In the past year the US government has qualitatively increased its measures of hostility and blockade against Cuba, said Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Efe news reported.
Rodriguez attacked the latest measures adopted by the Trump administration: "It has imposed additional obstacles to foreign trade and has increased the persecution of our banking-financial relations with the rest of the world."
"It hinders ties and contacts of Cubans who live in the United States with their homeland," he added.
Rodriguez also accused Washington of initiating in the last few months criminal measures to block the supply of fuel "by resorting to threats and persecution against the companies that transport fuel, flag States, States of registration as well as shipping and insurance companies."
Rodriguez also referred to one of the latest US moves: its decision to sanction former Cuban president and Communist Party leader Raul Castro for his "gross violations of human rights."
"This is an action that is void of any practical effect, aimed at offending Cuba's dignity and the feelings of our people," said the foreign affairs minister, who described the measure as "nothing but vote-catching leftovers that are being tossed away to the Cuban-American extreme right."
For Rodriguez, the obvious and offensive falsehoods used to justify the ban on Castro's entry into the US are a "reflection of the baseness and rottenness resorted to by this US administration, which is drowning in a sea of corruption, lies and immorality."
The situation in Venezuela was another of the basic elements of Cuba's participation in the UN General Assembly, with a clear defence of the Maduro government and strong criticism of the US role in the crisis.
"We condemn the behaviour of the US government against Venezuela," said Rodriguez, who accused Washington of promoting "coup d'états, assassination of the country's leaders, economic warfare and sabotage to power generation plants" in Venezuela.
The foreign affairs minister also responded to the news spread by the US and Brazil about the supposed presence of tens of thousands of Cuban military in Venezuela and called it a vulgar lie that seeks to dismiss the heroism of the Venezuelan people.
In addition, he denounced the activation by American states of the Inter-American Treaty for Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) and called the movement "a serious threat to regional peace and security as well as a direct aggression to the Venezuelan people."
( With inputs from IANS )