-Persistent aggression by the United States government, and its attempts to disrupt citizen tranquility and social peace characteristic of our people, will not be allowed to threaten Cuba’s gradual return to normality, or as we say here colloquially, “Rain on our party,” stated Party Political Bureau member and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the accredited diplomatic corps in Havana, November10.
Beginning his presentation, Rodríguez thanked the diplomatic corps for their presence, commenting that happily, "We are meeting for the first time, following two years of the pandemic’s scourge and restrictions on face-to-face meetings of diplomats.”
He explained that over the coming days, the opening of the country and reactivation of economic sectors that have been limited during this long, difficult period would begin in a gradual manner.
"We are overjoyed by the re-initiation of the school year and teaching activities, at all levels of education; uniformed children again in the streets happily returning to their schools, accompanied by their parents.
"This is also a moment for the entire country to honor our health personnel, our doctors, paramedics, our scientists and, in a special way, our youth, students, who assumed a vanguard role in confronting the pandemic, in the implementation of social policies to protect the sick, their families, to prevent infections, to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly living alone, families who have required the generous and loving support of their neighbors," he said.
He noted that also in the next few days, international flights will be resumed to a significant level and we will have the opportunity to welcome our compatriots who have remained outside Cuba for long periods of time, without being able to return given the limited availability of air travel and financial difficulties caused by the pandemic on a global scale.
We are also expecting more international tourism, he added, visitors from all latitudes, including U.S. travelers, who chose to come despite the difficulties and restrictions.
"It is a moment of celebration for our people. Cautious celebration of this gradual re-opening to what some call a new normality. It is a moment that our people celebrate. You have witnessed moments of rejoicing by our people, our youth and our children going to Havana's Malecon, to plazas in all the country’s cities, to the beach and recreational centers.”
He went on insist, "We are not going to allow, in any way, that persistent U.S. government aggression, its intense, constant attempts, intensified over the last six to eight months, to generate conditions of internal destabilization, to disrupt the tranquility and security of citizens, undermine the social peace that is characteristic of the Cuban people, of our nation.”
“We are not going to allow that aggression organized abroad, with the use of internal agents, recruited, trained, financed, organized and sometimes even transported directly in diplomatic vehicles of the U.S. embassy accredited in Havana, to spoil, in any way, this joyful moment for our people. Of course, our people, with strict adherence to our Constitution, to our laws, in the spirit of broad consensus that characterizes them, will defend the constitutional order for which they recently voted in a massive and enthusiastic manner, allowing for the promulgation of a new Constitution."
AGGRESSION AGAINST CUBA ORGANIZED BY THE WHITE HOUSE
The Foreign Minister noted that this operation against our country is fundamentally organized by central powers in the United States, implementing the official policy of the U.S. government, with the intervention of high-ranking officials in the White House, the State Department and other agencies; with ongoing interference in Cuba’s internal affairs by anti-Cuban Senators and Congress members; and the participation of entities following the U.S. government policy of financing so-called soft coups, in a variety of ways.
He stated that these destabilization attempts have consequences, of course, which in other countries have provoked conflicts, even wars, followed by military interventions and U.S. occupations.
The script followed by the U.S. government involves desperately, unsuccessfully and foolishly attempting to portray Cuba as a failed state, as a pretext to justify the tightening of the blockade with the 243 new sanctions imposed by Trump and maintained in full force by President Biden since his election.
He recalled that this includes more than 60 sanctions levied during the pandemic, opportunistically using the virus as an ally, making the blockade even more genocidal and extraterritorial.
This has been the essence of U.S. government campaigns that have continued for more than 60 years, he noted. A few days ago, he said, I was reading about the organization of revolts in Cuba in the early 60s, of the last century, meant precisely to create an internal situation that would favor the U.S. objectives of domination, hegemony and intervention in the internal affairs of our people, violating our independence and our sovereignty, and recruiting other countries around the world to support their policy.
The U.S. government knows perfectly well that the campaigns, which have been intensified these last few months, are intended to provoke suffering for our people, and generate conditions that will lead to a social explosion.
"The U.S. government knows that its actions are intended to provoke instability and violence, looking to disrupt the peace of our country, and using, for that purpose, a very powerful communications machine, particularly digital, to construct a non-existent virtual scenario based on lies, in hopes of turning it into a real scenario, which does not exist in Cuba.
"It uses substantial financial and material resources provided directly by the U.S. government and its agencies. Its operators and internal agents reside both in the U.S. and, in very specific cases, in our country, or even in other capitals, mainly European.
"This is an operation organized, from the material and practical point of view, in U.S. territory, in conjunction with violent groups which have records of past and present terrorist attacks on our people and Cuban embassies in various countries.
"Practices, communicational modalities, are used that are typical of severely toxic situations of extreme polarization, which unfortunately characterize political practices in U.S. society, particularly electoral practices, already looking toward November of next year.
"It is well known, for example, to whose objectives the owners of Facebook respond, a large private platform characterized by the regular violation of citizens’ rights to truthful information, to privacy, to not have their personal data trafficked; a platform that not only participates in encouraging messages of hatred, division, discrimination, racial hatred and other forms of discrimination, but is a generator of violence.
"Recently published documents, firsthand testimony, demonstrate that this is so.
“Today I must inform you that private groups which have been established on the Facebook platform, not only conduct illegal activities as defined by international law, but by U.S. national law itself and that of other nations, which serve as a base of operations in violation of Cuban laws, even in violation of its so-called community policies, the very rules of the Facebook platform, altering algorithms, altering the geolocation mechanism to simulate a massive presence in Cuba of accounts and persons who are known to reside outside our country, fundamentally in Florida and U.S. territory.
"Given what has already occurred, in strict adherence to the law, Facebook could easily be sued for these practices against Cuba.
"For me, the most important thing at stake in these events is the right of a sovereign state, a free people, to exercise self-determination, resisting the attempt of a superpower to intervene in its internal affairs and force regime change, to destroy the constitutional order, for strictly political motivations, which only serve the interests of powerful groups that profit from this foreign policy and seek to manipulate U.S. citizens."
The Foreign Minister pointed out that what is at stake is the right of the Cuban people to peace and stability, to citizens’ tranquility and security, in the face of illegal attempts by a powerful country to disrupt these.
Rodriguez presented a series of examples of U.S. government interference in Cuba, meant to destabilize the country.
THE UNITED STATES THREATENS CUBA WITH NEW SANCTIONS
Cuba’s Foreign Minister recalled that on October 26, journalists asked a State Department spokesperson about U.S. government relationship with protests in Cuba. Twice, he said, “The representative avoided answering the question, but it has been generously answered by numerous authorities, high-ranking officials in the U.S. government and politicians of that country, who have made open threats of imposing new sanctions on Cuba and taking reprisals against our nation."
I may be mistaken about my count, Rodriguez continued, just an hour ago, it changed again; there are no longer 28, but rather 29 statements by the U.S. government and influential figures of that nation's Congress attacking Cuba, since September 22 alone, almost one a day, all meant to encourage, guide and instigate destabilizing actions in our country.
He denounced the fact that the U.S. government is inciting defiance of our constitutional order, of Cuban laws, and authorities. They demand that actions be allowed which Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, actions of a foreign government in our territory, meant to destabilize the country. They solicit and pressure other governments, some of which you represent, to join these actions against Cuba.
Addressing the diplomats on hand, Rodriguez noted, "They have even called on some of you, on occasion personally, to participate in illegal actions of this nature.
"They present alleged pacifists or demonstrators in a deceitful manner, when it is well known that they are foreign agents, who encourage violent acts of vandalism, and who would inevitably create situations that would disturb the peace.
"They speak of civil rights advocates, with real gall. They threaten actions, even from the U.S. Congress."
Rodríguez explained that during the month of October, the U.S. embassy in Havana has posted59 messages on Twitter alone, 36 of them related to these issues, in an open attempt to disrupt the constitutional order and internal stability.
"In a shameless manner, three of these tweets refer to alleged assistance of the U.S. government to the Cuban people, under these circumstances, including guarantees - and I quote - of greater access to food, medicine and medical supplies.
"They explain ways to facilitate the delivery of aid to Cuba and options for expediting the delivery of humanitarian goods. They lie shamelessly. There has been no offer of aid to Cuba by the U.S. government, humanitarian or otherwise, throughout the pandemic. Not even when our oxygen plant was inoperative were specific licenses offered or granted to send oxygen to Cuba; and it was made perfectly clear that a specific license from the U.S. government was required to send oxygen to Cuba.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PREVENTS FAMILY REUNIFICATION
The Cuban Foreign Minister denounced continuing U.S. government measures that prevent family reunification, that prevent family travel, prevent the granting of visas, even immigrant visas, in flagrant violation of the binding migratory agreements signed and in effect between the two countries, which restrict visa periods for Cuban citizens, and prevent Cuban citizens, who reside in third countries and who have dual citizenship, from accessing U.S. territory with those passports.
Rodriguez noted that, in addition to the elimination of consular services within our country and the increased expense of obtaining a visa for temporary travel to third locations or immigration, "Now they have erected a new barrier, which is the requirement of vaccination for Cuban citizens who wish to travel to the U.S., with vaccines recognized by the U.S. regulatory authority or by the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Cuban vaccines have been recognized by the Cuban Regulatory Authority and by others in several countries. I hope that the World Health Organization will act in accordance with its own standards, and take into account the emergency circumstances that are being experienced today on the planet, in sister nations, particularly in Africa, which have not been able to access vaccines and expedite the pre-certification procedures for Cuban vaccines, which are in progress.
"Nonetheless, it is surprising that the U.S. government, at the same time that it encourages irregular emigration with these practices, restricts the right of Cubans to travel and emigrate, leaving them in a defenseless position in the face of human trafficking, harming the interests of the U.S. government, from the point of view of law enforcement, its measures against human trafficking, against human trafficking, which creates critical situations for sister countries through which Cubans, who leave Cuba in a totally regular manner, with visas granted by these consulates, on regular airlines and commercial flights, but later become irregular, causing loss of life and creating dramatic, sometimes tragic situations, not only in the Florida Straits, but in the Darien jungle and other irregular migration routes, as well," the Minister continued.
Rodríguez described as surprising the cynicism with which the U.S. government, in spite of its own dissuasive statements, has allowed the entry of Cuban citizens along the country’s southern border, who not only arrived there in an irregular manner, but who obviously have not been vaccinated, or possess any certificate whatsoever.
A DISGRACEFUL OFFER
Only now, the Cuban Foreign Minister reported, on Friday of last week, (November 5), the State Department approached our embassy in Washington to offer Cuba a supposed donation of a million doses of one of its vaccines, adding a number of conditions, many requirements, without the circumstances being made clear, with references to international mechanisms that to date have been totally ineffective and exclusionary, in violation of the very contracts the U.S. signed with Covax.
He noted that it must be taken into consideration that a million doses is enough to vaccinate a few hundred thousand persons in a country of 11 million inhabitants.
I must state to the U.S. government that if this offer were serious, sincere and responsible, our country would recognize and appreciate it as a step in the right direction, Rodriguez said.
"We have responded to the U.S. government with a respectful and strictly truthful explanation of the reasons why this donation would not contribute to improving the health of Cubans, nor would it have any epidemiological impact."
He reported that the option was presented to use this U.S. government donation, along with a donation of Cuban vaccines, for the immunization of the population in a country in great need, perhaps one in the Caribbean, with the participation of U.S. and Cuban health personnel in the implementation of the vaccination program.
"I am reiterating here today the offer we made earlier, privately, to the U.S. government of a joint triangular operation and we are in contact with several governments of countries in these conditions, with absolute respect for their sovereignty, in the event their governments show interest in this project," he added.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S CYNICISM
Rodríguez noted that U.S. federal fundinghas increased and is continuallyavailable to finance an economic, political, commercial, financial, and communicational war against Cuba, - non-conventional warfare typically characterizedby destabilization attempts, as a precursor to greater belligerence, stating“In September 2021 alone, a total of six million dollars was allocated to the federal agency Usaid, to subsidize 12 organizations operating in Florida, Washington and Madrid in the lucrative anti-Cuba business, conducting destabilization attempts."
Public, irrefutable, convincing evidence has been presented by our government on the recruitment, training, financing, organization and logistical support of internal agents in Cuba, which U.S. law would identify as foreign agents and threaten with severe sentences of incarceration, he stressed.
He reiterated that the Cuban government, with our people, in accordance with the broad majority consensus that exists in our country, will prevent any attempt to conduct unconstitutional, not constitutional or anti-constitutional actions, as described by different schools of law, intended to provoke regime change in Cuba.
"We will not allow it. We will use our laws, our Constitution, in the strictest adherence to the principles of our socialist state of law and social justice. We will not allow, obviously, the Constitution to be invoked to violate, ignore or destroy it."
The Foreign Minister requested the solidarity of the international community, of the community of nations, of the United Nations General Assembly, the most universal, democratic and representative body of this organization. He expressed gratitude for the solidarity shown by Cuba's friends around the world, of solidarity groups, of many political forces, of civil society organizations in all areas and fields on the planet, of Cubans residing in different countries, particularly in the U.S.
