Diaz-Canel's Friday remarks saw the official blast the United States for excluding Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the Summit of the Americas and thanked those, including Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador, for rejecting the invitations over the exclusion.
"Where governments deprive us from our voice, peoples will be there to represent us, to speak on our behalf," Diaz-Canel stated. Cuba, he added, was the first Latin American nation excluded from hemispheric alliances "for having rebelled against the empire."
"Others tried the same before and were subjected to coups... and transnational campaigns of terror like Operation Condor. Cuba was expelled from the OAS, it was separated from its natural place. They financed invasions and they continue to sponsor different attacks against the Revolution," the Cuban president said.
The Cuban leader stressed that the people of Cuba are honorable "survivors of 63 years of the blockade and to the disgrace of that powerful empire which is 30 times bigger than our island."
He also thanked those countries that rejected the invitations to the summit because of the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Maduro: 'World is Much Bigger Than Dominance' of US
Addressing protesters, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro remarked that the world is much bigger than the "arrogance and dominance" of Washington's declining empire.
"The world is much bigger than the dominance and arrogance of Washington, the dominance and arrogance of an empire in decline that wants to behave as if it were still the hegemonic and dominant empire of the world and of our Americas. That time has passed," Maduro said.
Venezuela, he said, is moving forward and recovering from "threats, attacks, the arrogance of unilateral sanctions, coercive measures, monetary, financial, economic, commercial and political persecution."
"Here we are standing tall, ready to continue building the struggle, joining our efforts, moving forward.... advancing toward a new America, our America, a popular, socialist, revolutionary... America of the 21st Century," Maduro said.
"Now in 2022, we are seeing the expansion of the comprehensive recovery of our economy, of social rights, of the people, of direct democracy and in general of the Bolivarian Revolution of the 21st Century."
The Biden administration earlier detailed that it would refuse the participation of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in the latest rendition of the Summit of the Americas over the nations' alleged human rights abuses and lack of democracy.
Shortly after the US' decision, Lopez Obrador refused to attend and publicly stated that "you cannot have a Summit of the Americas if you do not have all the countries of the Americas attending." Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard will represent Mexico.