Havana, January 24 (RHC)--Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez stressed Monday that the United States is lying to tarnish the island's work to protect its children and justify coercive criminal measures against the Caribbean nation.

Rodriguez denounced Washington's campaign against Cuba on Twitter over alleged arrests and trials of 16-year-old minors after the July 11 riots.

"The U.S. is well aware that the current judicial processes in Cuba are carried out in full compliance with the law and within internationally accepted standards," he stressed.

The foreign minister responded to the U.S. accusations with data from the Children's Defense Foundation report, which points out that in 2019 nearly 700,000 children were arrested in that northern nation, and 3,371 were killed with firearms in the United States.

"For its part, the application of anti-immigrant policies caused, between April and June 2018, the separation of four thousand 500 children from their parents" in that country, the foreign minister added.

Children's Defense Fund, a Washington D.C. non-profit organization with offices in several territories of that nation, published the report called "The State of America's Children 2021".

Among other data provided by that report is that a minor or adolescent was arrested every 45 seconds in the United States.

"Many children, particularly children in poverty; children of color; children with disabilities; children with mental health and substance abuse issues; children subject to neglect, abuse, and other violence; children in foster care; and LGBTQ children are removed from their schools and homes into the juvenile justice or adult criminal justice systems," the report states.