- Cuban President Diaz-Canel called US pressure on Cuba a genocidal policy aiming to seize the country
- The US increased sanctions and an oil blockade after Venezuela's Maduro was ousted in January
- Sanctions have caused tourism decline, foreign company exits, and reduced foreign currency inflows
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday denounced Washington's pressure campaign against his country as a "genocidal policy," accusing the United States of seeking to "appropriate" the island.
On top of a decades-long embargo, the United States under President Donald Trump has drastically ramped up pressure in recent months on its communist southern neighbor, imposing an effective oil blockade and biting sanctions.
The campaign followed the US military's toppling of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January -- removing a key ally of Cuba's communist leadership and a steady supply of oil.
The measures have led to a drastic decline in tourism, the departure of numerous foreign companies and a drying up of foreign currency inflows.
The United States maintains that Cuba, an ally of Russia and China, poses a security threat to the region and violates the rights of its citizens.
The most recent US sanctions, announced Thursday, target Cuba's overseas medical missions program, one of the country's main sources of revenue.
"Cuba is today waging a historic battle ... against the walls of a genocidal policy whose objective is to suffocate an entire people in order to appropriate the country," the Cuban leader said from the western province of Pinar del Rio.
Diaz-Canel was attending celebrations marking the 73rd anniversary of the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks led by Fidel Castro, which is considered the beginning of the Cuban Revolution.
"The blockade is a weapon of war and it causes deaths," the president said, arguing that Washington was seeking to provoke, in Cuba and in other countries, a "social explosion with the sole aim of installing governments aligned with its imperial interests."
The energy crisis on the island of 9.4 million people has caused several nationwide power outages that have sometimes lasted 30 hours in the capital and several days in the provinces.
Faced with growing discontent over the crisis, Diaz-Canel called Sunday for "unity" and touted the "implementation of economic and social transformations."
Cuba's government in June pushed through a batch of major free-market reforms but has repeatedly said its political model is not up for discussion and vowed to resist any military invasion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
