Castro: U.S. ‘circles of power’ fanned crises in Venezuela and Ukraine

Agence France-Presse 

Cuban President Raúl Castro on Saturday (Feb 22) condemned the violence generated in Venezuela and Ukraine, which he attributed to “circles of power” in the United States and its allies.

“These events confirm that, wherever there is a government that is not convenient for the interests of the circles of power in the United States and some of its European allies, it becomes a target for the subversive campaigns” of violence, said Castro as he closed the 20th Congress of the labor union known as Cuban Workers Central.

According to the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, Castro said that those circles of power “now use new methods of attrition, more subtle and covert, without renouncing violence, to break the peace and domestic order and keep the governments from concentrating in the struggle for economic and social development, if they can’t overthrow them.”

“We harbor the conviction that the Venezuelan people will know how to defend its irreversible conquests, the legacy of President Hugo Chávez and the government that [the people] elected freely and in sovereignty,” Castro said.

He praised Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who “with intelligence and firmness has handled this complex crisis.”

The Cuban president considered the recent disturbances in Ukraine “alarming” and said that the intervention of western powers must cease, to allow Ukrainians to legitimately exercise their right to self-determination.

“It should not be ignored that these actions can have very grave consequences for international peace and security,” Castro said.