HAVANA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Tuesday rejected a report by the U.S. State Department, saying it promotes a false narrative aimed at justifying Washington's longstanding policy of aggression against the island country.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a post on social media platform X that the report, released Monday, was promoted by "one of the most corrupt officials in the current administration, with proven ties to drug traffickers and terrorists in Florida."
The 100-page report accuses the Cuban government of playing a leading role in shaping "America's most famous and influential extremist movements," and of operating espionage and subversion networks on U.S. soil.
According to Diaz-Canel, "the transnational neo-McCarthyism that is being revived in the U.S., driven by a clearly fascist movement, resorts to lies to create pretexts to wage attacks against Cuba and curtail civil liberties in the U.S."
He said it was the United States that had for decades spied extensively on Cuba and persistently sought to undermine its government, adding "the thief thinks everyone steals."
Washington spends millions of dollars each year trying to bring about regime change in Cuba through acts of subversion and terrorism, Diaz-Canel said.
He cited what he described as a series of hostile actions by the United States, including the introduction of pests and diseases such as hemorrhagic dengue, which he said killed 101 children; the downing of a passenger plane carrying 73 people; bomb attacks on hotels; assassination attempts; and psychological warfare operations.
Diaz-Canel said the decades-long U.S. embargo and the recent fuel ban were part of a policy intended to turn Cubans against their revolutionary government.
In contrast, Cuba has only "exercised its legitimate right to defend itself against these actions" and has "never acted to harm the American people, nor sought to undermine U.S. national security," he said. ■