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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.radiohc.cu/en/cuba-condemns-the-despicable-accusation-against-the-leader-of-the-revolution/">radiohc.cu</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Cuba condemns the despicable accusation against the Leader of the Revolution</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ed Newman</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">May 20, 2026</div>
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<p>The Revolutionary Government condemns in the strongest terms the
despicable accusation by the United States Department of Justice,
announced on May 20 and foreshadowed for several weeks, against Army
General Raśl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution.</p>
<p>The United States government lacks the legitimacy and jurisdiction to
carry out this action. This is a despicable and infamous act of
political provocation, based on the dishonest manipulation of the
incident that led to the downing, in February 1996, of two aircraft
operated by the Miami-based terrorist organization Brothers to the
Rescue over Cuban airspace. Brothers to the Rescue\u2019s repeated
violations of Cuban airspace for hostile purposes were common knowledge.</p>
<p>The U.S. government also distorts other historical truths about the
event it uses as a pretext. Among other details, it omits the numerous
formal complaints filed by Cuba during that period with the State
Department, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding more than 25
serious and deliberate violations of Cuban airspace committed by the
aforementioned organization between 1994 and 1996, in blatant
transgression of international law and U.S. law itself.</p>
<p>It also ignores the public and official warnings issued by Cuban
authorities regarding the inadmissibility of such violations of its
airspace and the alerts sent directly to the President of the United
States concerning the seriousness and potential consequences of such
transgressions.</p>
<p>Cuba\u2019s response to the violation of its airspace constituted an act
of legitimate self-defense, protected by the Charter of the United
Nations, the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation,
and the principles of air sovereignty and proportionality.</p>
<p>The United States, which has been a victim of the use of civil
aviation for terrorist purposes, does not and would not permit the
hostile and provocative violation of its territory by foreign aircraft
and would act, as it has demonstrated, with the use of force.</p>
<p>The inaction of the U.S. government in the face of the alerts issued
by Cuba at the time revealed its complicity in the planning and
execution, from its territory, of violent, illegal, and terrorist acts
against the Cuban government and people\u2014a recurring and systematic
practice from the triumph of the Revolution to the present day.</p>
<p>It is utterly cynical that this accusation is being made by the same
government that has murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels
in international waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific, far from U.S.
territory, using disproportionate military force, for alleged links to
drug trafficking operations that have never been proven. This
government classifies these acts as extrajudicial killings, in
accordance with international law, and as murders, according to U.S. law
itself.</p>
<p>This spurious accusation against the Leader of the Cuban Revolution
adds to the desperate attempts by anti-Cuban elements to construct a
fraudulent narrative in an effort to justify the collective and
merciless punishment of the noble Cuban people through the strengthening
of unilateral coercive measures, including the unjust and genocidal
energy blockade and threats of armed aggression.</p>
<p>Cuba reaffirms its commitment to peace and its firm determination to
exercise the inalienable right to self-defense, recognized by the
Charter of the United Nations.</p>
<p>The Cuban people reaffirm their unwavering commitment to defend the
Homeland and its Socialist Revolution and, with the utmost strength and
resolve, their unrestricted and unwavering support for Army General Raśl
Castro Ruz, Leader of the Cuban Revolution.</p>
<p>Patria o Muerte! Homeland or Death!</p>
<p>Venceremos! We will win!</p>
<p>Havana, May 20, 2026.</p>
<p>\u201cYear of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.\u201d</p>
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