[News] Cuba - "We will persevere, with the consensus of our people and especially the patriotic commitment of the youngest Cubans"

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://en.granma.cu/mundo/2017-11-02/we-will-persevere-with-the-consensus-of-our-people-and-especially-the-patriotic-commitment-of-the-youngest-cubans 



  "We will persevere, with the consensus of our people and especially
  the patriotic commitment of the youngest Cubans"

Full text of speech by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, on the 
"Necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial blockade 
imposed by the United States against Cuba," in United Nations 
headquarters, New York, November 1, 2017
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Council of State transcript / *GI* translation)

Mr. President;

Your Excellencies permanent representatives;

Distinguished delegates;

U.S. citizens and Cubans resident in the United States who are present 
in this hall:

I would like to express to the people and government of the United 
States; Mayor Bill De Blasio; Governor Andrew Cuomo; and other 
authorities in New York; as well as its citizens and especially families 
of the victims, our most heartfelt condolences, in the name of the Cuban 
people and government, for the terrorist attack which occurred yesterday 
afternoon.

I also express our sincere condolences to the peoples and government of 
Argentina and Belgium.

Mr. President:

I express the most energetic condemnation of the disrespectful, 
offensive, and interventionist statements made by the United States 
Ambassador to the United Nations against Cuba and against the Cuban 
government, a few minutes ago.

I recall that the United States, where flagrant violations of human 
rights are committed, of deep concern to the international community, 
does not have the slightest moral authority to criticize Cuba, a small, 
solidary country, with an extensive, recognized international record; an 
honorable, hard-working, and friendly people.

She spoke in the name of the head of an empire that is responsible for 
most of the wars in progress on the planet today, and which murders 
innocent people, and is the decisive factor in instability worldwide and 
the very serious threats to peace and international security, trampling 
international law and the United Nations Charter, which she has just 
cynically evoked.

It has not been 55 years, Madam Ambassador, you erred in your first 
sentence; it has been 26 of these sessions, and more than half a century 
since the events being discussed today originated.

She lies, uses the same style that predominates in U.S. politics today. 
This all began before the Cuban nation even existed. When the Cuban 
people, for the first time rose up in arms in 1868, the appetite for 
annexation and domination, of what was and is today U.S. imperialism, 
had already been unleashed.

In 1898, using a pretext - as is characteristic of the modern history of 
the United States: the explosion of the ship, the Maine, in a Cuban 
port, they entered as allies of Cuban independence forces and then 
occupied the country as invaders, and imposed the Platt Amendment, 
cutting short the independence and sovereignty of Cuba; they conducted 
three military occupations, imposed 60 years of total domination that 
ended January 1, 1859, with the entry of the Rebel Army to Havana and 
the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, that continues to this day carrying 
on the same struggles that have inspired our people for over 100 years. 
(Applause)

She lies, she used a phrase, attributing a statement on the so-called 
October or Missile Crisis to a supposedly Cuban source. I invite her to 
state the source, to state its author, to present evidence. It sounds 
like one of the tweets proliferating in this country, in these times of 
hate, division, and dirty politics. (Applause)

When the Cuban Revolution triumphed, the United States set regime change 
as its objective. The policy announced by President Trump on June 16 is 
not new; it is the same policy, it is an old policy anchored in the past.

She mentioned the illustrious U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. She 
forgot to say that he was the person who, deceived by his own 
government, had the unfortunate duty during a session of the Security 
Council, to show photos of supposed Cuban aircraft, actually of U.S. 
origin, bearing the emblem of the Cuban Air Force, that on April 15 
bombed the city of Havana, caused numerous casualties, and was the 
prelude to the attack, the invasion, at Playa Girón or the Bay of Pigs.

These bombings and the involuntary lie of Ambassador Stevenson, who had 
been deceived by his government, occurred even before the declaration of 
the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution. These bombings took 
place prior to the declaration of the socialist character of our Revolution.

She has spoken of the October Crisis.

She has spoken of the days of President Kennedy's assassination, and the 
declassification of documents. They have really been hidden from the 
U.S. people too long. Declassify them all.

But if she wants to talk about these issues, I suggest she read the book

Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, 
and Che, by CIA agent Veciana, in which he recounts his meeting with CIA 
agent David Phillips and with Lee Harvey Oswald, in Dallas, during the 
third week of September, 1963.

It has been a history of lies and aggression: Operation Northwoods, 
Operation Mongoose. Information was just declassified showing that at 
that time the United States had prepared 261,000 soldiers, ready for a 
direct invasion of Cuba. Functioning in Florida was the CIA's largest 
base in history, until that time, with more than 700 agents, until the 
creation of the even bigger CIA base in Saigon.

She uses a style reminiscent of the trial of Alice in Wonderland: 
sentence first, trial later.

I speak for my people, and I also speak for those who cannot call 
President Trump or the U.S. Ambassador by their name, but feel and think 
like me.

At least she has recognized the total isolation of the United States in 
this hall and in the world. You are alone on the issue of the blockade 
of Cuba! (Applause) She ignores the power of the truth, underestimates 
the strength of an idea at the bottom of a cave, which is more powerful 
than an army, as José Martí said, who wrote, carrying it on his chest, 
in an unfinished letter with the following phrase: "Everyday I am in 
danger of giving my life for my country, for my duty… to prevent in 
time, with the independence of Cuba, that the United States extends 
itself into the Antilles and falls, with this added strength, upon the 
lands of our America."

Ambassador, everything began much more than 26 years ago, much more than 
55 years ago. Along with the military aggression, the fabrication of 
pretexts, plans for a direct invasion, measures taken to strangle our 
economy, state terrorism, destabilization, and subversion, they proposed 
- and I quote the infamous letter by Undersecretary of State Lester 
Mallory, signed April 6, 1960

- promoting "… disenchantment and disaffection based on economic 
dissatisfaction and hardship… all possible means should be undertaken 
promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba … denying money and 
supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages…"

The blockade of Cuba was created "to bring about hunger, desperation and 
overthrow of government.”

Nonetheless, when President Raúl Castro Ruz and President Barack Obama 
made those surprising, hopeful announcements, December 17, 2014, 
President Obama described the blockade as failed and obsolete, 
ineffective in achieving its objectives, causing harm to the Cuban 
people and the isolation of the U.S. government. Later he described it 
as useless in advancing U.S. interests, failed, senseless, not viable, 
and a burden for citizens.

But the blockade was never recognized as a flagrant, massive, and 
systematic violation of the human rights of Cubans, which the United 
States Ambassador cynically omitted a few hours ago, nor was it 
recognized as inconsistent with international law or as an act of 
genocide, as defined by the Geneva Convention, nor was its goal of 
subjugating our people renounced.

Nonetheless, the President of the United States at that time repeatedly 
stated his intention to use his executive powers, and work with 
Congress, to lift the blockade.

A concrete reflection of this intention was the U.S abstention, in 2016, 
during the vote on this resolution, which the United States Ambassador 
has just mocked.

During this period, substantive progress was made in terms of diplomatic 
relations, dialogue, and cooperation in areas of mutual interest and 
benefit; but during these last two years, the blockade was maintained, 
in all fundamental aspects, although some executive decisions were made 
to modify its implementation in a very limited fashion, but moving in a 
positive direction. The way in which the use of travel licenses was 
expanded was significant, given the legislative prohibition on travel to 
Cuba, that constitutes a violation of the rights and civil liberties of 
U.S. citizens, which she also failed to mention. Tangible results were 
also achieved in bilateral cooperation, to our mutual benefit, in such 
important arenas as confronting terrorism, drug trafficking, and digital 
crime.

Mr. President:

This past June16, President Donald Trump proclaimed the blockade the 
fundamental axis of his anti-Cuban policy, and announced a series of 
measures meant to reinforce it.

In an antiquated, hostile anti-Cuban speech, reminiscent of the Cold 
War, and before an auditorium composed, among others, of rancid Batista 
henchmen, annexationists, and terrorists, the U.S. government returned 
to worn-out allegations of supposed human rights violations in Cuba to 
justify the tightening of the blockade. From this podium, heard this 
morning was his echo, his echo chamber.

President Trump does not have the slightest moral authority to question 
Cuba.

He leads a government of millionaires who intend to implement brutal 
measures against the poor and low income families of this country, 
minorities and immigrants. He follows a program which encourages hate 
and division, and promotes a dangerous idea of exceptionalism and 
supremacy disguised as patriotism, and which will lead to more violence. 
He ignores the will of voters: two thirds of U.S. citizens and Cuban 
residents in the United States, as well, support an end to the blockade.

Current U.S. policies harm citizens; corruption reigns in politics which 
have been hijacked by so-called special interests, that is, by the 
interests and the money of corporations: no support for education, 
health, or social security; restrictions on union organizing; and 
terrible gender-based discrimination.

Deserving of condemnation are the use of torture; police murders of 
African-Americans; civilian deaths caused by its troops; the 
indiscriminate, racially motivated death penalty; the murders, 
repression, and police surveillance of immigrants; the separation of 
families; the detention and deportation of minors; and the brutal 
measures threatening the children of undocumented immigrants who grew up 
and were educated in the United States.

This is the government that lost the popular vote.

The United States Ambassador has expressed her dream. I prefer to repeat 
that of Martin Luther King, when he said, "I have a dream that one day 
this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We 
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." 
Let freedom ring. (Applause)

She has come to tell us that she recognizes that the future of the 
island rests in the hands of the Cuban people. She is telling an 
absolute lie. It was never this way, throughout history. It has been a 
history of domination and hegemony over Cuba.

The announced policy proposes turning back relations to a past of 
confrontation, to satisfy the spurious interests of extremist circles 
within the U.S. right and a frustrated, aging, minority of Cuban origin 
in Florida.The Presidential Memorandum establishing the policy toward 
Cuba includes, among other measures, new prohibitions on economic, 
commercial, and financial relations between U.S. companies and Cuban 
enterprises.

It additionally restricts the freedom to travel of U.S. citizens with 
the elimination of individual trips under the so-called category of 
“people-to-people” exchanges, and increased surveillance for the rest of 
visitors from that country.

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has reiterated on four separate 
occasions, (including before this Assembly this past September), that 
his government will not lift the blockade on Cuba unless it makes 
changes to its internal order.

Today I reiterate that Cuba will never accept preconditions or 
impositions and we remind the President and his Ambassador that this 
approach, applied by a dozen of his predecessors, has never and will 
never work. It will be just one more example of a policy anchored in the 
past.

More recently, under the pretext of the health conditions of some 
diplomats in Havana, without the slightest evidence of their cause and 
origin - because they lie when they speak of attacks or incidents - or 
the results of ongoing investigations, the government of the United 
States adopted new measures of a political nature against Cuba, which 
intensify the blockade and affect bilateral relations in their entirety.

Among them, it suspended the issue of visas for Cuban travelers and 
emigrants at its consulate in Havana, which undermines the right of 
citizens to travel freely and visit that country for short periods, as 
more than 163,000 Cubans have done this year, and seriously hinders the 
family reunification of others, under the bilateral agreement to grant 
no less than 20,000 immigrant visas per year. The requirement of an 
in-person interview with Cuban travelers in U.S. consulates in third 
countries, and with emigrants in the U.S. consular section in Bogotá, 
will greatly increase the cost of the procedure and make them unfeasible 
for a large number of them. Where are their rights in the United States’ 
discourse?

There is no way to justify harming people and families to try to achieve 
political objectives against the constitutional order in Cuba.

The U.S. government, with the political purpose of limiting travel and 
damaging international tourism to Cuba, also issued an unfounded and 
utterly dishonest warning to U.S. citizens to avoid visiting our country.

Through the unjustified expulsion of personnel at our Consulate General 
in Washington, the only one in the United States, the capacity to 
provide services to U.S. travelers and especially to Cuban residents 
here, who have the absolute right to visit and interact normally with 
their nation, has been severely limited.

Equally, the U.S. arbitrarily and groundlessly reduced the personnel of 
our Embassy, which has caused, among other consequences, the dismantling 
of its Economic-Commercial Office, with the malicious political aim of 
eliminating dialogue with the U.S. business sector, genuinely interested 
in exploring existing business opportunities, even within the 
restrictive framework of blockade regulations.

Nor is it surprising, considering what the Ambassador has said here, or 
her leaders previously, that the President of the United States ignores 
the unanimous international support for the progress that he is now 
reversing, or the similar demand for an immediate, total, and 
unconditional end to the blockade.

Mr. President:

As President Raúl Castro Ruz expressed, on July 14, “We reaffirm that 
any attempt to destroy the Revolution, whether through coercion and 
pressure, or the use of more subtle methods, will fail… Cuba is willing 
to continue discussing pending bilateral issues with the United States, 
on the basis of equality and respect for the sovereignty and 
independence of our country, and to continue respectful dialogue and 
cooperation in issues of common interest with the U.S. government.

“Cuba and the United States can cooperate and coexist, respecting our 
differences and promoting everything that benefits both countries and 
peoples, but it should not be expected that, in order to do so, Cuba 
will make concessions essential to its sovereignty and independence… nor 
will it negotiate its principles or accept conditions of any kind, just 
as we have never done throughout the history of the Revolution.” End of 
quote. (Applause).

Mr. President:

Cuba presents today, for the 26th consecutive time before the United 
Nations General Assembly, the draft resolution (entitled) “Necessity of 
ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the 
United States of America against Cuba.”

In the current situation, this text acquires special relevance in the 
face of the setback that the actions of the new government of the United 
States against Cuba signal.

The blockade constitutes the greatest obstacle to the country’s economic 
and social development and the implementation of the National Plan, in 
line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda. It is the main obstacle to the 
development of economic, commercial. and financial relations between 
Cuba and the United States and the rest of the world.

According to calculations rigorously conducted by Cuban institutions, 
the blockade caused, in the year from April 2016 to April 2017, losses 
to the Cuban economy on the order of 4.305 billion dollars.

This figure is about double what would be needed as annual direct 
foreign investment for the Cuban economy to advance substantially toward 
development.

The accumulated damages reached the enormous figure of 822.280 billion 
dollars, calculated considering the devaluation of the U.S. dollar 
vis-à-vis the price of gold. At current prices, this is the equivalent 
of 130.178 billion dollars.

Dozens of banks in third countries have been affected in the last period 
by the extreme and tenacious persecution of Cuban financial transactions.

The blockade is contrary to International Law and its aggressively 
extraterritorial application damages the sovereignty of all states. It 
also harms economic and business interests in all latitudes.

Mr. President:

The Ambassador of the United States failed to mention that the blockade 
is a flagrant, massive, and systematic violation of the human rights of 
Cubans, and constitutes an act of genocide under the 1948 Convention on 
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is also an 
obstacle to the international cooperation that Cuba provides in 
humanitarian areas to 81 countries of the South.

The human damages caused by the application of this policy are 
incalculable. There is not a Cuban family or social service in Cuba that 
does not suffer the deprivations and consequences of the blockade. Cuban 
émigrés also suffer discrimination and prejudices.

Over the last year, the Cuban importer and exporter of medical products,

Medicuba S.A., made requests to purchase supplies from 18 U.S. companies 
that refused or never responded.

Others, such as the U.S. corporation Promega, recognized for the 
production of diagnostic kits to determine viral load in patients with 
HIV-AIDS, hepatitis C, or kidney diseases, refused in June 2017 to sell 
its products to Medicuba S.A., alleging that the Treasury Department 
maintains commercial sanctions that prohibit the sale of its products to 
the island.

On that same date, and with the same argument, the refusal to supply to 
Cuba was received from the company New England Biolabs Inc., which 
markets a wide range of enzymes, such as Proteinase K, which is a 
reagent that permits diagnosis of viral diseases such as dengue, zika, 
and chikungunya, as well as other enzymes with multiple uses for the 
diagnosis of congenital malformations of fetuses. and to determine 
compatibility between organ donors and patients who are to undergo 
kidney, bone marrow, or liver transplants, among others.

Using the same argument, this company refused to provide supplies of a 
totally humanitarian nature to Cuba.

In April 2017, the German supplier Eckert & Ziegler Radiopharma Gmbh, 
refused to supply to the same Cuban medical enterprise the Ge-68/Ga-68 
Generator, or its components, which is a device used to diagnose 
prostate cancer. According to the company, it was not possible to 
directly supply the product to Cuba, or through a third country, because 
the blockade prevented it from doing so.

The cardiology service of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical and Surgical 
Hospital urgently requires a circulatory assist device to treat 
cardiogenic shock, for interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, 
allowing for the recovery of patients suffering from heart failure and 
prolonging their lives.

The U.S. company Abiomed, global leader in this market, supplies the 
Impella system, ideal for treating these conditions. In September 2016 
and February 2017, Medicuba S.A. contacted the company in order to study 
the possibility of incorporating the product into the Cuban health 
system, which to date has refused to respond.

Mr. President:

We are deeply grateful to all the governments and peoples, parliaments, 
political forces and social movements, civil society representatives, 
international and regional organizations that have contributed with 
their voice and their vote, year after year, to support the justice and 
urgency of the abolition of the blockade.

We also extend our gratitude to the vast majority of the American people 
for their support of this commendable goal.

It offends humanity’s conscience that the Ambassador of the United 
States has referred to the Bolivarian government of Venezuela in an 
unacceptable and interventionist way. She offends the heroic Venezuelan 
people, their civic-military union, and the Bolivarian Chavista 
government, led by President Nicolás Maduro Moros.

The government of the United States lies when it declares Venezuela a 
threat to its national security, which has, curiously, the largest 
certified hydrocarbon reserves on the planet.

As the Liberator Simón Bolívar wrote, “… the United States appear 
destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of 
liberty.” I respond to the Ambassador with Bolívar’s words.

We are in the midst of a clean, constitutional electoral process in 
Cuba, where seats are not bought, nor do special interests prevail, 
where there are no deceptive campaigns where money rules; elections in 
which the will of voters is not manipulated; elections in which division 
and hatred are not incited.

/Mr. President:/

We especially commend all those who have expressed concern and their 
rejection of the coercive measures announced by the current U.S. government.

The Cuban people will never give up building a sovereign, independent, 
socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation. (Applause).

We will persevere, with the consensus of our people and especially the 
patriotic commitment of the youngest Cubans, in the anti-imperialist 
struggle and in defense of our independence, for which tens of thousands 
of Cubans have already fallen and we have run the greatest risks, as we 
demonstrated in Playa Girón and in the face of all threats.

We will maintain eternal loyalty to the legacy of José Martí and Fidel 
Castro Ruz. (Applause).

/Mr. President:/

Distinguished permanent representatives;
Esteemed delegates:

Our people are following this debate with hope. On their behalf, I 
request that you vote in favor of draft resolution A/72/L.30, “Necessity 
of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the 
United States of America against Cuba.”

Many thanks. (Prolonged applause).

Exclamations of: "Viva Cuba!" "Cuba sí, bloqueo no!"

-- 
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