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href="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">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</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">"We will persevere, with the consensus of
our people and especially the patriotic commitment of the
youngest Cubans"<br>
</h1>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time">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</div>
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<p>(Council of State transcript / <strong>GI</strong>
translation)</p>
<p>Mr. President;</p>
<p>Your Excellencies permanent representatives;</p>
<p>Distinguished delegates;</p>
<p>U.S. citizens and Cubans resident in the United States
who are present in this hall:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I also express our sincere condolences to the peoples
and government of Argentina and Belgium.</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>She has spoken of the October Crisis.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But if she wants to talk about these issues, I suggest
she read the book</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>She uses a style reminiscent of the trial of Alice in
Wonderland: sentence first, trial later.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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</p>
<p>- 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…"</p>
<p>The blockade of Cuba was created "to bring about
hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>President Trump does not have the slightest moral
authority to question Cuba.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This is the government that lost the popular vote.</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>There is no way to justify harming people and families
to try to achieve political objectives against the
constitutional order in Cuba.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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).</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This figure is about double what would be needed as
annual direct foreign investment for the Cuban economy
to advance substantially toward development.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Dozens of banks in third countries have been affected
in the last period by the extreme and tenacious
persecution of Cuban financial transactions.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Over the last year, the Cuban importer and exporter of
medical products,</p>
<p>Medicuba S.A., made requests to purchase supplies from
18 U.S. companies that refused or never responded.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Using the same argument, this company refused to
provide supplies of a totally humanitarian nature to
Cuba.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mr. President:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>We also extend our gratitude to the vast majority of
the American people for their support of this
commendable goal.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>Mr. President:</em></p>
<p>We especially commend all those who have expressed
concern and their rejection of the coercive measures
announced by the current U.S. government.</p>
<p>The Cuban people will never give up building a
sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic,
prosperous and sustainable nation. (Applause).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>We will maintain eternal loyalty to the legacy of José
Martí and Fidel Castro Ruz. (Applause).</p>
<p><em>Mr. President:</em></p>
<p>Distinguished permanent representatives;<br>
Esteemed delegates:</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Many thanks. (Prolonged applause).</p>
<p>Exclamations of: "Viva Cuba!" "Cuba sí, bloqueo no!"</p>
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