We live in a globalized world that is moving towards
multipolarity in an age characterized by the threat to
the survival of the human species. The United States
Government and NATO will not be able to reverse that
trend with a new world division through the force of
arms. However, there is a serious risk that in trying to
do so, they render the world ungovernable.
The huge nuclear and conventional arsenals
that have been built up, the imposed annual military
expenditure that amounts to $1.75 trillion and the
increase in military budgets to 2 per cent of the gross
domestic product required of all States members of
NATO will not help to address or to resolve issues such
as poverty, hunger, epidemics or waves of migration or
to overcome the global economic, environmental. food,
energy and water crises.
As has already been demonstrated, wherever the
so-called unconventional warfare described in the 2010
United States Special Forces Army Training Circular
18-01 and the innovations of the 2010 United States
Quadrennial Defense Review are practised, chaos
ensues through the destabilization or destruction
of States, the proliferation of violent and extremist
groups and the tearing apart of nations, cultures and
religions, thereby seriously jeopardizing regional and
international peace and security. It is necessary to
condemn the militarization of cyberspace and the illegal
and covert interference in the information systems
of some countries in order to use them in aggressive
actions against third countries to stir up conflict, as
well as global espionage on Governments and entire
societies.
The extraterritorial application of United States
laws to the detriment of other sovereign nations is
becoming increasingly aggressive and encourages
the use of unilateral sanctions, in particular financial
sanctions, as a tool of foreign policy. The use of its
courts of justice to impose multimillion-dollar fines,
including on its allies, under decisions that violate
international law, has become a means of punishment
and threat and a way to spuriously obtain financial
resources. Governments, by failing to defend their own
sovereignty and to apply their own laws so as to protect
the standards of the international financial system and
the legitimate interests of their nations and those of their
companies and citizens, are creating the conditions
necessary for the proliferation of such practices, which
jeopardize the independence of all States and the rule
of international law.
Media empires, increasingly linked to the
hegemonic goals of the Western Powers, continue their
misinformation campaigns, shamelessly and cynically
manipulate facts and create public opinion matrices
that promote aggression. We need another international
order, where there is no room for the philosophy of war
and the plundering of natural resources.
The foreign intervention in Syria must stop. It is
inconceivable that Western Powers encourage, finance
and arm terrorist groups to set them against a State,
while trying to combat their crimes in another State, as
is now happening in Iraq. The United States Government
violates international law when it launches, in contempt
of the United Nations, unilateral bombings without
respect for sovereign borders or States under the guise
of dubious coalitions.
The attempt to deploy NATO up to Russia’s borders
will have serious consequences for international peace
and security and for the stability of Europe. The
sanctions against Russia are immoral and unjust. The
strategic American deployment in the Asia-Pacific
region will create dangers for the sovereignty of all
nations in the area.
Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,
most recently in the Gaza Strip, should not remain
unpunished under the protection of a veto in the
Security Council. Palestine should already be a State
Member of the United Nations, established within the
1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The General Assembly must exercise the
prerogatives conferred on it by the Charter of the
United Nations in the current dangerous and unstable
international situation, which is full of threats and
challenges. The Security Council should be rebuilt
on the basis of democracy, transparency and the fair
representation of the countries of the South, which are
discriminated against, as permanent and non-permanent
members. It should be built on credibility and strict
observance of the Charter, without double standards,
obscure procedures or the anachronistic veto. The
Organization needs profound reform and the defence
of its principles. The Secretary-General should be the
defender and guarantor of international peace.
The 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty,
the 842 million people who suffer chronic hunger,
the 774 million illiterate adults and the 57 million
uneducated children affirm that the Millennium
Development Goals — which are questionable from
a methodological point of view — were a mirage.
There has been and still is a lack of political will in
the Governments of industrialized States, where
blindness and ineffective selfishness prevail. Insatiable
transnational businesses increasingly focus on the
ownership of huge resources. The unequal distribution
of wealth is increasingly ruthless.
It is necessary, inevitably, to establish a new
international economic order. In these circumstances,
the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda
give us little reason to hope. However, we must try
to reach agreement, as that is the most urgent task. It
must be the result of an inclusive intergovernmental
negotiation. The resulting document should not be the
interpretation of a few parties to the consensus, but
rather of the consensus itself.
It is urgent to make sub-Saharan Africa a priority.
It is essential to confront jointly and decisively, with
sufficient and genuine cooperation, the Ebola epidemic
that is affecting some countries of the continent. Cuba
has decided to maintain its medical cooperation in the
32 African countries where more than 4,000 specialists
are working and is willing to extend its cooperation,
under the auspices of the World Health Organization
(WHO), to other, most affected countries, as has been
reported. Our doctors and paramedics will do so
completely voluntarily.
We call on the international community, particularly
industrialized countries with substantial means, to
forcefully respond to the call of the United Nations
and WHO to supply financial, health and scientific
resources right away in order to eradicate the scourge
and prevent it from claiming more lives. The necessary
resources should also be contributed to support the
African Union’s Agenda 2063, which sets forth the road
map for the development of the region.
In the past five decades, 325,000 Cuban health
workers have assisted 158 nations of the South, including
39 African countries, where 76,000 have worked. Also,
38,000 physicians were trained free of charge in 121
countries; of those, 3,392 were in 45 African nations.
If Cuba, small and subject to a blockade, has been able
to do that, how much more could have been done for
Africa with the cooperation of all, especially of the
richest States?
At the second Summit of the Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in
Havana, we agreed on what is needed to achieve the
goal of making societies more just and inclusive. It
is indispensable that there be a better distribution of
wealth and income, the eradication of illiteracy, quality
education for all, real food security, health systems
with universal coverage, and the fulfilment of other
human rights.
The solemn Proclamation of Latin America and
the Caribbean as a zone of peace, signed by the Heads
of State and Government, enshrines respect for the
principles and norms of international law, the promotion
of a culture of peace, nuclear disarmament and general
and complete disarmament, and the inalienable right of
every State to choose its political, economic and social
system. We also undertook to make Latin America
and the Caribbean a region free from colonialism and
expressed support for the inalienable right of the people
of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.
The Havana summit recognized that the current
economic, financial and environmental crises have
delivered particularly harsh blows to small island
developing States, including the nations of the
Caribbean. Their efforts to improve the welfare of
their populations should not be punished by calling
them middle-income countries through schematic
calculations of per capita income, without taking into
account their specificities and vulnerabilities.
In CELAC, the region of Latin America and the
Caribbean has found a native and legitimate space
to forge from its rich diversity the essential unity to
fulfil the dreams of our heroes, achieve the complete
independence of “Our America” and make a substantial
contribution to creating balance in the world. In that
effort, there have been significant developments — the
meeting between the Union of South American Nations
and Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and
South Africa (BRICS); the meeting between the
leaders of China and the countries of Latin America
and the Caribbean; and the establishment of the China-
CELAC Forum in Brasilia in July, as had been agreed
in Havana. We welcome the Fortaleza Declaration,
also adopted in July in Brazil, at the sixth summit of
the BRICS countries — whose economies account for
25 per cent of world gross domestic product and almost
40 per cent of the population of the planet — as well
as the setting up of a development bank and a foreign
exchange reserves common fund, which are important
for the countries of the South and for the construction
of a new international financial architecture.
We express our solidarity with the Bolivarian
and Chavista revolution, which, under the leadership
of President Nicolas Maduro, is battling to fend off
destabilizing actions and foreign interference. We
support the worthy fight being waged by Argentina
against speculative capital funds, and we oppose the
interventionist decisions of the United States courts
that are violating international law. In addition, we
reiterate our strong support for the legitimate rights
of Argentina with respect to the Malvinas Islands. We
also reiterate our unwavering support for the fight that
Ecuador is leading against the ecological pillaging
and damage caused by the activities of transnational
companies.
On the eve of the International Decade for People
of African Descent (2015-2024), we would recall that
this year we celebrate the 210th anniversary of the
independence of Haiti, whose anti-slavery and pro-
independence revolution was the precursor of liberation
movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti
deserves special contributions for its reconstruction
and development, under the sovereign leadership of its
Government, in which we encourage the international
community to participate. We support the claim of the
Caribbean to receive reparations from the colonial
Powers for the horrors of slavery.
The State Department has again put Cuba on
its unilateral and arbitrary list of State sponsors of
international terrorism. Its real purpose is to increase
scrutiny of our international financial transactions
worldwide and justify the policy of blockade. During
the current Administration, there has been a tightening
of the extraterritorial dimension of the blockade, with
a strong and unprecedented emphasis in the financial
realm, through the imposition of huge fines on banking
institutions in third-party countries. An example of this
is the scandalous and unjust mega-fine imposed on the
French bank BNP Paribas. Furthermore, the current
Administration has not stepped back from promoting
destabilization in Cuba. It allocates millions of dollars
to that end in its budget every year and increasingly
relies on undercover methods, such as the use of
information and communications technology. The
ZunZuneo project, sponsored by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), which
not only violates Cuban law but also the law of its own
country, is the latest evidence of that.
Recent disclosures about the use of young people
from our continent in subversive actions in Cuba,
a project funded and executed by USAID, confirm
that the Cuban Government is right in its countless
denunciations of the ongoing illegal plans of the
United States to subvert Cuba’s internal order, in
violation of Cuban sovereignty, the sovereignty of
third countries and international law. We cannot fail
to remember that this month marks the sixteenth year
of the unjust imprisonment of three Cubans from the
Cuban Five — Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio — who
with the utmost altruism confronted the terrorist plans
organized within United States territory against our
country. I therefore reiterate, on behalf of the people
and Government of Cuba, that we will not cease in our
efforts to call for their return to their homeland.
Cuba, for its part, remains calm and prepared for
mutually respectful and responsible dialogue, based
on reciprocity, with the United States Government.
At the same time, Cuba continues to make progress
in the updating of its socioeconomic model, despite
adverse international circumstances marked by a global
economic crisis and the tightening of the blockade.
Updating Cuban’s economic socialist model is
aimed at ensuring well-being, equity and social justice
for all Cubans. The changes that we are introducing
are also geared to preserving the achievements of the
Revolution, which so many generations have fought for.
The goal is to build an ever more just, prosperous and
sustainable Cuban socialism.