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Cuban Leader Miguel Diaz-Canel Blasts US At UN General Assembly

MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) - Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel seized on the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan to blast the United States for what he said is a history of foreign policy disasters.

"Occupation only leaves destruction, and no country has the right to impose its will on sovereign nations," Días Canel said in a pre-recorded video shown at the U.N. General Assembly. "Afghanistan is not an isolated case. It has been evidence that where the United States intervenes, there is an increase in instability, deaths, suffering and enduring scars."

Afghanistan was just one example the Cuban president used to attack U.S. foreign policy, which he said relied on the "pernicious use and abuse of measures of economic coercion."

He scolded U.S. President Joe Biden for maintaining more than 200 measures adopted by his predecessor, Donald Trump, particularly the addition of Cuba to the list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Trump added Cuba to the list just days before leaving office in January.

Díaz-Canel also expressed support for regional allies Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, and said the South American nation "will always be able to count on Cuba's solidarity."

In Maduro's video speech broadcast at the U.N. yesterday, he railed against U.S.'s "fierce campaign" of sanctions and demanded they be lifted.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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