Raul Castro said “attempts to destroy the revolution” would fail.
President Trump has tightened restrictions on US travel to and business with Cuba.
However, the US embassy in Havana, re-opened by former President Barack Obama, is still operating.
President Castro was speaking in front of Cuba’s national assembly. It was his first public comment on the policy changes President Trump announced a month ago.
State-run Cuban media quoted President Castro as saying that President Trump was using “old and hostile rhetoric” and had returned to “confrontation that roundly failed over 55 years”.
The Cuban president said: “We reject the manipulation of the topic of human rights against Cuba, which can be proud of much in this area and does not need to receive lessons from the United States nor anyone.”
Donald Trump anchored his policy rollback in human rights concerns raised by political opponents of Cuba’s communist government, many of whom have fled to Miami where the president announced the changes on June 16.
President Castro continued: “Cuba and the United States can cooperate and live side by side, respecting their differences. But no one should expect that for this, one should have to make concessions inherent to one’s sovereignty and independence.”
Raul Castro will step down as president in seven months, but will remain the head of the country’s Communist Party.
Georgia’s outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili refused to step down on December 29, saying she was…
The bald eagle has been officially declared the national bird of the United States, after…
Dozens of passengers have survived a crash involving a plane carrying 69 people in Kazakhstan,…
Millions of Americans are bracing for difficult weather conditions during the Christmas holiday, with storms…
The US House Ethics Committee has voted to release its report on former Republican Representative…
ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump to settle a…
