Brazil urges respect for international law, negotiation amid US threats against Cuba
Sao Paulo: Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira expressed his country’s rejection of US threats against Cuba, and called for resolving differences through diplomacy and respect for international law.
Regarding possible US military intervention in Cuba, Vieira on Monday said he hopes it would not come to that, and the better option is “negotiation and dialogue,” Xinhua news agency reported.
He noted that the country rejects any type of foreign threat against the Caribbean island, preferring that differences be resolved through diplomacy.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged respect for Cuban sovereignty during his recent visit to Washington, the minister said. “The president referred to Cuba, saying that it is a society that deserves to be respected … We want balance in the region and for all differences to be resolved through negotiation and diplomacy,” said Vieira.
Latin America must be preserved as a zone of dialogue and cooperation to avoid any escalation in geopolitical tensions, he stressed.
Earlier, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has accused the United States of using “empty rhetoric” to label the island country as a “sponsor of terrorism” without evidence, saying Washington is promoting a narrative in the media to justify military aggression.
On Friday, Diaz-Canel claims that Cuba represents a threat to the United States “can only exist in the sick minds” of some officials in the current US administration.
He said those officials have hijacked Washington’s Cuba policy and are lying to the American people and the world to justify “a new irrational war with a high potential cost in human lives for both countries.”
Diaz-Canel said Cuba has sought to live in peace since the triumph of its Revolution, while successive US administrations have threatened that right “time and again.”
“Now they do so at extreme levels, combining absurd lies with military intimidation and deprivation of the Cuban people of the most basic resources and services for their daily survival,” said the president.