By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday condemned the United States for attacking Venezuela and capturing its president at a rally of thousands of Havana residents in front of the U.S. Embassy in the Cuban capital.
“Cuba condemns and denounces these actions as an act of state terrorism,” Diaz-Canel said.
“It is a shocking violation of the norms of international law – the military aggression against a peaceful nation that poses no threat to the United States,” he added.
Venezuela supplies around 30% of Cuba’s already scarce oil imports in exchange for thousands of medical personnel who work in the South American country.
Analysts agree the loss of the oil would be a devastating blow to Cuba’s already shaky power grid and energy supplies.
Meanwhile, thousands of Cubans are worried over the fate of relatives and friends working in Venezuela. Cuba’s health ministry tweeted on Saturday they were “well protected.”
In an interview U.S. President Donald Trump gave to the New York Post on Saturday, he said he is not considering additional military action against Cuba.
“No, Cuba is going to fall of its own volition. Cuba is doing very poorly,” Trump said.
“Cuba was always very reliant on Venezuela. That’s where they got their money, and they protected Venezuela, but that didn’t work out too well in this case,” the president said.
Cuba is suffering through a six-year crisis which has seen economic growth fall at least 15%, according to the government, causing shortages of basic goods, soaring inflation, crumbling services and widespread power outages.
The government largely blames tougher U.S. sanctions imposed during the first Trump administration, on top of the decades-old trade embargo, for the crisis.
(Reporting By Marc Frank; additional reporting by Nelson Acosta and Bhargav Acharya. Editing by Christian Plumb and Diane Craft)
