SANTIAGO DE CUBA: Cuba, long a source of inspiration for leftist Latin American governments, celebrated the 60th anniversary of its revolution on Tuesday facing increasing isolation in a region dominated by a resurgent right.

Ex-president Raul Castro lashed out at what he called a return by the United States government to “confrontation with Cuba” after restoration of diplomatic ties and a friendlier tone under the former administration of Barack Obama.

“Now, once again the US government seems to take the course of confrontation with Cuba and to present our peaceful and supportive country as a threat to the region,” said Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party.

He gave his address at the grave in Santiago de Cuba of his brother Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader who died in 2016.

“Increasingly, senior officials of the (Donald Trump) administration, with the complicity of some lackeys, disseminate new falsehoods and once again seek to blame Cuba for all the ills of the region,” he added in the presence of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, 58, the first president since 1976 who is not a Castro.

Diaz-Canel took over in April as president from Raul Castro, who retains the top party post and called in his speech for living side-by-side with the US “in a mutually beneficial relationship of peace and respect.”

It is the first such anniversary of the post-Castro era, and coincided with the inauguration in Brazil of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose recent election victory is one of several for right-wing governments across the region.

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