CSC news: Cuba's answer to the US motion

Cuba's answer to the US motion

Campaign News | Saturday, 17 April 2004

Full text of delegate's speech at Geneva

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DELEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 60th SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, H.E. MR. JUAN ANTONIO FERNANDEZ PALACIOS, IN EXPLAINING THE VOTE ON THE ANTI-CUBAN DRAFT RESOLUTION, CONTAINED IN DOCUMENT E/CN.4/2004/L.13

Geneva, 15 April 2004

Mr. Chairman:

We are in face of a new episode of the farce that the United States Government has been forcing through this Commission for more than a decade. Inebriated by the hegemonic power that is now exercised by the fascist group that usurped power fraudulently in that country, they think of neither ways nor measures to attain their goals. That explains the gross and disrespectful fashion in which they act to bend and break wills.

Who, among those present here, has taken seriously the libel submitted to us on behalf of the United States Government? In fact, we are outraged at the shameful role of the Government of Honduras. We feel pity for its ridicule. Our heart aches of so much anger and outrage in face of the Empire that has always disrespected the peoples of Morazán, Martí and Bolívar.

Mr. Chairman:

The Government of the United States, after its failed attempt to condemn Cuba last year, engaged in the task of traveling the Latin American geography, together with their lackeys of the Czech Republic, in order to blackmail, press and bring in more accomplices.

That has recently kept busy there a real criminal that holds the title of “Special Envoy” of the White House for Latin America, mister Otto Reich. Of course the task was not that easy anymore. Different winds are blowing nowadays across Latin America. These efforts were joined by the government of the United Kingdom and some other members of the European Union.

The true story of the genesis and presentation of project L.13 is all too well known to us. The paper was born and drafted in Washington and, with the aid of Mr. Aznar, Honduras President Ricardo Maduro committed to submitting it. The job of Mister Aznar, who had previously recruited Central American young men to be used as cannon fodder at the war in Iraq, was to deliver the message on the occasion of the Summit of Central American Presidents held in Madrid, on last 5 March. Then the Secretary of State slipped into the picture, introducing a tempting promise: the possibility of including Honduras in the so-called “Millennium Challenge" initiative --whereby the United States would distribute 3.5 billion dollars among a group of over 60 countries in the world-- would be considered. By then, treason had already been committed. This is what we are talking about here: money against principles, bribery against dignity.

The rest is fully well known. It was in the Department of State, on 24 March, where the news was broken and a group of Ambassadors was given the draft resolution against Cuba in English, with a Spanish version to keep up appearances. That one and no other is the text that is submitted as an initiative of Honduras; the same one that was circulating in this room without any apparent paternity until it was registered on 2 April.

There is no reason or moral at all that the Government of Honduras can resort to in order to justify an alleged concern over human rights in Cuba. They are acting under the orders of the United States and all delegations present here know it very well.

Cuba does not blame the noble and generous people of Honduras; that of the unyielding indigenous population, of black and mestizo skin, of the exploited farmers of banana plantations, of workers in the maquilas, of tough fighters against neoliberal globalization. That people has raised its voice and held its head high to reject the submissive stance and betrayal. We are bound to that people with close links of friendship and love, with whom we will march forward, fighting together to overcome poverty and underdevelopment to achieve a life of dignity where the hopes of a better world for all come true.

There will remain our doctors and health collaborators, who with endless passion and sacrifices save lives and heal pain in the remotest places and corners of the country. In Cuba will remain --together with us, sharing our successes and difficulties-- the hundreds of Honduran students who now hold scholarships at the Latin American School of Medicine and other Cuban universities.

Mr. Chairman:

Our heroic people is waging today a hard battle for its right to self-determination and independence under the permanent threat from a mighty superpower, whose current leaders --a fascist clique that has arrogated the right to intervene and launch a "preemptive war” in 60 countries or more and to resort to the assassination of foreign leaders-- do not let up on their attempts to destroy the Cuban Revolution.

That, and no other, has been the sick obsession of successive United States administrations and the Miami-based extremist and terrorist groups of Cuban origin. The United States imperialism has considered legitimate every weapon used against the Cuban Revolution: a genocidal and criminal blockade lasting 45 years, mercenary invasions, biological and radio-electronic warfare, sabotages and terrorism, assassination attempts on the main Cuban leaders and a permanent hostility aimed at undermining our resistance and preventing our development.

An essential element in that policy has been the United States attempts to fabricate a fifth column of mercenaries at their service. Those who have brought the practice of lying to a level of State policy do not have qualms about generously labeling them political dissidents, human rights defenders and independent journalists. They lie shamelessly and they do it to hide and distract attention from the atrocities that they commit nowadays in the world. We will not renounce our legitimate defense, and it will be done resorting to the strength of the truth and in conformity with our laws.

A very well articulated destabilization and subversion plan against Cuba is underway, against the backdrop of the most recent belligerent adventures of the Empire. Threatening statements abound. Bush’s so-called “democracy” for Cuba under the fallacious doctrine of “change of regime" is being fabricated in detail by the so-called “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba”. Shamelessness is absolute. But, as usual, our people will not be defeated or deceived. They also know that they have the growing support of the peoples of the world.

Why have those who try to condemn Cuba not said a single word on the concentration camp that has been set up in the Guantánamo Naval Base, Cuban territory that the United States has seized? Why do not they pronounce themselves on the case of the five young Cuban fighters against terrorism and political prisoners in the United States, victims of a cruel and inhumane treatment as denounced here by their relatives? Why do not they declare to be scandalized in face of the brutality and violence displayed by the occupation forces in Iraq?

In face of so much double standard, hypocrisy, fear and complicities, one can only feel scorn.

Mr. Chairman:

Cuba steadfastly rejects the spurious attempt to condemn her. Cuba knows that she is defending the right of respect for sovereignty and self-determination for herself and for all the peoples of the world. Cuba knows that attempts are made to condemn her because she symbolizes resistance, because her voice is that of dissidence in face of the single thought and domination, because she does not give in vis-à-vis the superpower, because she has fought to be free. And Cuba will continue to fight, she will not give up, her voice will not go silent in any rostrum, and will not renounce the sacred duty of giving solidarity to those who need it most.

We will always be beside those who do not resign or flag in face of difficulties, those who bet on the value of ideas and principles, those who do not renounce the possible dream of a world where all human rights for all are realized.

Thank you very much.