Cuba declares that USAID made many attempts to undermine the country's constitutional order

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has always served as a cover for undermining the constitutional order in Cuba - over the years, it has allocated $66 million for activities against the Cuban people, said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, RIA Novosti reports.

"USAID has always been a cover for undermining the constitutional order in Cuba. Between 1998 and 1999, it spent more than $6 million on hundreds of illegal operations. From 2001 to 2006, $61 million was allocated for 142 illegal projects and activities directed against the Cuban people," Minister Rodriguez wrote on his Telegram channel.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was appointed acting head of USAID by President Donald Trump, said earlier that the government would review the agency "from top to bottom" to determine whether its funding for programs was consistent with the current administration's international policies, saying that USAID had spent money "in a way that was detrimental" to the United States. According to him, after the review, assistance would be unfrozen or increased in some cases.

USAID earlier announced that its direct-hire staff worldwide would be placed on administrative leave, with a few exceptions. CBS, citing sources, previously reported that all USAID missions abroad had been ordered to close and all their staff would be recalled.