Cuban leader Raul Castro accepted on Monday the one-year presidency of the Latin American Community of States (CELAC) at the grouping's summit here, praising Latin America for sustaining solidarity despite U.S. pressure.

"Transnational companies, which are fundamentally U.S. companies, will never renounce their claim on energy, water and mineral resources which are on their way to exhaustion," he said, adding "The strategy of the North American Treaty Organization ( NATO) is ever more aggressive and clearly oriented in this direction."

NATO was created in 1949, at the start of the Cold War, with 12 members led by the United States. It has since expanded east with members reaching right up to the Russian border and partners in central Asia.

"Without our unity nothing will be possible and all our achievements will be lost," Castro added, citing the 2005 defeat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a U.S. lead trade initiative; and solidity of Latin American unity seen since at multilateral conferences.

Castro also expressed his concern for Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who played a key part in the creation of CELAC in 2010. Chavez, who is currently in Cuba recovering from a Dec.10 cancer operation, face "a permanent campaign of intrigue and slander on behalf of the empire and an oligarchy that supports coups," he said.

Chavez was reelected in October 2012, but was not sworn in when his term was due to start in January. Venezuela's opposition has been protesting on the issue, claiming that he failed to fulfill the conditions for being a president. Venezuela's legislature has granted Chavez an exception and Chavez supporters have filled the streets of capital Caracas to demonstrate their support.

Castro also made a call for drugs to be stamped out, adding that Cuba had destroyed all trafficking and retailing of drugs, leaving only space for one or two marijuana plants grown in plant pots.

"Cuba is a country that is interesting for drug dealers because of its tourist industry. More than three million tourists visit Cuba each year," he said. "But there has never been a drug problem in Cuba and there never will be."

He described a campaign that was orchestrated by all the branches of the government and the ruling Communist Party's support organizations. "We used all of these to find and prosecute those who were trying to introduce marijuana and even small amounts of cocaine into the nation," he said.

The two-day CELAC summit began on Sunday, a day after the CELAC- European Union (EU) Summit, which ran on Saturday and Sunday here.

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