Comrade Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Leader of the Cuban Revolution,
Comrade First Secretary and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel,
Comrade Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly of People's Power,
Comrade Prime Minister Manuel Marrero,
Comrade Roberto Morales, Secretary of Organization of the Communist Party of Cuba,
The recent speech by First Secretary and President Miguel Díaz-Canel on July 26th, with its brilliant and compelling demonstration of the genocide perpetrated by the United States government against the Cuban people, the deliberations of the United Nations General Assembly on July 7, and the introduction just delivered by the President of the National Assembly relieve me of the need to address certain aspects.
I am joined at this session by the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The National Assembly of People's Power, as a whole, its Council of State, the International Relations Committee, and many of its deputies have played and continue to play a significant role in the exercise of the Cuban State's foreign policy and in its international relations.
Comrades,
The international political context in which our Revolution defends and represents the interests of the people has worsened significantly.
The United States government has decided to break and destroy International Law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the pillars that emerged from World War II and have guided relations between states for more than 80 years, based on respect for sovereignty and the formal principle of sovereign equality among states.
It has also demonstrated its relative and temporary capacity to impose its will on various governments, overriding their sovereign and constitutional prerogatives, through intimidation, coercion, and, very specifically, the use of unilateral coercive measures and punitive trade tariffs.
It has resorted to military aggression, to wars without any justification, to the bombing of civilian populations, to the kidnapping of a sitting Head of State, to political assassination, to state terrorism, to “regime change,” and to cognitive or unconventional warfare.
They base this behavior on a new and unusual doctrine that they title "peace through force", such as that supposedly emerged in the historical past from looting, dispossession, conquest, extermination, occupation, slavery, ethnic cleansing, or the peace of the old colonial empires, the World Wars, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fascism and Nazism, the Monroe Doctrine and its Corollaries, of the design that must have motivated Hitler when he proposed to reconfigure the map of Europe in the first half of the 20th century or more recently with the ill-fated redesign of the Indo-Pacific, the New Middle East or NATO.
In recent weeks, as if the lessons of history had not been learned, the ghost of McCarthyism and the witch hunt resurfaces in the United States as official policy. A strange Summit, to which dozens of Foreign Ministers were suddenly summoned in Washington, was dedicated to trying to launch the persecution of a phenomenon that had not been heard of. They call it a "resurgence of far-left terrorism." Before, they had tried to coin the strange concept of "narco-terrorism." We should remember the bloody Latin American dictatorships and the Plan Condor that they imposed.
Shortly after, the State Department published an extensive report on Cuba, which has caused much discussion due to its superficiality, mendacity and inconsistency, as if it were commissioned from a poorly used Artificial Intelligence application, it is said, but which attempts to single out Cuba as a danger to the United States.
Besides the absurdity of suggesting that our country could threaten the world's largest nuclear military power, the report seeks to criminalize and repress genuine expressions of solidarity with Cuba, manifested in multiple sectors and segments of American society.
It seeks to condemn and criminalize the Cuban Revolution's support for causes advocating for justice, civil rights, and against racism, Zionism, war, and oppression. It questions our right to defend ourselves against imperialist aggression. It attacks the solidarity and humanitarian work we have undertaken in many parts of the world. It condemns Cuba's internationalist efforts for the liberation of the peoples of Africa and against apartheid, and identifies our country as a danger because of its example, its resistance, its dignity, and its work for social justice.
Just over five years ago, in July 2021, that great Mexican and Latin American statesman, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared, and I quote: “We may agree or disagree with the Cuban Revolution and its government, but having resisted for 62 years without subjugation is quite a feat. (…) Consequently, I believe that, because of their struggle in defense of their country's sovereignty, the Cuban people deserve the prize of dignity, and that island should be considered the new Numantia for its example of resistance, and I think that, for that very reason, it should be declared a World Heritage Site.” End quote.
That example, that alternative to unfettered capitalism and imperialism, is the danger the United States identifies, adding to it the thirst for revenge of the heirs of the Batista dictatorship—murderers of 20,000 Cubans—the henchmen, torturers, and thieves, the mercenaries of Bay of Pigs, those who tried to push us toward nuclear holocaust, bacteriological warfare, the perpetrators of attacks, the terrorists, and those who seized control of the country. And that is why they condemn us to a ruthless and merciless war. They are the reincarnation of Valeriano Weyler and that 19th-century holocaust; and of Lester Mallory, architect of the policy of provoking suffering, despair, and the overthrow of the government.
Through aggressive and threatening behavior, the world's greatest military and economic power stifles the will of many states in the conduct of their own national affairs and even in their international relations.
This reality has allowed the U.S. government to drastically intensify the economic war and collective punishment against Cuba, tighten the energy embargo to the maximum, strangle our possibilities for commercial interaction with other countries, and advance in its efforts to disconnect Cuba from the international economy.
They are blatantly lying when they say there is no energy embargo, that we were getting free oil, that the blockade doesn't exist, and that it doesn't infringe upon the sovereignty or jurisdiction of other states.
It is a very dangerous and logically unsustainable scenario in the medium term, but one that, under the current circumstances, forces Cuba to endure the increased, ruthless destructive capacity of the United States government.
On July 26, the First Secretary of the Party and President of the Republic warned, and I quote: "Cuba is waging a historic battle today. A new Moncada. ... we, the current generations, are fighting against the walls of a genocidal policy that aims to suffocate the entire population in order to seize control of the country."
Even under these circumstances, our people enjoy broad and deep relations throughout the world. These are, as a rule, friendly and cooperative relations, but they are also, as a rule, relations of respect, even with countries and governments with which we have political differences, which are the minority.
There is no doubt regarding the overwhelmingly universal rejection of the United States' economic blockade against Cuba. The resounding 136-9 vote against the US attempt to block a debate on the issue at the UN General Assembly on July 7th is clear evidence of where global public opinion stands, even under the current climate of intimidation.
"Whoever rises up for Cuba today, rises up for all time," Martí would surely repeat in these circumstances. Silence, indifference, or narrow and selfish interests would endanger all of humanity. Any state could be next if a broad international effort does not halt this barbarity. If U.S. citizens had access to truthful and sufficient information, they themselves could prevent the catastrophe with which their government threatens the planet.
On January 1st, 2024, the Leader of the Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, stated, and I quote: “The policy of permanent hostility and blockade imposed by the United States government is the main cause of our economic difficulties. Have no doubt about this reality, even though the enemy invests millions of dollars and considerable effort to conceal it.” End quote.
Our people are aware of the news and understand perfectly that a macabre and well-designed plan is underway, aimed at cutting off, step by step, sources of financial income, access to markets and technology, and essential supplies for the Cuban economy and the lives of Cubans, including food and medicine. Added to these and other significant limitations are those imposed by the total energy blockade, which has been in effect since January of this year and which, through the use of all available means, practically prevents the importation not only of fuel, but also of components and parts, including solar panels and all inputs or technology associated with electricity generation.
Our people are also aware that the threat of military aggression remains. Even though it is neither conceivable nor logically conceivable what excuse or pretext could be used for such a criminal and irresponsible act, the aggressive appetite of anti-Cuban sectors within the United States seems to know no bounds.
These are the same people who celebrate as a success of their policy the agony and suffering of a mother who loses her child due to a lack of medical supplies. They are the ones who rejoice over every megawatt that goes ungenerated in the country, over the hours of blackouts endured by the people, over the water shortages faced by significant segments of the population, over the garbage that goes uncollected, and over the disruption of public transportation.
The United States government is well aware of our willingness to find solutions to bilateral differences through dialogue and is well aware of the patience with which we have accepted its proposal to talk on the basis of respect.
The United States and everyone else observe our willingness to accept, despite lies and manipulation, an offer of aid—curiously labeled as humanitarian—in an amount that merely covers the economic and social impact of five days of the blockade. This is less than the aid from the World Food Programme, which they tried to prevent, and despite the fact that it is being provided by the same government determined, futilely but causing profound pain and suffering, to create a humanitarian crisis in Cuba.
The true goal and intentions of the United States government are not revealed through dialogue or diplomacy, nor even through offers of aid, but rather through coercion and a determination to inflict the greatest possible punishment on the Cuban people in order to force their surrender.
Cuba is not a threat to the United States, nor does it wish to be its adversary or enemy. Our vocation is one of peace, as evidenced by the relations we enjoy with the entire international community and by the Proclamation of Peace for Latin America and the Caribbean, signed by the Heads of State and Government of the region in Havana.
Our sole commitment is to the Cuban people. Our mandate emanates and continues to emanate directly from their full, sole, and absolute sovereignty. We have the duty and the right to reject and confront the aggression that punishes and threatens them, and we have the supreme right and duty to defend ourselves, even with arms, if we are militarily attacked.
We continue to aspire to the eventual possibility of a respectful and constructive relationship with our voracious neighbor to the North and to take steps that lead in that direction, always with absolute, total, and complete respect for the sovereign rights and prerogatives of each party, which is how relations between states are conducted.
Many of our compatriots live in the United States. With our compatriots, we strive to strengthen ties and offer them the greatest opportunities for interaction with the homeland and for fraternal bonds with their families and loved ones. Many of the government measures adopted now and in recent years are oriented in this direction and are based on the conviction that Cubans residing outside of Cuba, anywhere in the world, have an important role to play in the development of the nation, from wherever they are and also if they return to the country.
The new economic and social transformations in which we are engaged considerably expand these possibilities.
I wish to express our immense gratitude for the expressions of solidarity with the cause of Cuba from all continents, for the constant and unconditional humanitarian aid, free from political opportunism, from numerous governments, parliaments and parliamentarians, international organizations, fraternal organizations, social movements, political parties, businesspeople, friendship, solidarity and civil society associations, intellectuals and artists, personalities and academics, and individuals of diverse political leanings and ideological commitments, but who all agree in rejecting the injustice and the crime committed against Cuba.
Barely four years had passed since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, when Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz expressed, in 1963 and I quote: "It is true that we are still under the imperialist blockade; It is true that the imperialists are trying to tighten this blockade, and we do not know how long we will have to resist this situation. And we will resist it! because our revolutionary flag will never fold! because the high head of this nation will never bow! Because we will face the risks that are necessary for as long as necessary; We will face the sacrifices that are necessary, as long as necessary" end of quote.
We know that Independence, the Revolution, Socialism and the very existence of our Nation and our Culture will depend on it.
In the year of its Centennial, it is necessary to understand, assimilate, act and tirelessly repeat that idea established by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz that a better world is possible, a world without cruel blockades, and I quote "that kill men, women and children, young and old, like silent atomic bombs." Fidel aspired and called to fight for a better world that will only be the result of the revolutionary and progressive struggle. This vision feeds optimism, the certainty of victory and commits us to fight tirelessly, even in circumstances as hard and challenging as those we live in today.
Let us repeat with José Martí "before giving up the effort to make the Homeland free and prosperous, the South Sea will join the North Sea, and a snake will be born from an eagle's egg."
Socialism or Death!
Homeland or Death, We will prevail!
