Speech by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the 28th Ibero-American Summit
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, March 25, 2023
Your Excellency Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic,
His Majesty Felipe VI,
Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government of Ibero-America; Heads of Delegations,
Your Excellency Andrés Allamand, Ibero-American Secretary General,
It is very moving to visit the sister Dominican Republic, cradle of a generous and noble people. It is so closely linked to Cuba in geography and history that some regions of our countries are hard to tell apart.
On top of that union rides the Generalissimo Máximo Gómez Báez, born in this country, who became the exceptional leader of the Mambi forces in the struggles for our independence, reason why we pay permanent and heartfelt homage to him in Cuba.
“Old man Gómez,” as he was affectionately called by the people and the troops, with his undisputed military talent and a sense of homeland that surpassed Dominican borders, earned the rank of General of the Cuban Liberation Army in a transcendent episode that our history recognizes as the first machete charge.
In that legendary combat, the strategic use of this work tool transcended to become the weapon Cuban would use the most against the colonial army.
That powerful Cuban-Dominican history has special resonances here, on a day like today. It was on March 25, 1895, exactly 128 years ago when our National Hero José Martí and Máximo Gómez, General in Chief of the Liberation Army, signed what is known as the Manifesto of Montecristi.
"We Cubans,” the text emphasizes,” are starting the war, and Cubans and Spaniards will finish it together. If they do not mistreat us, we will not mistreat them. If the show respect, we will respect them. The blade is answered with the blade, and friendship is answered with friendship. There is no hatred in the Antillean bosom."
Despite the time elapsed, the Manifesto of Montecristi continues to be a historical reference in our permanent struggle to preserve the independence and sovereignty conquered.
Excellencies,
This Summit offers an opportunity to translate into concrete actions the aspiration to advance towards a more just, solidary and sustainable region. The road to that noble purpose unquestionably passes through changing the current unjust, irrational and excluding international order.
There is an urgent need for a profound and comprehensive restructuring of the international financial architecture, which is controlled by a few institutions that profit from the reserves of the South and apply short-term recipes to reproduce their scheme of modern colonialism.
The problem of the foreign debt, which has been paid several times over but continues to multiply, perpetuating the financial plundering and economic dependence of developing countries; must be solved once and for all.
Greenhouse gases are registering record concentration levels. In the Caribbean, we are affected by increasingly devastating hurricanes. We must act without further delay to avoid the climate catastrophe.
The post-pandemic world is more divided, unjust and unequal. We face multidimensional crises in the health, climate, energy, food, economic and financial spheres that affect us all, particularly the developing countries.
In 2021 alone, 828 million people suffered from hunger, 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than in 2019. According to World Bank estimates, between 75 and 95 million more people would move into extreme poverty by the end of 2022.
How much more could be achieved if at least a portion of the nearly two trillion dollars currently being squandered on weapons were spent on financing development?
How much inequities, food insecurity, unemployment, illiteracy and poverty could be reduced if the 2030 Agenda were backed by concrete actions in the areas of market access, fair and preferential financing, capacity building and technology transfer?
In these times of multidimensional crises that weigh particularly heavily on the countries of the South and of incessant attempts to fragment our unity, Cuba has assumed with total commitment the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 + China. We carry this high responsibility with the conviction that solidarity and cooperation must prevail in the effort to develop of our countries.
The Ibero-American Conference, through the promotion of inclusive cooperation, can and should contribute to achieving this shared objective.
We are pleased with the designation of Cuba as the venue for the 26th Conference of Ibero-American Water Directors, which we will host in November 2023, in Havana. At that important event, we are willing to make available a training and development program of specialized technical capacities for the management and integral management of water, with postgraduate courses, master's degrees and doctorates in Cuban university centersto the Ibero-American community.
Excellencies,
The U.S. government insists on destabilizing our country and destroying the Cuban Revolution. Since 2019, it has intensified the blockade against Cuba to an extreme level, to deliberately inflict the greatest possible damage on Cuban families, sow discouragement and dissatisfaction, and strangle the economy. The human damage caused by this policy is enormous and cruel and impossible to quantify.
If proof were needed of how far hatred has escalated as a policy to destroy the Cuban Revolution, the world was able to see it unleashed without restraint in a scenario as noble and friendly as a sports field. It was an embarrasing show, only made possible by the active incitement and complicity of the political authorities of the city of Miami.
Just for representing Cuba and because it was played in a stadium in that city, our baseball players and some of their families were harassed without any consideration, in the semifinal of the Baseball Classic.
At the same time, as an insult to the truth and an offense to my country, which is among the greatest victims of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba was unjustifiably included the spurious list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism, issued unilaterally by the State Department, is maintained.
This is not just a lie, an unfounded slander. The inclusion in this list of a country, whose conduct of firm rejection and persecution of any form or manifestation of terrorism is unimpeachable and recognized, makes all our financial and commercial transactions and credit possibilities extremely difficult.
We are grateful for the valuable support of Ibero-America, for its statements rejecting the blockade and its demands for the exclusion of Cuba from the arbitrary list of State sponsoring terrorism.
In the face of the United States' attempts to recolonize and impose a unique culture and models on us, the region is united, under the leadership of CELAC, honoring the commitmenadherencce to the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.
We reiterate our firm solidarity with the legitimate governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, subjected to persistent destabilization attempts. Because Cuba has also suffered them and knows their human, political and social costs, it condemns and rejects the interference that fractures consensus.
We support Argentina's legitimate claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.
We reaffirm our historic support to the self-determination and independence of the people of Puerto Rico.
We reaffirm our support to the peace processes in Colombia, and reiterate that the brotherly Haitian people need peace and all our support, solidarity and international cooperation, on the basis of full respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of that nation.
Our recognition to the Dominican Republic for the remarkable results achieved in these two years of leadership of the Ibero-American Community. We wish success to the Republic of Ecuador in its new functions as Pro Tempore Secretariat.
Always count on Cuba in the effort to consolidate a more just, supportive and sustainable world that advances towards the development and prosperity of our peoples, of our brothers in blood, history, battles and hopes. From these dazzling territories of America, which inspired the idea of the marvelous real in Alejo Carpentier, whenever we are together, we grow the certainty that we can.
Thank you very much.
(Cubaminrex - Presidency of Cuba)
Translated by ESTI
