Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, stated today that United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio is once again attempting to blame the island’s government for the harm caused by the U.S. administration to the Cuban people.

“The Secretary of State repeats his mendacious script and tries to blame the Cuban government for the ruthless damage that the U.S. government inflicts on the Cuban people. He is the spokesman for corrupt and revanchist interests, concentrated in South Florida, who do not represent the sentiments of the majority of the American people, nor of the Cubans living there,” the foreign minister wrote on X.

“He keeps talking about $100 million in aid that Cuba has not rejected, but whose cynicism is evident to anyone given the devastating effect of the economic blockade and the energy siege,” he continued.

Bruno Rodríguez asserted that the Secretary of State is taking advantage of the nefarious date of May 20, which inaugurated a neocolonial period for Cuba as a dependent appendage of the United States—a situation to which the top U.S. diplomat wants Cuba to return.

“Neocolonial Cuba and the Platt Amendment are the past. The present and the future are independence and sovereignty,” he affirmed.

Marco Rubio stated on Wednesday that May 20, 1902, represents Cuba’s independence, highlighting that on that day the Cuban flag flew for the first time over a sovereign country, but without recognizing that the Caribbean nation ceased to be a colony of Spain only to become a neocolony of the United States.

“On a day like today in 1902, the Cuban flag flew for the first time over an independent country,” the head of U.S. diplomacy claimed on X, distorting history.

He also noted that the current situation on the island is critical, mentioning prolonged blackouts, shortages of food, fuel, and electricity, but did not state that the economic, commercial, and financial blockade—to which the oil blockade is now added—is responsible for the hardships suffered by the Cuban population and the main obstacle to the country’s development.