Diaz-Canel calls May 20 celebrations annexationist

Havana, May 20 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stressed that only annexationists celebrate May 20, the day on which the island became a republic "kidnapped by the empire until 1959".

On Twitter, the President emphasized that “hoisting our flag without another one next to it, in 1902, was an act of symbolic independence".

"May 20 reminds us that we were once a neo-colony. Then Cuba consulted every step with the powerful neighbor. That is the past. The Monroe Doctrine. Never again," he added.

Historians agree that the hoisting of the national ensign at the Palace of the Captains General in Havana 120 years ago this Friday marked the birth of a colony disguised under the name of republic.

On May 20, 1902, the Caribbean nation put an end to the U.S. military occupation and inaugurated a new government and Constitution. Still, history showed that none of this meant the independence it had fought for more than 30 years.

After the Cuban-Spanish-American war, the Caribbean  nation was under U.S. military occupation and Washington prepared the process of establishing the republic so that it would respond to its interests. BB

A constitutional appendix would reaffirm the absolute dominion of the United States over Cuba: the Platt Amendment, imposed on the island's Magna Carta under the threat that it was the only way to end the military occupation.

Its articles established the right of the North American nation to intervene militarily in the country when it deemed it pertinent and forced the leasing of land for U.S. naval and coal stations, hence the naval base in Guantanamo that remains today against the will of the Cuban people.

Likewise, Cuba could not establish treaties or agreements with any government other than the United States, nor could it acquire public debts.

The outgoing U.S. military governor, Leonard Wood, said at the time that "Cuba has been left little or no independence with the Platt Amendment and the only thing indicated now is annexation (...). It is quite evident that it is absolutely in our hands (...)".

On January 1, 1959, the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, together with the Rebel Army, banished the foundations of that republic to establish a transforming and independent social and political project.