WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said Cuba was a failed state and freedom would be coming to the Communist-run island in an UN address Tuesday that touted greater US involvement in the region.
“My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under great pressure-the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under. It’s an absolutely failed State, it’s failing like never before, and it will fall,” Trump said in his speech to the UN General Assembly.
“Communism will never be coming to America, but freedom will be coming to Cuba.”
The Cuban delegation walked out of the UN General Assembly hall during Trump’s remarks.
The US has maintained a trade embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years and Trump’s administration has been stepping up pressure on Communist-controlled Cuba, after using the military in January to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has called Cuba a failed nation in the past, including in June, when he said the United States had some very good plans for Cuba and will take care of the country.
Cuba has been a U.S. antagonist for decades, since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. Trump is strongly supported by hardline Cuban-Americans in Florida, who have pushed for U.S.-instigated regime change for decades. The Republican U.S. president has made clear he wants to see change in their homeland.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu;Editing by Nick Zieminski and Katharine Jackson)
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