I should like to begin with a word of thanks to those representatives preceding me to the rostrum who made a direct reference to the complex circumstances of the so-called Cuban case and have warned of the dangers to peace resulting from the constant and unceasing military and economic pressure on our homeland. Our thanks also to those who, without naming Cuba —harassed and besieged, but more alive than ever— have proclaimed its right to live in peace.
131. Our delegation would like to be able to add unreservedly its voice to the predominant trend of opinion in the Assembly, which is highly optimistic about today's international situation. Nothing would be more welcome to the people of my country, who are still constantly on the alert, ready to defend with millions of lives their right to work in a society organized for their full enjoyment and benefit. However, the realities before us do not allow of so much optimism. The atmosphere of intrigue and conspiracy which, now as last year, envelops the Caribbean region leads us to a different viewpoint, based on tangible facts and deplorable circumstances which involve nothing less than the defence of our independence and sovereignty. These are no mere speculations or fantastic imaginings. Cuba, a State Member of the United Nations, is the victim —continues to be the victim— of a desirous policy of interference in its domestic affairs and large-scale aggression on the part of another Member State, the United States of America, in violation of the fundamental precepts of the Charter signed at San Francisco.
132. That is why we are here once again to lay bare the lies and hypocrisy and to show up the flagrant contradictions between the lip-service paid to the Organisation’s constitutional documents and the deeds which make a mockery of its principles. Nor shall we neglect our duty to give our opinion on the other problems which have brought us together, for they all affect us in one way or another.
133. From the over-all point of view it can be said that the subjects included in the heavy agenda for the present session cover, almost without exception, the problems which give concern to the world. During their examination and discussion our delegation will join in the efforts to achieve a genuine and stable peace for mankind, making no concessions to the exploiters and aggressors, to misery and oppression. We shall encourage all efforts to ensure that peoples control and enjoy their own wealth. We shall labour to end the domination of foreign monopolies in the under-developed countries, to speed up the historical process of wiping out colonialism, to unmask and put a brake on neocolonialism, to end foreign military bases, which are centres of provocation, subversion and dangerous tensions, to bring about full freedom of trade, audio ensure that men are not discriminated against because of their race.
134. In our agenda, the problem of peace is, of course, the one which attracts the deepest attention and arouses the greatest interest, because in fact it embraces all the others. It is an item which recurs on the agendas of every Assembly, and although a few steps towards a partial solution have now been taken, it is equally true that we are still far from having reached a situation that would allay our fears. Armed aggression and. economic exploitation, coercion, blackmail and threats have taken an acuter form in many parts of the world, and that is scarcely the kind of background that is conducive to tranquillity and harmony. Obviously, no road has more obstacles in it than the road that leads to peace. To overcome those obstacles is a difficult and complicated task which calls for sacrifice, courage, deep-rooted convictions and time,
135. Where Cuba is concerned we know full well the difference between peace in the abstract —the peace invoked by the imperialist Powers, the peace of speeches or the peace mentioned in the Charter, since it is ignored— and a peace which will permit Cuba to work constructively without the daily fear of attack: from abroad. For we wonder if there can be peace for the Cuban people while it is under siege by a great Power anachronistically set on destroying the revolution that has freed us. Is there peace for our workers who toil with gun at hand, for our peasants who till the soil with gun at hand, for our students who along with their books must have guns to defend their country with?
136. What we cannot lose sight of is that the peace which must be fought for without respite, the true peace in the last analysis, the peace for which so many millions of human beings have died, for which the masses of all continents are yearning, which all Latin Americans want, is a peace marked by the complete emancipation of peoples and the rooting out of all traces of economic injustice, territorial ambition and cultural deformation.
137. Decolonization and economic development —the two other major themes of the agenda— are bound up with the question of peace. They are also closely related and interdependent. There is no need to prove that the stubbornness of the colonial Powers in blocking the people's road to independence is a source of conflict or that the hunger which is a permanent feature in countless homes all over the planet is, beyond question, a fertile soil for the seeds of war. One example is the tragedy of the people of Viet-Nam, those victims of United States armed intervention, and another is the insatiable economic cartels, whose intrigues to secure positions of advantage in the exploitation of peoples aggravate already dangerous areas of tension. These are sensitive focal points in the precarious balance between a false and disguised peace and an open conflagration of incalculable consequences.
138. In our view the United Nations remains a forum of exceptional importance in which to air the vital problems of bur times and the new blood injected into it through the admission of dozens of countries which have attained their independence since the Second World War is a most dynamic factor which should open up increasing opportunities for the Organization to discharge its mission to the full. The imperialist Powers, and the Government of the United States in particular, can still pull enough strings in the United Nations to hinder, block, slow down or adulterate, depending on the circumstances, the justified desire for economic development or independence of the peoples still under the colonialist yoke, but it is obvious that the positive forces in the United Nations are now breaking that machinery. The road has been long, and it is still full of obstacles, because the imperialist countries refuse to recognize a world that is not made In their own image and likeness and arranged for their benefit; but some of the obstacles have already been removed and there is no resisting the trend working against them and for the peoples.
139. A striking example of the means which the United States Government still obviously has at its disposal to prevent the United Nations from operating freely is the case of the lawful representation of the Chinese people. Seven hundred million human beings have no say in our deliberations, despite the fact that everyone knows that until the Government of the People's Republic of China occupies the place to which it is entitled it is impossible to speak of the universality of the United Nations or to state flatly that it is a centre for promoting international co-operation; yet the fact is there, unresolved, and crying out year after year that the principles of the Charter are being thwarted.
140. Do we not have another piece of evidence in the case of our sister nation of Puerto Rico? We all remember the manoeuvres of the United States to withdraw the tragic case of this Latin American people from consideration by the United Nations, culminating in its ceasing to transmit information on the territory as required under Article 73 of the Charter, despite the fact that Puerto Rico has not attained full self-government. Let us look the truth in the face, let us not deceive ourselves with sophistry, for outside these precincts we shall deceive nobody. In Puerto Rico there is a colonial rule that has all the characteristics of foreign domination. Is not a people that has been absorbed economically, to pervert whose nationality every means is used, a people which has no foreign service, no defence, no postal, customs, emigration or immigration services and no currency of its own, appeals against whose courts must go to the Supreme Court of the United States, to make laws for whose island is an unrestricted right of the Congress in Washington —is not such a people a colonial people? Is not a people whose youth is subject to the compulsory military service of a foreign Power a colonial people? Any comment is obviously unnecessary.
141. In Cuba's case the contempt of the United States for the basic principles on which the United Nations rests has been carried to incredible extremes. Our people make war only on illiteracy, and have won a notable victory on this score; we make war on unemployment, and there we are on the verge of victory; we make war on ill-health, and have made much progress In the main areas. We are at war with economic under-development, to which we give no quarter; with race discrimination, which has now been buried forever; with the latifundia system, which we have wiped off the face of our country; and with foreign monopolies, the victory over which is now a thing of the past. This is the just war waged by our people with matchless courage, while living at peace with other peoples; yet we are subjected constantly to violent and bitter attacks on the part of the Government of a powerful nation which uses its military and economic resources, a gigantic machinery for defamation in all parts of the world, intrigue and blackmail on a global scale and Its perfidious alliance with the most notorious and corrupt elements in Latin America to achieve its sinister designs,
142. The insincerity of United States policy, its deceitfulness and lack of respect for principles which it constantly claims to be upholding can perhaps be best observed in Latin America where traditionally United States aggression has made itself felt through armed intervention, wanton exploitation of natural resources, control of external trade and many of the public services, .undue pressure on Governments which, if they did net yield to Washington's pressure exercised by means of force and corruption were faced with slander and with weapons, wielded either by the Marines or by hired traitors.
143. Today, with the resounding failure of the Alliance for Progress —Washington's recipe to counteract the attraction of the example of the Cuban revolution on the other peoples of the continent— there is a return to the dark period of military dictatorships and military coups, hacked by Thompson machine-guns and Sherman tanks, which have been responsible for so much bloodshed, suffering, misery and backwardness in Latin America over the years. The farce of democracy staged by most of the Latin American Governments has not helped them resolve the problem of how to stifle the demand of the impoverished masses in our continent for justice and, as in the past, those Governments take shelter behind the wall of bayonets provided by the military, and call to their aid mercenaries avid for gold and power increasing numbers of whom, by strange coincidence, have been trained in the military schools and camps of the United States.
144. The greed of the monopolists and their fear lest our peoples emancipate themselves from political tutelage and economic exploitation have cast their latest adventure in Latin America into a familiar mould. This scandalous state of affairs brings to light the internal contradictions of United States imperialism. Charges and counter-charges are made within the United States Government itself, which is unable to explain to the general public why the moral and political values it is supposed to be defending are being destroyed. In the Senate in Washington, where so many slanderous statements have been made about Cuba, facts are coming to light to belie the pompous pronouncements and demagogic speeches, and last week it was revealed that the United States Government in the current fiscal year had proportionately given far greater military assistance to the Dominican Republic than to any other Latin American country. That assistance amounted to no less than $1.26 per capita, or $3,981,000 in all, thereby deliberately favouring the overthrow of the constitutional Government elected only seven months before. Another revelation in the Senate concerned the participation of United States monopolies and military men in preparations for the coup, and although familiar to Latin American countries —constantly recurring as they are— these facts are of topical interest and, with a similar coup taking place a few days later in Honduras, possibly foreshadow future achievements of the Alliance for Progress —the alliance of Sherman tanks and Thompson machine-guns with the executive boards of powerful corporations and with various agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
145. The bloody results of these attacks on Cuba, in their impact and volume, loom larger than the dossier of the different accusations made at the United Nations against the aggressor Government. From this hall one cannot see, as the inhabitants of Havana see every day, the outlines of the United States warships off our coast, engaged in their work of provocation, subversion and espionage. From your seats you cannot hear the sound of the motors of the private aircraft which fly over our territory, manned, armed and paid for by the United States Government. From this building it is impossible to assess with accuracy the infiltration along our coast of traitors trained by the CIA and equipped with the latest technical devices for murder and sabotage.
146. Scarcely ninety days remain until the fifth anniversary of our revolution, and in these five years our people have not had a single minute's respite from the constant harassment of this illegal, disgraceful and ferocious behaviour. Five years of an unequal struggle in which our people have shown exceptional spirit, overcoming incredible obstacles, advancing with giant strides and winning the fraternal solidarity of all peace-loving peoples.
147. That dangerous and explosive situation remains unchanged. To be more exact, it has become worse in recent months. At the end of April, to go back no more than half a year, an aircraft coming from a northerly direction attacked an oil refinery in the city of Havana, but did not hit its objectives owing to the failure of the bomb detonators. In the early morning of 15 August a small private aeroplane fired several times on the Bolivia sugar mill in the province of Camagüe, dropping two 50-pound bombs, one of which exploded. On 19 August a bomber flew over the town of Casilda, in the south of Las Villas province and fired several rockets, one of which hit and set on fire a railway oil tank car.
148. Within hours of this attack, two landing crafts from a ship standing off the entrance to the Santa Lucia estuary on the north coast of the province of Pinar del Rio approached a metallurgical plant, opening fire with 30-calibre machine-guns and bazookas, and managed to pierce several oil tanks and one tank of sulphuric acid.
149. The death of the teacher, Fabric Aguilar Noriega, and the wounding of his three small children were the results of a raid by two unknown aircraft on the town of Santa Clara on 4 September last. Two jets which made off when pursued by Cuban aircraft were also observed in the same area. A week ago in the morning hours a pirate ship attacked and destroyed a sawmill on the north-east coast of Oriente province.
150. It is impossible here and now to describe all the aggressive acts which have taken place. It is no secret that groups of mercenaries, recruited and paid by the CIA and in many cases trained in camps of the United States regular army, are concentrated in Central American countries; nor can the movement of military equipment in that area or the counter-revolutionary activities in United States territory be covered up.
151. It is evident that the United States takes no notice of Article 2, paragraph 4 of the Charter, which states that all Members of the United Nations shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations, or of paragraph 3 of the same Article, which states that all Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means; neither does it fulfil one of the main purposes of the Charter, which is to practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours. The United States Government fails to observe all these injunctions and many others. It prefers "positions of strength", particularly when dealing with a small country like Cuba. And apparently it does not learn from experience, since it has forgotten how the Cuban people in seventy-two hours defeated the invasion it launched at Playa Girón; an invasion which, as everyone will recall, had the complete and avowed sponsorship of the Washington Government.
152. One of the most repellent aspects of the United States Government's Cuban policy is the attempt to starve our people into submission by an economic blockade which, as is well known, extends beyond the frontiers of the United States and the bounds of the Western hemisphere, and seeks to control almost all imported and exported goods and even the seas crossed by merchant ships with their peaceful cargo of foodstuffs and medicine for our people, raw materials and spare parts for our industry, and fertilizers and seed for our agriculture. The United States rulers think that our people will yield because they would prefer the disgrace of surrendering their independence and sovereignty rather than face the material difficulties caused by economic aggression, despite the fact that every day the Cubans give convincing proof of their unshakable resolve to defend the revolution and of the pride which they take nowadays in having completed the work of our liberators.
153. I shall not recite the long list of attacks against our economy ever since the United States oil companies refused to refine our oil in 1960. It is a familiar story: cancellation of the sugar quota; a total embargo on trade, and official attempts to induce Europe to join in the embargo; a ban on the entry into the United States of any product manufactured, either wholly or in part, of products of Cuban origin, even if manufactured in some other country; representations to other countries to prevent their ships from carrying goods to Cuba; pressure to secure the ending of commercial agreements with Cuba; threats to cut off financial aid to countries that trade with us; reprisals against ships which bring us goods; a financial embargo; freezing of the Cuban assets in the United States and a ban on dollar transfers to other countries. Not even the funds of the Cuban delegation to this Organization and the personal bank accounts of its members were exempt from that misguided, unprecedented policy, which is contrary to the Charter and unquestionably doomed to failure!
154. Truly, this behaviour is shameful, brutal and grotesque. And the astonishing thing is that when the United States Government interferes with other countries' trade with Cuba, carries out reprisals against shipping companies or forbids its own citizens to travel to our country, it is at the same time denying the fundamental interests of third countries, not to mention its own.
155. The speech given at Los Angeles on 20 September last by Mr. Martin, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, reveals the downright immorality and also the stupidity of this policy of economic strangulation, which, let us not forget, violates the United Nations Charter. He stated that the object of the United States policy of isolating Cuba was to deny our Government the means to win and to consolidate its gains, and that as a result of this policy of pressure, our trade with the capitalist countries has dwindled, many airlines had suspended their flights to Cuba, shipping had declined substantially and access to the international system of finance had been largely closed to us. He added without blushing —on the contrary, with satisfaction— that the anti-Cuban policy had led to food rationing, and that today the Cuban people consumed some 15 to 25 per cent fewer calories than before the revolution.
156. We do not know where Mr. Martin gets his information, or what Madison Avenue firm invents it for him, but that is beside the point; what interests us is the confession of the essential maliciousness of the Cuban policy and also the admission of the failure of that policy, since today the revolution is stronger than ever, and is more than ever an example to other peoples.
157. Even as the United States says from this rostrum that the clouds have lifted a little and that rays of hope can be seen, the Caribbean region is growing darker in direct consequence of the subversive and interventionist activities of the United States Government against Cuba. These are facts which cannot be cloaked by eloquent phrases. They are realities which can easily be checked. What is proclaimed in this hall is denied at press conferences and in political speeches. This is devious and deceitful behaviour.
158. A year ago President Dorticos stated here [1145th meeting] that a complex of circumstances and climate of opinion were being created around the so-called Cuban question against our will and our desires, transforming or attempting to transform this question into a war scare. Those words, in the present situation, are as apt as ever, because the tenor of the United States Government's propaganda is the same as it was then, trying to present Cuba as a threat to peace in the hemisphere, when it is the victim of untold conspiracies and acts of aggression, and because this campaign, just as it was then, is combined with military preparations in the area. The sombre state of affairs in the Caribbean is clearly not our fault. It is the fault of those who are tightening the noose around Cuba. We know that tensions have relaxed in other parts of the world, and our people and our Government welcome this relaxation, because we are in favour of peace; but as our Prime Minister Fidel Castro stated last week, we shall not accept with equanimity a situation in which tensions decrease, but increase for us.
159. The various pressures to which Cuba is being subjected constitute an international crime, and have produced a rarefied atmosphere charged with electricity. The Assembly must not lose sight of these facts while surveying the world scene. The picture presented by the Caribbean area, with Cuba as the target of the subversive and destructive policy of the United States, is part and parcel of the theme of peace, or rather the theme of war. The Cuban Government and people are aware of the dangers and consequently are on the alert. There will be no surprises for us, or for you who have been warned. Peace is indivisible and its maintenance is a collective responsibility.
160. In short, if we survey the tasks confronting us in the correct historical perspective, the question of colonialism is perhaps the key theme. In the statement made at the fifteenth session of the General Assembly [872nd meeting] by our Prime Minister Fidel Castro there is a sentence which is worth recalling, because it tells the whole truth, sums up the essence of the peoples' fears, and shows what leads from peace to war, and it is this: "When this philosophy of despoilment disappears, the philosophy of war will have disappeared!" So long as there are peoples which are exploited, peoples whose honour has been tarnished, peoples which are discriminated against, or, to put it another way, so long as there are imperialist Powers or imperialist Governments, we shall always be on the brink of disaster, and there will always be pretexts for aggression.
161. The Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, approved by an overwhelming majority of votes at the fifteenth session [resolution 1514 (XV)] on the initiative of the Soviet Union, is our framework for the adoption of effective resolutions in these months of debate. It must be the goal of the majority of the countries represented here to promote the full implementation of the Declaration, because it would be a step towards peace and because it is a duty towards the peoples which continue to suffer oppression. We must fix a date in the very near future for the attainment of independence by all colonial peoples without exception. These peoples have endured centuries of agony and the least that they can expect is this support for their aspirations, this tribute to their dignity, so long mocked and trampled underfoot.
162. The imperialist Powers, reluctant to release their prey, make excuses and use subterfuges to avoid complying with the provisions of the Declaration. What they have conquered by fire and sword at the cost of the blood and tears of their victims they will not readily let go. For a long time they have been extracting fabulous wealth from these peoples, nearly always by ruthless means. They resist being cast aside by history, which is inexorably bent on their destruction. It is our duty to encourage the struggle for emancipation and the incorporation of these millions of human beings in the concert of the independent nations.
163. We Cubans know full well from experience what it means to affect the economic interests of the imperialists, and we know that the struggle is a cruel one and that the imperialists, despite their contradictions and their intrigues to oust each other, will pool their forces, their capital, their propaganda, their votes in international bodies and their guns in their eagerness to smash the resistance of the peoples, to thwart their independence and to prevent their economic development and political awakening. The dramatic struggle of the people of Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, who daily demonstrate their resolve to free themselves, would not be such a bloody one nor would it entail so much sacrifice and suffering if Portugal could not rely on the support in arms and money and the diplomatic manoeuvres of its NATO allies. The regime of terror, the murders, tortures and contempt for human dignity in the Portuguese colonies in Africa rest on NATO dollars and war material.
164. The question of Southern Rhodesia is a typical instance of the devices used by the colonial Powers for the purpose of hiding their reluctance to move with the times and maintaining their structure of oppression intact. At recent meetings of the Security Council the plot to strengthen the military power of the white minority in Southern Rhodesia and to perpetuate the economic pauperization and political subjugation of the African population was exposed to world public opinion.
165. The same pattern, with appropriate variations, is used by the colonial Powers elsewhere in Africa and in other parts of the world. The tricks of the colonialists know no frontiers. The purpose is the same: plunder. They want to keep their hold on the sources of wealth to feed the metropolitan country. They seek to perpetuate injustice either by maintaining the traditional structures or by disguising them, but they shall not succeed. The nations are on the march and know the right road.
166. I should now like to turn to the apartheid policies of the South African Government. As the representative of a country in which all are equal, not only before the law but, what is more important, where opportunities for study and employment are concerned, in which all have equal access to places of recreation, in which the race barrier does not exist in every-day life and we are all, in brotherly concord, shaping our own destiny, and because the revolution, by uprooting privileges, has created for all time new human relationships, placing the dignity of man above any other consideration, I must reject with contempt and deep indignation the despicable and intolerable conduct of the fascist regime of South Africa.
167. Needless to say, the Cuban delegation will always be ready as in the past to collaborate on, stimulate and vote in favour of, any measures which may be necessary to bring to an end the shame which is apartheid in the world of today. It is no accident that racists the world over are among the worst enemies of the Cuban revolution.
168. Our passionate solidarity is also extended to the Negro in the United States, subjected to brutal discrimination, sacrificed by an unjust system, made the plaything of deceitful politicians, brother in pain and indignation of all victims of discrimination everywhere.
169. As I said before, my delegation's task in this Assembly is to co-operate with untiring enthusiasm in the interests of a real peace, and consequently to denounce everything that is, whether openly or covertly, opposed to peace.
170. Before closing my speech this morning I wish to mention Cuba's position with regard to the central theme of the moment —the Moscow Treaty and the proposed denuclearization of Latin America [A/5447 and Add.1] which is item 74 of the agenda of this session of the General Assembly.
171. World public opinion welcomed the news of the signing of the Moscow Treaty on a partial prohibition of nuclear tests in so far as it signified an allaying of fears over the harmful effects of the resulting radiation on human beings and offered a possibility of reducing international tensions. Cuba, too, shared that feeling.
172. Nevertheless, just after the signing of that treaty, the United States Government, an imperialist nuclear Power signatory of the treaty, started —as we have seen— a fresh wave of attacks on Cuba and revived activities aimed at destroying the Cuban revolution by encouraging various acts which, in contradiction to the peaceful purposes of the Moscow Treaty, increase the tension in the Caribbean and reproduce the conditions that gave rise to the so-called "October crisis" in 1962, thereby creating a real danger to world peace.
173. From the very moment of signing the Moscow Treaty, the imperialist Government of the United States, in addition to attempting an economic and financial blockade, has been stepping up the infiltration of CIA agents and saboteurs into our territory, landing them on our coasts from vessels armed by that very Government. There has been an intensification of pirate attacks by sea and air, with the aid of craft armed by the United States Government and bomber and fighter aircraft, including jet aircraft of the United States Air Force, and in consequence our country has been suffering material damage and loss of life.
174. At the same time, with cynical openness and the undisguised complicity of some puppet Governments, Cuban counter-revolutionaries are being assembled in Central America and these counter-revolutionary forces are being hastily trained to attack our country. All this is being done with the financial backing and under the direction of the Pentagon, the CIA and the United States Department of State.
175. The bad faith and perfidiousness of the United States Government have been clearly revealed by its opportunistic and Machiavellian double policy. The United States is mistaken, however, if it thinks that there can be a climate of peace in the world and a policy of war against Cuba.
176. For these reasons the Revolutionary Government of Cuba is obliged to define its attitude to the Moscow Treaty in the light of the special circumstances resulting from actions undertaken by the United States Government precisely because of the signing of that Treaty.
177. Cuba attaches great importance to any success that can be achieved along the thorny path of disarmament. Cuba supports the Soviet Union's policy of peace which, beyond doubt, led the Soviet Union to join In concluding a treaty for a partial nuclear test ban. Cuba is prepared to do everything it can to advance the universal cause of peace. Cuba cannot, however, sign a treaty one of the signatories of which is at the same time encouraging a number of activities and pursuing a policy towards our country which, in the last analysis, create what is in fact an undeclared war.
178. At the time of the "October crisis", the Revolutionary Government of Cuba warned that where our country was concerned there could be no true peaceful solution so long as the United States Government persisted in its gross violation of the Cuban people's most elementary rights.
179. The United States Government systematically maintains an economic blockade and every possible measure of commercial and economic oppression directed against our country in all corners of the world. The United States Government pursues its subversive activities —dropping and landing arms and explosives by air and by sea, introducing spies and saboteurs— and all these activities are being conducted from the territory of the United States and some other countries conniving with it. The United States systematically continues the violation of our air and naval space by its aircraft and warships. The United States still maintains in Cuban territory the military base of Guantanamo, in utter disregard of our sovereignty and against the will of our people. This base is used precisely for violating our air space, bringing in spies and saboteurs and fomenting counter-revolutionary activities in our country.
180. Cuba will not sign the partial nuclear test ban treaty until the United States Government ceases such criminal and Illegitimate activities against it. Cuba's refusal to sign the treaty will not, of course, alter the practical results thereof. Cuba is not a nuclear Power and lacks the resources to become one; but Cuba has a duty to take a moral position in the United Nations based on the inviolable principles of its international policy.
181. The universal longing for peace which has been mobilized to demand measures to save mankind from war should likewise be mobilized to demand respect for the integrity and existence of all countries without exception. Peace must be a universal good enjoyed by all nations, great and small.
182. The example of the Republic of Viet-Nam is quite apt. What right has the United States to wage a ruthless and brutal war against the people of that country thousands of miles away from its own frontiers? What right have Yankee aircraft to bomb the citizens of that country? What right have United States soldiers and officers to kill the Viet-Names with impunity? That shameless and unjustifiable colonial war is an affront to the conscience of mankind. It is time for the United Nations to do something about it.
183. That is why the Cuban delegation to the United Nations calls upon all States, especially the African and other States here represented whose peoples are struggling to affirm their political and economic independence, even as they justly condemn South Africa's policy of apartheid and such cruel manifestations of colonialist oppression as in the case of Angola, to condemn with equal vigour the criminal intervention in the Republic of Viet-Nam and other neo-colonialist activities which actually frustrate all efforts now being made on behalf of world peace.
184. The delegation of the revolutionary Government of Cuba wishes to state its position quite clearly on the subject of the steps now being taken to convert Latin America into a denuclearized zone.
185. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba is not opposed on grounds of principle to the establishment of denuclearized zones or to any other measure of initiative taken to reduce the possibilities of a nuclear conflagration, the unforeseeable consequences of which threatened our people and the whole world during the recent "October crisis", which had been brought about by the United States Government's attempts to invade our country.
186. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba deeply appreciates the intentions that have inspired the steps taken by some Heads of State of Latin American countries and has analysed with interest the contents of their proposals. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba believes that essentially the effectiveness of those steps is conditional on the influence they can have on the use of nuclear weapons by the only nuclear Power in this continent —the United States of America.
187. The United States is in possession of Latin American territory in the Panama Canal Zone. It is in possession of Puerto Rico —a territory and people which the nations of Latin America will never cease to regard as Latin American. It holds various military bases in Latin American territory, including a piece of Cuban Territory in Guantanamo Bay which it has usurped against the will of the Cuban people. In other words, the United States, a nuclear Power, holds a military base right in Cuban territory.
188. The people of Cuba will not accept any denuclearization pledge unless it includes, at the least, the denuclearization of the Panama Canal, Puerto Rico, the various bases which the United States maintains in this continent outside its own national territory, and the restoration to Cuba of the portion of its territory which the United States illegally usurped.
189. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba supports all efforts being made to create a system of world security, but thinks that the validity of such a system depends on there being no exceptions or privileges favouring any particular country.
190. This, then, is the position of the Cuban Government. We appreciate the good faith behind the proposal and we are prepared to discuss it, but our unalterable condition for supporting it is a pledge by the United States Government in regard to the territories under its jurisdiction such as the Panama Canal Zone and Puerto Rico and the abolition and evacuation of United States military bases in Latin America, especially the Guantanamo Naval Base in our country.
191. We want peace more than anyone else in our continent. The Cuban Revolution is engaged in a great effort of historical creation, and an effort of this magnitude can achieve its ambitious goals only in a climate of peace. But precisely because we truly want peace, we want all proposals put forward to guarantee it to be really useful, and we feel that their usefulness must be determined by their capacity to tie the grasping hands of the only nuclear Power in the Americas, which, by its policy of aggression against small countries and blatant interference, is obstructing the paths of peace, preparing itself for local wars of the colonial type, and at this very moment stepping up its attacks on our country, thus reproducing the circumstances which in October of last year brought this continent and the whole world to the brink of nuclear disaster.