Cuba today rejected the current military deployment of the United States in the Caribbean, disguised as anti-drug operations, calling it a threat to peace, security, and stability in the region.

This was expressed by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez during his remarks at the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

He stated that such a deployment “constitutes an act of provocation that threatens to trigger a military conflict, which would compel the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and others to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The military actions of the United States Government constitute a grave threat to regional peace, security, and stability, and represent an aggressive show of force that undermines the sovereignty and self-determination of our America,” he emphasized.

Rodríguez described the move as a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and of international law, undermining the commitment of the 33 member states of CELAC, which proclaimed Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

He denounced as “an absurd and baseless pretext” the U.S. accusations seeking to link the legitimate government of Venezuela and its constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro Moros, to criminal drug trafficking organizations.

The Cuban foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s readiness to continue working with CELAC to foster progress in areas of regional interest with direct impacts on the development and well-being of the peoples of the region.

He stressed that CELAC must continue consolidating itself “as the unified voice that represents the interests of our countries, united in their diversity.”

He also urged members to “place the issues that unite us above our differences, setting aside intransigent positions, avoiding politicization and singling out.”

Rodríguez expressed gratitude for the group’s longstanding support of Cuba’s demand for the lifting of the United States’ illegal economic, commercial, and financial blockade, as well as for backing Cuba’s removal from the list of states allegedly sponsoring terrorism.

“We must prevent isolated and intransigent positions from endangering the achievement of regional consensus,” he warned.

He further noted that “the response to the problems that affect us—such as repressive, xenophobic, and racist policies against migration, drug trafficking, trade and tariff threats, and climate change—requires our joint and coordinated action.”

All of this, he emphasized, should be based “on dialogue, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, cooperation, solidarity, and respect for sovereignty.”

Regarding the upcoming Summit of the Americas, Rodríguez stated that “Cuba expects it to be a meeting without exclusions, without any exclusion.”

He stressed that Cuba would “appreciate respect for the right of all countries in the region to come together and engage in dialogue, as was achieved in 2015 after years of demands from the vast majority of nations in the region, and as was continued in the following Summit.”

“We call on CELAC to defend peace with justice, without foreign troops and without blockades,” Rodríguez concluded.

The Tenth Summit of the Americas will take place this December in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, under the central theme “Building a Secure, Sustainable, and Shared Prosperity in the Hemisphere.”