Managua, August 16 (RHC)-- The commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan Army, Julio César Avilés Castillo, has denounced the geopolitical interest of the United States in the natural resources of Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Avilés Castillo virtually attended the XI Moscow Conference on International Security.  On the occasion, he said that the U.S. "intends to exploit the natural resources of Latin America and the Caribbean, to the detriment of the development of our peoples, for which reason this region constitutes one more geostrategic front, that it does not intend to get out of its control."

According to the Nicaraguan military official, the U.S. policy towards the region "is aimed at maintaining its hegemony and control and the implementation of its national security strategy to counteract what it calls the growing presence of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China in this important region of the world."

Washington's strategy comes "despite the positions of some countries that, with determination, defend their sovereignty and independence against any external pressure that seeks to circumvent their national interests," the commander-in-chief said.

The head of the Nicaraguan Army brought up the cases of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba and Nicaragua in which the U.S. is carrying out destabilization processes.  This is "based on the modern application of the well-known Monroe Doctrine, which aims at appropriating the natural resources of the Western Hemisphere, such as oil, lithium, rare earth minerals, water sources."

Nicaragua is internationally stigmatized as a threat to the national security of the United States, said Avilés Castillo noting that this is "a category granted unilaterally and without foundation, only for the act of promoting national, regional, hemispheric and global security conditions from positions and conditions of respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of States."

The 11th Moscow International Security Conference is being held within the framework of the Army 2023 international military-technical forum, organized under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Defense.