This Sunday, July 30, 2017, during the elections for the National Constituent Assembly in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Venezuelan people have demonstrated to the world that it is full owner of their sovereign rights and that militates decisively on the side of peace, in defense Citizen security, independence and self-determination of their homeland, as they have done throughout the history of Latin America and the Caribbean, from Bolivar.

Venezuela turned to the polls like never before in a constituent process. These people, who defied the barracks, guarimbas, economic sabotage and international threats, defeated with their votes the strategy of imperialism and the oligarchies and an opposition that has not hesitated to unleash the most brutal expressions of cruelty. It offends the cynicism of all those who claim to blame the government and the defenders of the people for the crimes committed.

Cuba denounces the launch of a well-concerted international operation, directed from Washington, with the support of the Secretary General of the OAS, aimed at silencing the voice of the Venezuelan people, ignoring their will, and imposing surrender by means of attacks and economic sanctions.

The United States government, for its part, has imposed directly on the Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moro unusual sanctions, violations of international law and arbitrary sanctions, which we repudiate.

We know all these interventionist practices well. They believe that through that they will achieve the submission of the people to a puppet opposition that they financed and that now promises to make the country burn.

Once again, we reiterate what was expressed by the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, General of the Army Raul Castro Ruz, on July 14 in the National Assembly:

    "The aggression and coup-against-Venezuela violence are damaging to all of" Our America "and only benefit the interests of those who strive to divide us to exercise their domination over our peoples, without having to generate conflicts of incalculable consequences in this region, Which we are witnessing in different parts of the world.

    "We warn today that those who pretend to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution and Chavista by unconstitutional, violent, and coup-like pathways will assume a serious responsibility to history."

Nothing can stop a people from owning their destiny. Only Venezuelans can decide how to overcome their problems and chart their future. Enough of interferences, of conciliábulos, of betrayals to the Bolivarian spirit.

We reiterate our unwavering solidarity with the Bolivarian and Chavez people and government and with its civic-military unity led by constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros. As Fidel said at the Central University of Caracas during his visit in January 1959:

    "The position of the Cuban Revolutionary Government will be a firm and unhesitating stance of any kind, because it is time for the people to know how to defend themselves and know how to raise their rights."

Havana, July 31, 2017