At UN, Venezuela, Cuba rebuke US hegemony

Venezuela and Cuba have called on the international community to put up a united front and fight the United States’ hegemony and its blockade against nations at a time of global crises, including the coronavirus pandemic.

In a pre-recorded speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro emphasized the need to be united in the face of the deadly pandemic and called for the world to counter hegemony and “imperialist ideas.”

“Venezuela supports a multipolar world, a renewed UN system, a system that knows how to enforce international law and protect the people of the world,” Maduro said, denouncing attacks by the US on the World Health Organization (WHO), without explicitly naming the country.

“This is not the time to insult, to threaten the WHO, it is now the time to unite in its favor,” Maduro said. “The world defeated fascism 75 years ago and the world will also win against those who seek hegemony, against imperialist ideas, and it will be able to defeat neo-fascism.”

US President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of siding with China over the alleged delaying of an inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus outbreak. Trump and members of his administration have claimed the new coronavirus originated in a lab in China, an allegation rejected by the WHO and other experts, besides China itself.

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The World Health Organization says the US had provided no evidence to support US President Donald Trump’s claim that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

In a separate speech to the Monday session, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla also censured the US and said, “On this 75th anniversary of the UN, multilateralism and international law are threatened by the largest global power.”

Cuba’s top diplomat said the “irresponsible behavior” of the US was the “greatest danger to international peace and security.”

“It seems that [the US] is at war with the planet… and its inhabitants,” Rodriguez Parrilla said, condemning the “economic, commercial and financial blockade” Washington has imposed on Cuba.

Relations between the US and both Venezuela and Cuba have deteriorated in recent years.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company to pressure Maduro to resign, and has supported a putschist opposition figure.

Cuba has been under a US economic blockade for over 60 years. The two countries severed relations in 1961 during the Cold War.

US bans private charter flights to Cuba to increase pressure on Havana

Washington suspends all private charter flights between the US and Cuba to increase economic pressure on Havana.

Former President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Havana in 2015, but Trump began to roll back the historic rapprochement soon after he took office in early 2017.

The Trump administration has tightened rules on US citizens traveling to Cuba, among other restrictions.

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