'Neocolonial': Cuban president takes a dig at Trump's Latin American summit

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said that the Latin American summit convened in Florida by his US counterpart was "neocolonial," after Donald Trump asserted the island nation is in "its final moments."

"The small, reactionary and neocolonial summit in Florida, convened by the US with the participation of right-wing governments from the region, commits them to accepting the lethal use of US military force to solve internal problems and to maintain order and peace in their countries," Diaz-Canel said in a post on X on Saturday.

"It is an attack against the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a #ZonaDePaz, an assault on the aspirations for regional integration, and a manifestation of the willingness to subordinate oneself to the interests of the powerful Northern neighbour under the precepts of the Monroe Doctrine."

The summit gathered a dozen leaders aligned with Washington to address the fight against drug cartels as Trump imposes a de facto oil blockade on Cuba, which has faced blackouts and shortages of food and medicine.

New military coalition

Earlier, Trump announced the creation of a new military coalition aimed at combating powerful criminal gangs and cartels across the Americas.

Speaking at the summit, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said: "The America's Counter Cartel Coalition, the ACCC, will be a force for good, for peace through strength in this hemisphere."

Trump said the coalition is being launched because large areas of the hemisphere have fallen under the influence of violent criminal networks.

"Leaders in this region have allowed large swaths of territory in the Western Hemisphere to come under the direct control of transnational gangs," he said. "These brutal criminal organisations pose an unacceptable threat to national security."