Cuba slams US' defamatory campaign

Havana: Cuba has rejected a human rights "defamatory" campaign staged at a UN event in the New York headquarters denouncing alleged political prisoners situation in the island nation.

In a statement the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said this new action was part of a "sequence of declarations" by US high-ranking officials, which showed the "growing hostility" towards Cuba by the Donald Trump administration, Xinhua news agency reported.

Washington held an event at the UN Economic and Social Council to condemn the alleged jailing of politicians on the island. "The US government has no moral authority to criticise Cuba," said the statement.

The "political show" comes just two weeks ahead of the UN General Assembly votes on the resolution to end the nearly six-decade-long US economic embargo on the Caribbean nation, it said.

"This type of action seeks to make up pretexts to maintain and intensify the blockade, which constitutes a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights of Cuban men, women and children," it said.

On October 31, Havana will present for the 27th time before the UN General Assembly a non-binding resolution condemning the unilateral embargo policy.