Cuba Ambassador Aguilera: US believes It Is the 'owner of the world', Latin America its 'Backyard'

Cuba has launched its strongest condemnation of the US military operation in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was "captured", accusing Washington of acting as the self-proclaimed “owner of the world” and treating Latin America as its private “backyard”. Speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal, Cuban Ambassador to India Juan Carlos Marsán Aguilera described the 3 January raid, which left 33 Cuban security personnel dead, as a blatant violation of sovereignty.

“It is part of their philosophy that they are the owner of the world and they should… guide the world in the direction they decide,” Aguilera said. “Nobody could support an action like this against a sovereign country like Venezuela, against the constitutional government of Venezuela, against the independence of one country of our region."

The ambassador tied the action directly to a resurgent Monroe Doctrine, which he called unacceptable domination. “They are treating us like a backyard… We cannot accept that,” he declared, warning that the US seeks control over the region’s strategic resources, particularly Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Cuba has declared two days of national mourning for the fallen Cubans, whom Aguilera said died “defending President Nicolás Maduro” after being deployed at Caracas’s request to reinforce presidential security. “If one day they decide to touch Cuban soil, they will receive the same answer,” he vowed.

How do you see the development that has happened in your region, the US intervention in Venezuela?

We were following the situation very closely. It has not started yet. A few months ago, the Trump administration, and especially the Secretary of State and the Minister of War, mobilised a lot of military resources in the Caribbean region threatening Venezuela.

Suddenly it happens. We are expecting that they will respect international law, or they will follow the UN Charter, but at the end of the day, they are following their own interest and not the interests of the international community. They made this terrorist attack against Venezuela, against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. They sent, in my opinion, a terrorist group to execute the legitimate president who was elected by the people in Venezuela and take him to New York to start preparing this trial against President Maduro and also his wife. Expression of a unilateral action of the United States.

Nobody could support an action like this against a sovereign country like Venezuela, against the constitutional government of Venezuela, against the independence of one country of our region. You were following the press conference, and they announced the result of this operation. We are very concerned. They said that the United States will not accept any government in what they say, their neighbourhoods, they say, their areas of influence, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Any country that doesn't have a government that follows the interests of the US. They are treating us like the backyard of the US. Latin America and the Caribbean countries, where we spent more than 200 years to reach our own independence from the US, from Spain, and from different colonies. But they try to treat Latin America as its own area of influence, and they have the right, you know, over all the strategic mineral resources and natural resources, the oil of Latin America and the Caribbean countries, for their own benefits. We cannot accept that. The US is treating and attacking one Latin American country, following their interest in the natural resources of our countries. So we cannot accept that. We must raise our voice and make it very clear that this is unacceptable, not only for Latin America, but also for the whole world.

Does the development which we have seen in Venezuela, the American intervention? Worry you?

Any country should be worried about what happened. The same day, he also announced their interest in having Greenland as a US territory against even their allies in Europe. Same threat against Iran, and other countries, Nigeria. Every day, we are following different actions of one country against another in the world. I don't see China or any other country attacking another one or making military invasions. It is the US, because it is part of their philosophy that they are the owner of the world and they should, because for some reason, they have the role to guide the world in the direction they decide. Cuba has been subjected for more than 65 years to this policy of the blockade, which is the longest blockade that any nation has suffered. During the first Trump administration, he adopted 243 measures specifically against Cuba in order to suffocate the Cuban economy.

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During this administration, one of the first decisions signed by Trump was to re-include Cuba in the list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorists is totally unfair, because Cuba has been a victim of the terror action committed from the US territory and with the support of the US government. We are not, we have not committed any action of terrorists against any nation. We are providing medical services. We are providing educational services to the world, not terrorist actions. The idea is, as I said, to strangle the Cuban economy, to cut any financial income to Cuba. They are trying to cut all direct flights from the US to Cuba. We have more than 2 million Cubans living in the US. They are also stopping all the oil supply to Cuba.

We are not producing all the oil that we require. Less than 40%. The rest we should import from other countries. They are following all routes where the oil is supplied to Cuba, all the vessels, the international companies, in order to cut this possibility to the Cuban economy, to supply energy to our people, to develop our economy. They are, for example, trying to disrupt the medical services that Cuba provides to more than 60 countries in the world. So the idea is to isolate Cuba and to try to cut all the financial income to our economy, to try to create problems for our people, and, very important at the same time, to develop a media campaign.

The idea is how to mobilise the Cuban people against the government as the target, and it could justify a military action against Cuba, because to say people are against the government expressing on the street, and the Cuban government is trying to punish all these people, and we should make a military invasion to put order in Cuba. It's the same idea, the same idea they are doing in other countries, including Venezuela. So it's clear that these policies of the blockade are completely isolated in the international community.

Every year, the Cuban government presents in the United Nations a resolution containing the US blockade towards Cuba, and the huge majority of the international community for 33 years has rejected this policy of the blockade. So nobody in the world, not a single country, well, just two, three countries. The rest of the international community is very clear that this policy should come to an end, and the Cuban people have a right to live in peace and to develop all the capacity that we have in order to provide more quality of life to our people.

Donald Trump has said that Cuba is next in line. His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has also made comments against your country. How do you see these comments as well?

It's very dangerous, not only for Cuba. This person (Trump), who is in charge of this government now, is a very dangerous person. We know them very well. For example, you mentioned Marco Rubio. He started his political career saying that he was Cuban, that his father, when escaping from the dictatorship of the Cuban revolution to the US, was lying. It's lying because their parents went to us before the Cuban Revolution, looking for economic opportunities in us. It happens in Latin America.

The people are travelling to the US, trying to reach the US in order to look for opportunities. Because unfortunately we, the Latin Americas, are suffering this long policy of extracting our minerals, our financial resources, our natural resources, from the US companies that, for example, in Cuba, more than 80% of the best land of Cuba to produce the sugar cane and others belong to the US companies before the revolution, and the revolution was a break point of this to give back to the Cuban people our resources, our region, in our country, and from the very beginning we start, of course, opposing to this.

So I consider that any country, Latin America, could be a target of this policy of the US. In our case, I see it well. Remember that in the 90s, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba remained almost isolated. At that time, I remember Bush's father was the president of the US, and they said, This is the moment we are going to defeat the Cuban revolution. We are 35 years later. We are here, and we will continue, because the only option for the Cubans is to support and to remain independent. Otherwise, we will be a new colony from the US. They understand very well that we should be resilient enough, but at the same time, we should continue trying to develop under these circumstances. We should develop our economy. We should try to find solutions to our project, to continue providing quality of life to our people, and to show that in our case, socialisation is the best possibility to preserve independence, sovereignty and self-determination in front of this big empire, the biggest empire, just 90 miles from our country.

When the incident happened, when the intervention happened, we saw that the President was taken by the American forces and taken to New York. Now, your government, your country, have announced a period of mourning because many Cubans have died as well. Can you just tell us about how the Cuban side is looking at it, and what these Cubans were doing in Venezuela?

We have a long-standing, close relationship between our two governments. The Bolivarian government requests that Cuba provide some support because of our expertise to reinforce the safeguard team of President Maduro, and we sent some people to fulfil this responsibility. And at the moment, they made this a surprise attack on the presidential palace, many of them were there, and well, 32 people were killed in combat. 33 Cubans.

They were fulfilling their responsibility. It is Cuba, what they did defending the President Nicolas Maduro. It is an expression. What Cuba is ready to do. If one day they decide to touch the Cuban soil, they will receive the same answer that we're going to defend our land until the last consequence. Let me tell you that we have always been in this position to develop a normal relationship with the US.

It is very important, because even when US citizens travel to Cuba, they discover that there are no feelings against them. We know very well the position of the government and what is the position of the US population. And we have historical relations with those in this country, and we are always offered the possibility to start a conversation based on mutual respect. During the period of the Obama administration, we were able to sit together to discuss our big differences. The problem is that they (Trump) don't want to have this opinion. There's a guiding ideology from this extreme right ideology from their side, that the only way is to defeat the Cuban Revolution.

Trump has come up with a new doctrine. It's actually an old doctrine, but it has his name. That's the Donroe doctrine, which is the Monroe Doctrine.

(Donroe Doctrine) Cannot be accepted. They said that they cannot accept a socialist country in the Latin American region. They will not accept any government that is against the US interest.

They said that Latin America belongs to them. They have the right to dominate Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine follows this idea, regarding Latin America and the Caribbean region for Americans. And they said, Latin America is for the US, and we cannot accept it. They cannot impose any politics on our region. We cannot accept it. It's clear. Is clear. We cannot accept that the relationship with the US could be guidance.

How do you see India's reaction after the American intervention in Venezuela?

Well, I was reading the statement of the Indian government, and they are calling for a diplomatic solution through negotiation, through the people to talk and to find cooperation together in order to reach an agreement. It is one of the principles of international law, all problems should be solved in a diplomatic way and not through war. It is clear to me.

Well, India is playing a more important role in the international community every day, and India is part of the BRICS. India this year is in the Presidency of BRICS. It offered, of course, the opportunity to continue enhancing the cooperation among the BRICS members, but also to extend to the global south, and India is considered the voice of the Global South. I saw that, for example, in the case of Cuba, we are next Monday, June 12, we are celebrating the 66 years of establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, and in all these years, the relationship has been built on the basis of mutual respect, cooperation and solidarity. We have received many gestures from the Indian government, for example, supporting Cuba against the policy of the blockade. India has moved all these 33 years against the policy of the blockade, also providing some support to Cuba.

Recently, we suffered a strong hurricane, and the Indian government decided to send some material resources, in terms of medication, to the Cuban population. We are very glad and recognise this strong connection between our two countries. We have been a very close partner in the international organisations, including in the non-alignment movement, G77, but also in the United Nations. And we have cooperated very closely with the two countries in order to defend the rights of the global south in the international organisation as well. I'm pretty sure they will continue to strengthen the political, economic cooperation between the two countries.

Cuba has many friends. Russia is your close friend. There are other countries as well. In fact, I believe I've read somewhere that you spoke on the Iranian side as well. What are your expectations from these countries?

Well, we have relationships with more than 180 countries. We have embassies in more than 145 countries all over the world. We have an excellent relationship with all the Latin American and Caribbean countries. We, for example, have a CARICOM with all the Caribbean countries as well, a very close and historical relations. We have a relationship with all the African countries and the African Union as well. This year, the African Union adopted a resolution against the blockade towards Cuba.

We also have a memorandum of cooperation with the European Union. For more than 20 years, we have developed close cooperation with the European Union in many fields, for example, in food security, in energy sustainability, and also in human rights. Of course, with the Asian countries, you mentioned Russia, but I can mention, and also other countries, such are Vietnam, China, of course, I already mentioned India.