92. Exactly eight years ago, Cuba spoke in this hall for the first time since the founding of the United Nations, clearly and decisively as an independent nation. As a result of the victorious popular uprising of 1 January 1959, our country had ceased to be an obscure follower and had become the protagonist of one of the greatest revolutions of our time. Everyone knows that today Cuba has accomplished a feat of epic dimensions: it has built a socialist and communist society ninety miles from the shore of an empire vainly determined to turn back the inexorable tide of history.
93. The Cuban delegation, the true representative of the people and Government that made that feat a reality, once again is speaking out in this hall without ambiguity, soft-pedal or obsequiousness. Never has there been such a pressing need for clarity of expression and firmness of principle as at this dramatic juncture in international life. However, before expressing Cuba's views on these matters, I should like to convey to Mr. Abdul Rahman Pazhwak, the representative of Afghanistan, my sincere congratulations on his election as President of the General Assembly. I have pleasure in adding that he can count upon the co-operation of the Cuban delegation in carrying out his task.
94. The agenda before this session of the Assembly is a long one, and each item cannot be subjected to an exhaustive examination. Many, of course, are left over from previous Assemblies and some are lacking in urgency or have already been superseded by events. On the other hand, it is the duty of each Government to state its position in the general debate on all those problems which, because of their importance and urgency, demand special attention.
95. It is obvious that the international situation has deteriorated since the last General Assembly. What, fundamentally, is responsible for this deterioration? It is hardly necessary to state it, it is so well-known: Yankee imperialism. Asia, Africa and Latin America are today the prey of a United States policy of violence, barbarism, intervention, subversion and exploitation, and the risk grows larger every day that its regional wars and depredations will be escalated into a conflict of vast dimensions. It would be derisory to protest that this defiant and brutal policy is flouting and undermining the Charter of the United Nations and the most elementary rules of international law. It would be even more derisory to warn that this policy may threaten international peace and security. Manifestly, there is not, nor can there be, peace and security until the claws of Yankee imperialism are clipped at the scene of its crimes, or until its rule is overthrown.
96. World attention is now fixed on South-East Asia. Intervention and aggression try Yankee imperialism has turned that region into the focus of a dirty, criminal and cowardly war, whose rapid escalation holds within it the seeds of a large-scale conflict.
97. The vast majority of delegations have already made their views known on this matter, and many of them will be unable to restrain their anger or astonishment at hearing the false report and the hypocritical peace offer made by the United States delegation. One need not be a clairvoyant to see that this report and this offer are intended to achieve the United States Government's threefold aim of deceiving the gullible, of imposing its conditions on the indomitable Viet-Namese people, and if it fails, and it will fail, of extending and stepping up its war of aggression by further and more reckless escalation. The Conference called at Manila by the President of the United States is part of this cunning strategy, which is inevitably doomed to failure.
98. All revolutionary and progressive Governments and peoples must remain very alert to this new Yankee imperialist trap, so as to fight it resolutely with words and deeds. It is not by listening to the siren song of the aggressors, nor by shattering the unity of the antiimperialist counter-offensive on false pretexts, nor by leaving the aggressors a clear field out of fear, that we can safeguard the self-determination, independence and sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Viet- Nam and South Viet-Nam, and, in the end, peace itself. Nor can the resolutions calling for peace, formulated in the United Nations or outside it, be expected to be of any use. Peace is being won by the arms of the Viet-Namese people and will be consolidated to the extent to which we give them all the support possible in their just and necessary revolutionary war.
99. The Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and South Viet-Nam — one nation and one people — typify the two essential elements of the present international situation. On the one hand, victimized Viet-Nam demonstrates in its crudest form the savagery of United States imperialism. Its bombed cities, its ruined hospitals, schools, pagodas and factories, its slaughtered children and old people, and its violated women are living testimony that the unscrupulous methods of the Nazis have been surpassed.
100. One the other hand, heroic Viet-Nam, standing firm in the face of this attack and fighting heroically for its Independence, re-unification and the dignity of the homeland, has been, is, and will be unequivocal proof of the invincibility of peoples fighting for their freedom. This heroic Viet-Nam is the noblest and most luminous demonstration that the most characteristic feature of our present age is at once the irresistible forward surge of national liberation movements and the inconquerable uprising of the peoples hitherto subjected to the yoke of colonialism or neo-colonialism. These two converging tides are chiefly responsible today for the forward march of history.
101. The Yankee imperialists have been forced to resort to every means of conventional warfare against the Viet-Namese people. They have occupied a part of their territory and, with the connivance of the puppet governments of Saigon, they have launched against the patriotic forces of the National Liberation Front wave after wave of tanks, aircraft, and soldiers equipped with chemical and bacteriological weapons, while at the same time unleashing a savage campaign of oppression against the workers, peasants, students and all other elements of the population which support and assist its emancipating vanguard. But they have not succeeded and they will not succeed in turning back the patriotic forces of the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam, or weakening the resistance of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam.
102. Among the people of the United States themselves — besieged by the giant machinery of imperialist propaganda with its lies and deceit — there is growing resistance to serving as accomplices in these crimes and as cannon fodder for the monopolies and warmongers. This resistance has reached such a pitch that the Government is earnestly studying the application of drastic measures to those who dissent from its policy. The movement against the imperialist war in Viet-Nam, together with the struggle of the Negro and Latin-American masses against racial discrimination and the fight of the intellectuals, teachers and students for the civil rights of the American people, will undoubtedly grow and contribute effectively to victory in the common struggle for a world without empires or imperialism, without oppressors or oppressed, without war or warriors.
103. Solidly united and inspired by an inexhaustible will to fight, the Viet-Namese people, with the aid and support of the progressive and revolutionary governments and peoples, will conquer their aggressors and be free to unify their country. If we wish to encourage this victory, however, we must expand and strengthen the world movement of solidarity with Viet-Nam. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba has repeatedly expressed its readiness to send volunteers when requested to do so, and its belief that it is imperative for progressive and revolutionary governments to offer the Viet-Namese people all the aid they require and to take whatever risks are necessary to destroy the aggressors and to root out the aggression. Viet-Nam is the first line of defence of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its sacrifices are our sacrifices. Its victory will be our victory.
104. In this context, I should like to quote some remarks made by the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, at the last commemoration of the 26th of July:
"We know that the Viet-Namese are fighting today for all the peoples of the world. We know that the Viet-Namese are fighting and dying against the world's chief enemy, rejecting the insolence of Yankee imperialism, and resisting its barbarous, unjustified and unspeakable attacks. In fighting on their own soil, the people of Viet-Nam are defending the right to freedom and independence not only for the Viet-Namese but for other peoples who are the potential victims of this imperialism. They are fighting for the other peoples of the world. Therefore, no people in the world, no revolutionary people will refuse the help that Viet-Nam needs. There can be no doubt that the imperialists are taking a course with no way out, for the day that the Government of Viet-Nam decides that this aid is necessary, Viet-Nam will become the grave of imperialist aggression.
"The combat troops and conventional weapons which the friends of Viet-Nam can place there will be incomparably superior to any that the imperialists can send. The imperialists will then have no alternative but to withdraw or risk having to assume responsibility for another kind of war."
105. The Cuban delegation is categorically opposed to any kind of United Nations interference or intervention in the question of Viet-Nam. The United Nations has no alternative but to endorse the four points of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the five points of the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam unreservedly and unhesitatingly. This would indeed be an effective contribution by the Organization to the re-establishment of peace and security in South-East Asia.
106. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba fully supports these legitimate demands, and therefore demands the suspension of the bombing of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, the withdrawal of the armed forces of the United States and its allies from South Viet-Nam and strict compliance with the Geneva Agreements. It also takes this opportunity to reaffirm its militant solidarity with the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam, urges all progressive and revolutionary governments and peoples to give Viet- Nam all the material and technical assistance that it needs and denounces the false and dangerous peace offer made by the United States delegation.
107. It is worth emphasizing once again that any country which goes along with this manoeuvre openly or secretly, maintains a conspiratorial silence or retreats out of fear of the consequences of sticking to its principles, which is precisely what is at stake, will lose its moral authority for ever. You may be certain that the Revolutionary Government and people of Cuba will honour those principles, whatever the cost.
108. Imperialist aggression extends also to Laos, which has been artificially divided by Yankee interference in its domestic affairs, and it is of course that part of the country which abides by the Geneva Agreements which is the permanent target of the North American bombing, with its tragic sequel of death and destruction. Similarly, the Kingdom of Cambodia is the constant object of threats and provocations by the Yankee imperialists and repeated violations of its frontiers by the armed forces of Thailand, for the ostensible purpose of forcing it to renounce its neutralist policy. But the governments and peoples of these countries under attack have already demonstrated their unshakable determination to defend their independence, sovereignty and territorial Integrity. Cuba supports the heroic struggle of Laos and Cambodia for the right to work out their own lives free from bondage or oppression.
109. In the Far East, Yankee imperialism continues to pursue a policy of violence, intervention, oppression and exploitation. It is maintaining its military occupation of South Korea, which it has virtually converted into a colony and a base for aggression against the people of Asia, and continuing to block the peaceful reunification of the arbitrarily divided Korean nation. By taking unfair advantage of its automatic majority, the United States Government has again forced on the General Assembly the consideration of the so-called "Korean question", an item which is not only dead, but reeks of decay. Although it is true that the reunification of Korea is that nation's most ardent aspiration, the methods and forms by which this is to be achieved are a matter for the sole judgement of the Korean people, and the question therefore is wholly outside the competence of the United Nations. The only question relating to Korea which the United Nations is competent to discuss is the immediate withdrawal of the aggressive imperialist forces which are illegally occupying the southern part of Korea under the United Nations flag, thus forcing the United Nations into the dishonourable role of instrument of aggression against a peaceful nation,
110. In accordance with this point of view, the Cuban delegation will sponsor a draft resolution confirming the self-determination, independence and sovereignty of the Korean people, and their Inalienable right to reunification of their country and demanding the immediate evacuation of all foreign troops still remaining In South Korea, the dissolution of the so-called United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, and an end to interference by the United Nations in the country's internal affairs.
111. The United States Government's aggressive policy in Asia is also reflected in connexion with the so-called question of the representation of China. Its obsessive opposition to the consideration of this item, despite the increasingly large vote in favour of consideration every year, is reflected in the refusal to recognize the People's Republic of China and the foisting upon the Security Council, the General Assembly and all its organs of a handful of puppets, whose existence and representative nature are the exclusive creation of the firepower of the United States Seventh Fleet, The Cuban delegation will insist, as always, upon the restoration of the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China and the consequent expulsion of the Chiang Kai-shek clique from all the positions which they illegally occupy.
112. The fact that imperialism is the enemy of the people is most sharply illustrated by the colonial drama. In Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, there are still nations subjected to the classic forms of colonialism, despite the principles of the Charter and the resolutions adopted by the United Nations, The Cuban delegation affirms its total support for the peoples of so-called Portuguese Guinea, Angola, Mozambique, Aden, Oman and all others struggling to free themselves from a foreign yoke. Similarly, it wishes to place on record its solidarity with the peoples of Rhodesia andSouth West Africa, subjugated, oppressed and humiliated by the white minority of fascist colonists, its condemnation of the revolting policy of apartheid, and its support for the Arab States in a just solution to the tragic problem of Palestine.
113. As an unabashed champion of anti-colonialism, the Cuban delegation calls for the support by all independent States of its sister island of Puerto Rico. The United States has used and is using every trick and stratagem to prevent this case from being considered by the General Assembly. It is not enough to clamour for the abolition of the last vestiges of European colonialism in Latin America. To be genuinely and consistently anti-colonialist is to demand first of all the abolition of United States colonial rule over Puerto Rico, whose people share our language, tradition and culture, whose independence, together with that of Cuba, was advocated by Jose Marti to complete Simon Bolivar's unfinished liberating mission and to build a barrier against the economic and political expansion of the United States into the southern part of the hemisphere.
114. The Cuban delegation believes that in accordance with the principles of the Charter and the anti-colonialist resolutions adopted by the United Nations, the General Assembly should take a stand on this matter. Last year, in a letter dated 1 October 1965, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba requested that the question of Puerto Rico should be included in the agenda of the Committee of Twenty-four. The document reiterated an identical request by forty-seven Heads of State or Government meeting at the Second Conference of Non-Aligned Countries and echoed the demand of all the patriotic organizations of Puerto Rico. The Committee's working group recommended that a study should be made to ascertain whether Puerto Rico could be included in the list of territories which have not yet attained independence, thus postponing consideration of the matter until the Committee's next session.
115. The Cuban delegation reiterates its request that the General Assembly should take up the case of Puerto Rico without further delay. It should be emphasized that it does so not merely as a Member of the Organization, but on behalf of and as the representative of a heroic and self-effacing people which has been fighting for complete emancipation for a century. States Members will have to choose between supporting the independence of this people, or tightening its bonds.
116. The items relating to disarmament and the danger of thermo-nuclear war are high among the questions on the agenda of the General Assembly as at previous sessions and as at meetings of the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee at Geneva. It is public knowledge that only minor progress has been made on this problem or diversionary manoeuvres which may have a negative impact on the cause of peace and the struggle of peoples for self-determination, independence and sovereignty.
117. For reasons of principle, the Cuban delegation has never been remiss in supporting general and complete disarmament under international inspection, the elimination of all forms of thermonuclear testing, the absolute prohibition of the manufacture and stockpiling of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and their complete destruction. However, nothing or very little has actually been done in this direction, except for minor agreements more apparent than real.
118. The Cuban delegation wishes to state its position on these matters frankly and clearly. Like all the peoples of the world, the Cuban people loves peace. It wants peace in order to dedicate itself fully to the building of a new society based on the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and to improve the material, technical and educational standard of living of its workers, peasants, intellectuals and students. But the Revolutionary Government of Cuba has repeatedly made it plain that it will only accept peace with dignity, that is to say, genuine peace, a peace which guarantees the self-determination, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States, large and small, powerful and weak, based on respect for the rights of peoples and nations to freely develop as they see fit without pressure, impediments, or threats of any kind.
119. Obviously, as matters stand in the world, discussions on disarmament become somewhat Utopian. The dominant note in the international situation, so full of problems, tensions and conflicts, is the increasingly fierce struggle between imperialism and the peoples. Let us eschew words and get down to facts. The Yankee imperialist aggression in Viet-Nam, the provocations and threats of that imperialism to the peoples of South-East Asia, its plots against the independent States of Africa, its policy of interference, subversion, oppression and exploitation in Latin America and its stubborn attempts to destroy the Cuban revolution prove that it neither desires nor is seeking peace, and that, on the contrary, its natural environment is war.
120. in present circumstances, the logical subject for debate is the armed aggression of imperialism against the peoples, the dismantling of bases for aggression such as those being built or enlarged in Viet- Nam right now, or the base maintained at Guantanamo against the will of the Cuban Government and people as a garrison and bastion of counter-revolutionaries, spies and saboteurs; the abrogation of military pacts concluded in order to threaten the free countries or to intervene in those which plan to liberate themselves, such as the so-called inter-American NATO and the proposed Permanent Inter-American Force, the establishment of which will be discussed, under the auspices of the Pentagon, at the Seventh Conference of Heads of American Armed Forces, to be held at Buenos Aires in November.
121. It is understandable that States should be anxious about conventional or other weapons which are in the hands of the imperialists, but the Cuban delegation believes that a clear distinction should be drawn between those who take up arms to commit aggression and those who take up arms to repel it. At present, there are many parts of the world where men and women carry guns to win their independence or to defend it. In the immediate future, many more will follow in their footsteps. The people and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba regard the armed struggle being waged by these people as sacred and unreservedly support it. The shots fired against imperialism and its satellites are the most important contribution to the struggle for a genuine peace. These weapons are also sacred to the Revolutionary Government and the people of Cuba. If we hope to win a world in which the roar of cannon fire will be no more than an echo from mankind's prehistory, we should bear in mind that weapons have not led to wars; wars produce weapons.
122. In our day, wars have their origin in imperialism’s policy of aggression, intervention, oppression, exploitation and cupidity. Imperialism can only be paralysed and conquered by uniting all antiimperialist, patriotic and progressive forces, by effectively supporting national liberation movements — the battering ram which is breaching the foundations of imperialism and hence of the warmongers — and by resolutely assisting the victims of aggression. One of the most striking features of the international situation is the progressive development of conventional wars in an atmosphere of tacit nuclear truce.
123. With regard to the use, control, limitation, and prohibition of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, the Cuban delegation has made its position known at previous sessions of the General Assembly, especially in connexion with the plan for the denuclearization of Latin America. My Government has stated on several occasions that it would only begin to consider this initiative if it encompassed the denuclearization of the only nuclear Power in the hemisphere, and the abolition of its military bases in Panama and Puerto Rico and the naval base at the enclave of Guantanamo in Cuban soil. This delegation regards it as an inescapable duty to reaffirm that the people and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba reserve the right to possess such arms as they deem appropriate for their own defence, irrespective of their nature. Cuba has not and will not enter into any commitment which might compel it to limit its defensive capabilities, even potentially. The Cuban people are convinced that their decision to defend their country to the last drop of blood of the last fighting man is their most effective contribution to the cause of peace.
124. The General Assembly's resolution on the granting of independence to colonial peoples and dependent territories must be complied with speedily and fully. However, it would be insufficient if we did not at the same time face the dangers that hover over peoples who are starting out on the rocky, tortuous path to national independence and the building of a new life.
125. The experience of the Latin American nations is instructive. Their peoples fought, with varying degrees of courage, for their emancipation from the Spanish metropolitan Power, in very difficult conditions. Since they became independent, the fruit of those sacrifices has been stolen from them. Very early on, United States imperialism, in its dizzying rise, imposed its neo-coloniallst hegemony. The territorial and economic expansion of the United States was nurtured specifically by military aggression against the nations of Latin America, plunder of their territory, exploitation of their resources and barefaced intervention in their internal affairs. There has been a century and a half of interference, depredation and abuse, and, parallel with this, of sustained resistance by the peoples to foreign domination,
126. The hour has already struck for Latin America's second and real independence, the necessity and Justice of which Jose Marti envisioned and preached at the First Pan American Conference. The guerrillas of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala are the protagonists in this fight for emancipation, which the Cuban revolution initiated. To these fighters sanspeur et sans reproche, who have the future on their side, the Cuban delegation extends its heartfelt greetings. At the same time it pays a tribute to Luis Augusto Turcios Lima, commander-in-chief of the Rebel Armed Forces of Guatemala, fallen at his battle station, and to Captain Hely Perez Silva, head of the permanent delegation of the General Command in Cuba of the National Liberation Front and the National Liberation Forces of Venezuela, who died recently in Cuba after a painful illness, still clinging to his revolutionary ideals. These guerrilla fighters, like the Cuban guerrillas of the Sierra Maestra before them, the true descendants of the liberating hosts of Bolivar, San Martin, O'Higgins and Maceo, will conquer despite all obstacles and reverses, for their struggle Is an inseparable part of the world movement which is today shaking the foundations of imperialist domination.
127. The time has come to take stock of the situation. The First Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America, held in Havana, the capital of Cuba, from 3 to 14 January 1966, over which I had the honour to preside, for the first time brought together the representatives of popular movements from these three continents in a meeting which will be remembered in the history of the liberation of mankind. The Tri-Continental Conference gave expression to the solidarity of the national liberation movement in Africa, Asia and Latin America, defined a common policy in the head-on fight with imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, and welded a strategical and tactical unity in battle, drawing on the rich experience of the participating countries.
128. Guided by the spirit of the Tri-Continental Conference, the popular movements and organizations of Latin America have forged a suitable regional instrument to strengthen their ties and their mutual support: the Latin American Solidarity Organization.
129. The importance, significance and effect of both of these events was demonstrated in the fury of the imperialists and the hysteria of their strong-arm men and theorists. The most dyed-in-the-wool lackeys and reactionary rulers of Latin America protested against the agreements reached at the Conference, alleging a violation of the principle of non-intervention. But who would give credence to the charges of these so-called champions of Latin American sovereignty, for they are the same men who have been the accomplices of the acts of intervention, plunder, abuse, subversion and aggression committed by the Yankee imperialists? What moral authority can emanate from those who shamelessly accepted the military intervention in the Dominican Republic and have Joyfully acquiesced in elections held at the point of foreign bayonets? Who will regard as zealous custodians of the principle of non-intervention those who expelled Cuba from the Organization of American States and allowed their territory to be used as bases for aggression against Cuba? Who but they passively permitted the bloody aggression of the Marines against the people of Panama? Who but they have accepted without a whimper the insolent statements of the United States Executive and Legislative Branches, which threw into their faces the United States intention of disposing of the Latin American Republics as though they were part of President Johnson's ranch? In short, who but these strong-arm men and theoreticians of foreign intervention, aggression, subversion and exploitation in Latin America are the instruments and accomplices of Yankee imperialism in its flagrant and cynical violation of the principle of nonintervention?
130. For this reason, the draft resolution adopted on 2 February 1966 by the Council of the OAS, accusing the Tri-Continental Conference and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba of violating the principle of nonintervention and aiding the Latin American guerrillas will lash back like a boomerang against its own sponsors.
131. The peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America met at Havana precisely in order to organize concerted action against imperialism and its consequences: exploitation, poverty, hunger, ignorance, disease, lack of education, racial discrimination, national oppression and international serfdom. This was why they met, not to promote, support or justify the political, economic and diplomatic domination of Latin America by Yankee imperialism by means of such broken-down contraptions as the Alliance for Progress, or to facilitate, abet or support imperialist interference, by violently restraining the struggles of the people for their national and social liberation.
132. Who nowadays is unaware that the history of the United States is to a large extent the history of its interventions, aggressions and exploitations in Latin America, and its support, for selfish reasons, of the exploiting oligarchies, military cliques and most reactionary groups in our countries? In case the memory of those who drafted the resolution is flagging, may I offer them the following summary as an eloquent reminder: the United States robbed Mexico of 2 million square kilometres of its territory; it occupies Puerto Rico; bombed Vera Cruz; intervened in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic; assassinated Madero and Pino Suarez, President and Vice-President of Mexico; waged undeclared war on Cuba; backed and gave the go-ahead signal to Porfirio Diaz, Juan Vicente Gimez, Ubico, Trujillo, Machado, Perez Jimenez, Batista, Stroessner and Somoza, to mention only its most typical strongmen. Imperialism and intervention are one and the same.
133. The Tri-Continental Conference and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba cannot be held responsible for the terrible state of affairs in Latin America and the growing organization, unity and action of its victims; the responsibility rests solely with Yankee imperialism and its Latin American lackeys. The right to rebel against injustice, oppression, poverty, hunger, ignorance, disease, servitude and foreign domination is an inalienable right of peoples, and it is their ineluctable duty to resort to all methods and forms of struggle capable of breaking the yoke which strangles, oppresses and humiliates them.
134. The armed struggle of peoples for their emancipation cannot be exported or imported. It is the reaction of the oppressed to the challenge of the oppressors and it breaks loose out of the depths of national realities, as was the case in Cuba, and is now the case in Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. It is a right and a duty of enslaved peoples. The peoples of Latin America exercised this right and this duty long before the holding of the Tri-Continental Conference and the triumph of the Cuban revolution, and they will go on exercising it until they win self-determination, independence and sovereignty. The call to armed struggle, when all other ways are closed, is contained already as the seed in the fruit, in the regime of exploitation and oppression imposed by the oligarchies and sustained by imperialism, its principal beneficiary. To be serfs or free men; once again, these are the alternatives before the peoples of Latin America. Now the serfs have roused themselves, they are getting up, and they will not cease from the fight until they are free men. This is the tide of history in the three continents and the emancipated peoples have an obligation to help speed the liberation of the oppressed peoples. Experience shows that in the face of counterrevolutionary violence the only option is revolutionary violence.
135. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba declares its full support for the decisions of the Tri-Continental Conference and reaffirms its revolutionary solidarity with the plundered and embattled peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
136. Since the principle of universality should operate fully in the United Nations, the Cuban delegation requests the admission to the Organization of the German Democratic Republic, hitherto excluded from its ranks. Its participation in the Organization's tasks and responsibilities would constitute an effective contribution to peace and security in Europe, now threatened by the revanchiste policies of the Federal Republic of Germany.
137. It may be relevant to offer a few comments on the central economic theme of our agenda: I refer to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
138. When it opened in Geneva in 1964, the Conference fostered the hope in many under-developed countries that the United Nations would deal effectively with the grave problems that beset international trade and hamper efforts to achieve the rapid economic growth which their hungry peoples are demanding with growing insistence. It was very soon apparent that the policy of most of the developed countries, instead of being directed towards solving these problems, was to cling tenaciously to those conditions which enable them to exploit the less developed countries.
139. Experience has shown that the views which prevented the adoption of specific measures in favour of the under-developed countries in 1964 still persist and that there is no intention of putting into practice the principles and recommendations contained in the Final Act of the Conference on Trade and Development.
140. In the specific case of sugar, a product of vital importance to Cuba's economy, the position is the same as in the general situation I have described. As the Secretary-General rightly pointed out to the Conference on Trade and Development in his speech at the 93rd plenary meeting of the Board of that body, one of the fundamental reasons for the failure of the Sugar Conferences was the refusal of the developed countries to allow the under-developed exporting countries a greater share in increased consumption. The Cuban Government considers that the principles and recommendations of the Conference barely respond to the minimum demands of the under-developed countries and that it is consequently Impossible to establish a fruitful dialogue on the regulation of the world sugar trade as long as the developed countries make a mockery of those principles and recommendations and try to force the developing countries to bear the burden of the crisis provoked by their policies of discrimination and subsidies to domestic production.
141. The under-developed countries should stand firmly by the principles and recommendations agreed on in 1964 and refuse to yield to the pressure being exerted to make them accept a handful of crumbs, in exchange for retaining and consolidating their dependent and backward economic structures. But we should not harbour many illusions. In a world like ours, international co-operation grows more illusory with each day that passes.
142. With the New Year, the Cuban revolution will enter upon its ninth year. By destroying the tyranny of Batista after a lengthy, fierce and arduous armed struggle, organized and directed by Commander-in- Chief Fidel Castro; by carrying out the most far-reaching political, economic, social and cultural changes ever recorded in Latin America within a short period of time; by dealing firmly with the threats, provocations, blackmail, aggression and economic blockade of Yankee imperialism; by consolidating the victories won and progressing swiftly in building a socialist and communist society in the most adverse
circumstances, Cuba has proved to the peoples of Latin America that independence, revolution, socialism and communism are possible in our continent. The example of Cuba is a decisive factor in the dynamics of revolution in Latin America.
143. The imperialists are using the most varied means to try to counteract the radiance of this example. In some cases, they have imposed facist-type regimes which launch the most brutal oppression against the people; in others, they have tried pseudoreformist manoeuvres as a means of delaying the inevitable popular explosion, which find their greatest support among those who have betrayed the principles of the revolution and are deliberately serving their interests. In essence, these are variants which intermingle and merge with the policy of the iron hand, though they may sometimes be concealed in a velvet glove.
144. The essential aim of United States policy continues to be the same: to destroy the Cuban revolution and to maintain United States hegemony over the continent. In May of this year, the Cuban Government found itself compelled to order the revolutionary armed forces into a state of alert because the Yankee imperialists had created a crisis as a pretext for aggression following the foul murder of the Cuban soldier Luis Ramirez Lopez by Marines of the Guantanamo naval base. The shameless distortion of the facts and the allegation that Cuban soldiers had invaded the base, used as a clumsy cover-up for the crime committed, clearly indicated that aggression was being planned. The response of the people and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba to this diabolical plot was given by the Prime Minister, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, in a warning which foiled the Pentagon's strategem:
"If they attack us, we shall fight them as long as one man is left to us and even if we are the only people in the world engaged in armed struggle*. Moreover, the ridiculous, false and stupid imperialist version of the facts was verified on the spot by more than thirty correspondents of the foreign Press and news agencies.
145. The last act of piracy committed under the protection of the United States authorities was by an aircraft coming from the United States which recently dropped three bombs in the area of Nuevitas, presumably with the intent of damaging industrial installations being built there, though without causing any injury or material damage. The counter-revolutionary organization, which boasted of the crime, received for its violation of international law and the domestic legislation of the United States nothing more than a quibbling reply from the State Department. What Imperialism breeds the Pentagon consolidates.
146. But Cuba still stands, building its new life, expanding its agricultural and livestock plans, laying the foundations for its industrial development, carrying out Its schemes for education, public health, housing, water supply, culture and sports, which — despite the blockade and the breaking-off of diplomatic and trade relations, despite sabotage, provocation, aggression and constant threats from the most powerful imperialist Power — have already raised the standard of living of its peoples to levels which for the rest of the countries of Latin America are only a dream.
147. Cuba is advancing and will continue to advance, overcoming difficulties of every kind, including those imposed by nature. We know that to advance is also a way of fulfilling our duty to our brothers on the continent and all the peoples of the world who suffer from exploitation, oppression, discrimination, poverty, hunger, disease and ignorance. To these peoples we renew our promise to encourage them by our example and to assist them in their fight for emancipation.
148. From this rostrum we repeat the battle cry of the Cuban people: "Our country or death! We shall overcome!"