THE new anti-Cuban escalation by the United States is justified only by hatred, Cuban unions said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Cuban Workers’ Union, the National Association of Innovators and Rationalisers (ANIR) and patriotic and revolutionary workers said they “categorically reject the new and brutal escalation by the current US government to bring the revolution to its knees in the centennial year of commander-in-chief Fidel Castro.”

This follows the designation of Cuba as “an unusual and extraordinary” threat to US security by President Donald Trump.

The move by President Donald Trump gave authority to his administration to impose retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from any country that “directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.”

The statement highlighted that the US was “the most powerful economic and military force in human history, with a population 30 times larger than Cuba’s, a war budget several times greater than the gross domestic product of most United Nations member states.”

The unions said they agreed with the remarks of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, that the White House decided on this illegal measure “under a mendacious and baseless pretext, peddled by those who control our politics and enrich themselves at the expense of the people’s suffering.”

The statement also endorsed the view of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, that the US government was working against the nations of the Americas and was attempting to “plunder their resources, mutilate their sovereignty and deprive them of their independence.”

The unions said that the new anti-Cuban escalation is justified only by hatred.

The unions said they shared the “aspiration to build, in peace, without blockade or threats, the society for all and with all, the society Jose Marti dreamed of and Fidel Castro made a reality with the only revolution that triumphed 67 years ago, as well as our willingness to defend it at any cost.”