CUBA has blasted Saturday’s meeting of US President Donald Trumps’ inaugural “Shield of the Americas” gathering as “reactionary and neocolonial.”

Leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago joined Mr Trump at National Doral Miami, a golf resort he owns where he is also set to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.

Notably absent from the gathering was Mexico, the US’s biggest trading partner and Brazil, the largest country in the region by economy and population.

Both are led by left-wing presidents who have vocally resisted President Trump’s moves to exert greater control over their domestic affairs, as well as his regional power grab.

President Trump encouraged the leaderships that did attend to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs which he argues pose an “unacceptable threat” to the hemisphere’s national security.

He said: “The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries. 

“We have to use our military. You have to use your military.”

The gathering came just two months after President Trump ordered his military to attack Venezuela, kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

Around 100 people were killed during the illegal operation.

President Trump has vowed to reassert US dominance in the region and push back on what he sees as years of Chinese economic encroachment in what he regards as the backyard of the US.

The US president dismissed attempts to negotiate the disarmament of cartels and rebel groups, in a dig at Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

He insisted military action was the only way forward, saying “we’ll use missiles. If you want us to use a missile.”

The US president also said Washington will turn its attention to Cuba after the war with Iran and suggested his administration would cut a deal with Havana, underscoring Washington’s increasingly aggressive stance against the Caribbean island’s leadership. 

He said: “Great change will soon be coming to Cuba” adding that “they’re very much at the end of the line.”

But Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday described the summit as “small, reactionary, and neocolonial.”

Writing on social media, President Diaz-Canel said the US has committed right-wing governments from the region “to accept the lethal use of US military force to resolve internal problems and maintain order and tranquility in their countries.”