’s people, government and president.” It accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of prolonging the Monroe Doctrine under a “new guise.”
Unofficial translation of Venezuelan statement is as follows:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns Marco Rubio’s infamous move to sanction Cuba’s legitimate president. Sanctioning a sovereign head of state violates international law and insults Latin America’s free peoples.
Rubio is a symbol resentment and failure. Blinded by hatred toward Cuba’s invincible dignity, he builds his career on destroying revolutions he can neither understand nor subdue. His sickly determination will fail, like all imperialist plots against Our America.
These coercive measures are financial piracy. While Cuba resists heroically, the US government bears direct responsibility for suffering caused by its criminal blockade–cowardly intensified by figures like Rubio.
Venezuela denounces the US secretary of state’s systematic aggression agenda to revive the Monroe Doctrine under a new guise.
Caracas, July 11, 2025
Díaz-Canel: Cuba’s independence “bothers the US”
President Díaz-Canel condemned the sanctions, stating: “What bothers the US is Cuba’s true independence. No transnational corporations rule here. We have free healthcare and education. We condemn crimes like US-Israeli atrocities against Palestinians without asking for anyone’s permission [to do so].”
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez added, “The US imposes immigration sanctions on revolutionary leaders and wages ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it cannot bend this people’s will.”
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SC
