HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 15 (ACN) The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba issued an statement regarding the interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela by several countries and the exclusion of that country of the coming Summit of the Americas.

Cuban News Agency reproduces the full text of the statement:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba strongly condemns the pronouncement of a group of countries of the Hemisphere issued on February 13 in Lima, which constitutes an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at the same time that it categorically rejects the decision to reconsider the participation of the Venezuelan Government in the VIII Summit of the Americas to be held next April in Peru.

Just a few days ago, the US Secretary of State, during a tour of several countries in the region, declared the full validity of the Monroe Doctrine, the most notorious instrument of US imperialist interventionism in our region; He called for a military coup against the constitutional government of Venezuela and called for tougher sanctions against that country. The decision taken is not alien to these statements and negotiations.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba recalls, in this context, the arbitrary and aggressive Executive Order of the United States, renewed in January 2017, which qualifies Venezuela as "an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy" of the superpower, and President Donald Trump's most recent admonition to use "a possible military option if necessary" against it.

It is unusual and incredible that a supposed "unconstitutional rupture of the democratic order" is now being used as a pretext, precisely in a country that has celebrated in a few months municipal, regional elections, for a Constituent Assembly and that has just called for presidential elections, as it was requested of it before, even though external interference or unconstitutional and violent methods.

Cuba denounces that this pronouncement and the exclusion of Venezuela from the VIII Summit of the Americas are contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and to the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the Chiefs of State and Government of the member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ratifies the invariable solidarity of Cuba with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and with the civic-military union of its people headed by the constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros.

The words of the President of the Councils of State and Ministers Raul Castro Ruz, pronounced on July 14, 2017, when he said "the aggression and the coup against Venezuela hurt all of Our America and only benefit the interests of those who insist on dividing us to exert their domination over our peoples, without caring about generating conflicts of incalculable consequences in this region, such as those we are witnessing in different parts of the world. We are warning today that those who seek to overthrow the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution through unconstitutional, violent and coup-driven means will assume a serious responsibility towards history. "