Havana, April 2 (RHC)--  Cuba warned Thursday about the implications of newly announced US  military presence close to Venezuela.

In a tweet, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla stated that the military operation, which involves deployment of warships near Venezuela, and movements of special troops, constitutes a serious threat to the peace of all in the region. 

"Supposed fight against drug trafficking is just an opportunistic pretext,"  Rodriguez said.

Earlier on Thursday, and retweeting a Granma newspaper article on the issue, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said:  "Shamelessness at is best against the dignity of Venezuela. Imperial characters still think that their country has the right to design and impose changes in governments and social systems. They are wrong."

In an awkward announcement on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he was sending warships to the Caribbean to stop illegal drugs.   "We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives," he said.

The move comes a week after the US charged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other senior officials in the country with "narco-terrorism."

It accused them of flooding the US with cocaine and using drugs as a weapon "to undermine the health of Americans."

The Venezuelan government called the US deployment a "diversion" from the current pandemic spreading around the US - and the world at large.