Cuba

Mr. President, on behalf of Cuba, I would like to congratulate you on your election as President of the General Assembly. We are living at a decisive moment in the history of humankind. The threats looming over the world put the very existence of the human species at risk. The promotion of peace, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development is the only way to ensure the future. The prevailing world order, unjust and unsustainable, must be replaced by a new system that is truly democratic and equitable, based on respect for international law and on the principles of solidarity and justice, putting an end to the inequalities and exclusion to which the great majorities of the population of our planet have been condemned. There are no alternatives. Those responsible for this state of affairs — the industrialized countries, and in particular the lone super-Power — must shoulder their responsibilities. Fabulous fortunes cannot continue to be wasted while millions of human beings are starving or dying of curable diseases. It is not possible to continue to pollute the air and poison the oceans, which is destroying the living conditions for future generations. Neither the peoples nor the planet itself will permit that without great social upheavals and extremely grave natural disasters. Wars of conquest, aggression against and the illegal occupation of countries, military intervention and the bombing of innocent civilians, the unbridled arms race, the pillaging and usurpation of the natural resources of the Third World and the imperial offensive to crush the resistance of peoples who are defending their rights constitute the greatest and most serious threats to international peace and security. Concepts such as the limitation of sovereignty, pre-emptive war and regime change are expressions of the desire to mutilate the independence of our countries. The so-called war on terrorism and the alleged promotion of freedoms serve as pretexts for aggression, military occupation, torture, arbitrary detention, the denial of the right of peoples to self- determination, unjust blockades, unilaterally imposed sanctions and the imposition of political, economic and social models that facilitate imperial domination with flagrant disdain for history, cultures and the sovereign will of peoples. The gap between the rich and the poor widens daily. The very modest Millennium Development Goals are an unattainable dream for the vast majority. While $1 trillion is spent on weapons worldwide, more than 850 million human beings are starving, 1.1 billion have no access to drinking water, 2.6 billion lack sewage services and more than 800 million are illiterate. More than 640 million children lack adequate housing, 115 million do not attend primary school and 10 million die before reaching the age of 5, in most cases as the result of diseases that can be cured. With increasing frequency, the populations of the South are suffering from natural disasters, whose consequences have been worsened by climate change. Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and other countries of the Caribbean are examples. We issue a special call for solidarity with the brotherly people of Haiti in their tragic situation. The rise in oil prices is the result of irrational consumption, heavy speculative activity and imperial military adventures. The desperate search for new sources of energy has propelled the criminal strategy driven by the Government of the United States to transform grains and cereals into fuel. For many of the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, the situation is becoming unsustainable. Our nations have suffered and will have to continue to suffer the consequences of the irrationality, wastefulness and speculation of a few countries in the industrialized North, which are responsible for the world food crisis. They imposed trade liberalization and financial prescriptions of structural adjustment on the developing countries. They caused the ruin of many small producers; they denied — and in some cases destroyed — nascent agricultural development in the countries of the South, turning them into net importers of food. It is they who continue scandalous agricultural subsidies while imposing their rules on international trade. They set prices, monopolize technologies, impose unjust certifications and manipulate distribution channels, financing sources and trade. They control transport, scientific research, gene pools and the production of fertilizers and pesticides. 08-51749 38 We have not come here to complain. We have come, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, to support and defend the demands of billions of human beings who are calling for justice and respect for their rights. The formula is not difficult; nor does it require great sacrifices. All that is needed is the necessary political will, less selfishness and the objective understanding that, if we do not act today, the consequences could be apocalyptic and would also affect the rich and powerful. That is why Cuba, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, calls once again on the Governments of developed countries to honour their commitments. In particular, we urge them to do the following. They should put an end to the wars of occupation and to the plundering of the resources of the countries of the Third World, and should free up at least a part of their millions in military spending so that those resources can be allocated to international assistance for the benefit of sustainable development. We urge them to cancel the foreign debt of developing countries, which has already been paid more than once. That would release additional resources that could be devoted to economic development and social programmes. They should honour the commitment to allocate at least 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product to official development assistance without conditions, so that the countries of the South could use those resources for their national priorities. They should also promote access on the part of poor countries to substantial new financing. They are urged to devote one fourth of the money that is wasted each year on commercial advertising to food production, which would provide nearly $250 billion more to fight hunger and malnutrition. They should allocate the money being used for agricultural subsidies in the North to agricultural development in the South. Thus, our countries would have approximately $1 billion per day at their disposal to invest in food production. We urge them to comply with the commitments set out in the Kyoto Protocol and to establish more ambitious emission-reduction targets beginning in 2012, without seeking to increase restrictions on countries that, even now, maintain far lower per capita emission levels than those of the countries of the North. They should promote access by Third World countries to technology and should support the training of their human resources. Today, on the other hand, qualified personnel from the South are subjected to unfair competition and incentives resulting from discriminatory and selective migration policies implemented by the United States and Europe. Something that is today more urgent than ever is the establishment of a democratic and equitable international order and a fair and transparent trading system in which all States can participate, in sovereignty, in the decisions that affect them. It is our deepest belief that solidarity between peoples and Governments is possible. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas and Petrocaribe have demonstrated this. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has remained faithful to its founding principles. We support the cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable right to self-determination in an independent and sovereign State, with its capital in East Jerusalem. We support the cause of those other peoples whose sovereignty and territorial integrity is being threatened, like those of Venezuela and Bolivia, and we endorse the right of Puerto Rico to be independent. We condemn the imposition of unilateral coercive measures in violation of international law and attempts to implant a single model for a political, economic and social system. We object to the negative practice of certifying countries that follows the patterns and interests of the powerful. We strongly oppose political manipulation and the application of double standards in the matter of human rights, and we reject the selective imposition of politically motivated resolutions against the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. The establishment of the Human Rights Council offers the opportunity to open a new era in the promotion of and protection for all human rights for all, on the basis of international cooperation and constructive dialogue. Those who caused the demise of the old Human Rights Commission are now trying to disqualify the Council because they have not been able to bend it to serve their own interests. They refuse to participate in its work in order to escape the scrutiny of the international community within the framework of 39 08-51749 the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. The legitimacy of the Council does not depend on the perception that the empire has about its work, but on its capacity to discharge its mandate with the strictest adherence to the principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality and non-selectivity in the treatment of human rights issues. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries will continue to defend the interests of the Third World and promote the building of a world which is more just, more democratic and with greater solidarity. Cuba has had to pay a very high price for the defence of its independence and sovereignty. The heroic Cuban people have endured the longest and cruellest blockade in history, imposed by the most powerful nation on Earth. Despite the fact that this Assembly has repeatedly and resoundingly taken a stand in favour of ending that genocidal policy, the United States Government has not only ignored the will of the international community, but in marked disregard of it has gradually intensified its economic war against Cuba. Never has the foreign policy against a country been armed with such a broad and sophisticated arsenal of aggressive measures in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military, psychological and ideological domains. Cuba has just been lashed by two intense hurricanes, which have devastated its agriculture, seriously affected part of its infrastructure and damaged or destroyed more than 400,000 homes. Allow me to take advantage of this opportunity, on behalf of the Cuban Government and people, to thank all those countries, organizations and persons who in one way or another have honestly and sincerely contributed with resources or moral support to the reconstruction efforts undertaken by my country. That stands in contrast with the position of the United States Government, which continues to ruthlessly apply the blockade. Cuba has asked for no gifts from the United States Government. It has simply asked and asked again that it be allowed to purchase in the United States the materials that are indispensable for the reconstruction of homes and the power grid, and that American companies be authorized to grant Cuba private commercial credits to buy food. The answer has been negative and has been accompanied by an attempt to manipulate information in such a manner that the Government of the United States seems to be concerned for the well-being of the Cuban people while the Government of Cuba is perceived as turning down their offer. If the United States were really so concerned for the Cuban people, the only moral and ethical behaviour would be to lift the blockade imposed on Cuba for five decades, in violation of the most elemental rules of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. That irrational policy has a clear objective: to destroy the process of profound revolutionary transformation undertaken by the Cuban people since 1959 — in other words, to trample on its right to self- determination, wrest away its freedom and its political, economic and social conquests and push it backwards to its former neocolonial status. The Bush Administration attempts to justify the intensification of its policy against Cuba by turning once more to fraud and deceit, with its characteristic cynicism and hypocrisy. Its determination to dominate and recolonize Cuba is being presented as nothing less than as an endeavour to liberate and democratize. Who, other than its accomplices, recognizes that the United States Government has any authority in this world in the matter of democracy and human rights? What authority could such a Government claim that hunts down and cruelly mistreats illegal migrants at its southern border, that legalizes the use of torture and keeps in concentration camps — such as the one installed in the territory illegally occupied by the United States base at Guantánamo — people who have not been proved of or even charged with any crime? What respect is due to a Government that attacks the sovereignty of other States, using the excuse of the fight against terrorism, while at the same time guaranteeing impunity to anti-Cuban terrorists? What kind of justice can be promoted by an Administration that illegally keeps imprisoned five Cuban patriots who were only seeking information to neutralize the actions of the terrorist groups operating against Cuba from the United States? Cuba appreciates the solidarity it has received from the General Assembly in its fight against the blockade and the aggression that it has had to confront for almost five decades. Cuba reaffirms its unyielding decision to defend its sovereignty and independence. Cuba reiterates its will to carry on, together with members of the Non-Aligned Movement, in the battle 08-51749 40 for a better world, where the rights of all peoples to justice and development are respected. To conclude, I would like to recall the words of the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz: “A world without hunger is possible. ... A just world is possible. A new world, which our species eminently deserves, is possible and will become reality.”