Cuba, 1969

1. Madam President, I wish to begin my statement by

expressing to you the warm congratulations of the Cuban

delegation on your election as President of this

twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

2. On this day, as on many earlier days, we have before us

items of great interest to all the peoples of the world. They

come up monotonously again and again, but the international

Organization cannot solve them, because they go

beyond the narrow limits of existing possibilities. Problems

of peace and war, aggression and under-development,

colonialism and racial discrimination, international

co-operation and disarmament, trade barriers and the struggle

for independence — to mention only some of the problems

of greatest concern to mankind — are not being adequately

solved through the United Nations, despite our constant

repetition of good intentions year after year, despite our

references to commitments assumed under the Charter

which regulates our activities, and above all despite the

clamour of public opinion and our daily contemplation of

the drama of peoples suffering military aggression and

overwhelmed by poverty and ignorance.

3. The reasons why the United Nations is so sterile is that

it reflects all the factors that make up the complex world

situation. The forces that attack peoples seeking their

independence; the factors which hamper and impede

development and domestic trade for the benefit of an

insatiable minority; the policy which seeks to stifle nations

unwilling to accept a foreign yoke; the power motives

which maintain a climate of insecurity, conspiracy and

pressure in the world and intrude in our debates with a

hypocritical rhetoric — all these act within the international

Organization to keep it from doing any useful work on the

vital matters it is called on to consider.

4. This situation becomes much graver when the United

Nations is transformed from a passive and useless body into

a covert or overt accomplice of actions condemned by the

Charter itself and by international morality, The history of

recent years offers many examples of its frustration, or of

its complicity by omission or commission in conflicts and

situations which have called for solution in the interests of

the peoples and not of the aggressors.

5. These weaknesses and shortcomings must be denounced

so that we can view the situation realistically and not

contribute to a farce which in any event deceives nobody.

When attitudes inspired by the loftiest and purest interests

of the peoples predominate in the membership of the

United Nations, and when it no longer responds to

strategies of aggression and plunder; when the correlation

of forces makes passivity impossible in the face of the use

of force to settle international disputes, and utterly

prevents complicity in aggression to serve powerful economic

groups or a policy of military domination, then will

the United Nations be able to give full effect to the

principles it proclaims.

6. This basic situation in no way contradicts the value of

the United Nations as a forum of exceptional importance.in

which to discuss the essential problems of our times; nor

does it exclude the possibility of partial gains within the

Organization in the internal struggle to prevent the imperialist

Powers, largely and principally the United States,

from imposing their will.

7. One point that has been mentioned in the Assembly

this year is the climate of insecurity in aerial and maritime

navigation, due to the forcible diversion of craft from their

normal routes and activities. This is a grave problem which

has already existed for 10 years, although it has not

received the attention it deserves until quite recently, when

its consequences began to affect those who had originally

given it criminal encouragement.

8. The Government of the United States and the lackey

Governments of Latin America promoted and encouraged

the hijacking of Cuban aircraft and ships as part of their

policy of blockade and aggression against Cuba, welcomed

as heroes the vulgar assassins involved, and often took

possession of the hijacked vessels, On many occasions those

piratical actions, which were encouraged and praised by

American imperialism and its servants, caused the loss of

valuable Cuban lives; but those criminal acts found no echo

in the international organizations.

9. Throughout those years the Revolutionary Government

of Cuba denounced from this very rostrum the misdeeds

and violations of international law and standards promoted

by imperialism as part of its policy against the Cuban

revolution, without evoking a single condemnation of

conduct which from every point of view infringed

international order and expressed a gangster approach to the

handling of differences between civilized countries.

10. The atmosphere of illegality created by that policy

necessarily encouraged proliferation of the new acts of

violence which today disquiet the international community

and which the Revolutionary Government of Cuba considers

must be opposed in order to re-establish security of

navigation on the seas and in the air and to purify the

unhealthy atmosphere engendered by the imperialist policy

of force and coercion, supported by Governments which

now fear the consequences of this piratical policy which

they had been applying to the Cuban people.

11. For the last 10 years, without truce or respite, United

States imperialism, followed in its tortuous manoeuvres by

the lackey regimes of Latin America, has encouraged an

illegal exodus from Cuba with complete disregard for the

lives and safety of the persons involved in the adventure.

United States imperialism has never hesitated out of any

consideration or respect for universally-accepted standards

of coexistence, legal commitments or questions of sovereignty.

Its purpose has been to harm the Cuban revolution

at any cost and in any way, particularly through the United

States naval base at Guantanamo which has been used as an

advanced base on Cuban soil itself for gross imperialist provocation.

12. And what has happened now? The violence which

they have encouraged has turned upon them. The pirates

who thought they could sail the seas with complete

impunity, sheltered by their own force, are now victims of

the same climate of illegality they irresponsibly created in

order to damage Cuba. The Government of the United

States and the lackey Governments of Latin America are

now suffering from insecurity and are in their turn affected

by the criminal procedures which they fostered by their

deeds; and now with characteristic hypocrisy they are

expressing indignation through their press organs and

through international news agencies, and are maliciously

trying to evade responsibility for the origin and development

of those acts.

13. It is a well-known fact that the Revolutionary Government

of Cuba has invariably followed the policy of paying

for the return journey of any aircraft or ships brought by

force to our national territory and of permitting the

passengers to continue their journey as soon as possible

with maximum guarantees for their safety, and has rejected

any kind of publicity or propaganda which could encourage

such acts. It was the imperialists themselves and their

lackeys who engaged in scandalous conduct. It is they who

started and continue this dirty game. With their depredations

and kidnappings they have outdone the pirates and

corsairs of old on the very scene of their misdeeds, the

Caribbean.

14. The attitude of Cuba has always been crystal clear and

in keeping with the international principles governing

relations between States. Hijacked ships and passengers

have been returned without hindrance, and at no time have

we extolled either the deeds or their perpetrators. Our

conduct, as is evident, contrasts with that of the Government

of the United States and the Latin American

Governments which abjectly follow its orders. We view the

insecurity of air and maritime traffic with the same concern

as world public opinion, and do so all the more intensely

because our country has suffered most from this criminal

imperialist invention and because our territory forms the

usual background for these acts of violence.

15. Solutions cannot, however, be found by way of

multilateral agreements or through boycotts or blockades.

In the first place, the Government of Cuba is not prepared

to comply with the decisions of international organizations

such as the Organization of American States (OAS), which,

in addition to being an altogether discredited institution,

whose agreements are completely devoid of morality, has,

in the specific case of aerial and maritime piracy, frequently

been an accomplice of the United States Government. As

for the United Nations, has it not remained silent with

folded arms when faced with cases of piracy against Cuba?

By what right should the United Nations take up this

question at the present juncture, seeing that in the past it

has allowed illegal acts to pass without the slightest show of

concern?

16. It is obvious that no solution to the problem can be

found by this means. As far as other means are concerned,

such as pressure and threats of international blockade or

boycott, what self-respecting Government could accept

these conditions when such measures are exclusively within

its own sovereign prerogatives? Furthermore, was there

ever any talk of a blockade or international boycott when

the imperialists and their lackeys were the ones causing the

trouble? Is anything said even now when they are

encouraging and assisting illegal departures from Cuba,

hijacking Cuban ships and causing the deaths of valuable

Cuban citizens?

17. The Government of Cuba wishes to put clearly on

record that it will accept no compulsion based on multilateral

agreements but will firmly maintain its position that

Cuba will adopt measures based on bilateral agreements

only with countries prepared to adopt exactly the same

rules relating to the hijacking of aircraft and ships and

similar violations of the laws governing international traffic.

18. To this effect the Revolutionary Government of Cuba

has just adopted Act No. 1226 on the diversion of aircraft

or ships, which gives a broad coverage to breaches of the

law and provides for the return of perpetrators of such

illegal acts to the States concerned, if these have agreed

bilaterally with Cuba to apply the same policy. That is

Cuba’s appropriate reply to the concern of the international

community. It is our clear and equitable response to the

promoters of the climate of violence which has brought

about the present insecurity of navigation.

19. There have recently been many editorial statements

and conjectures about the hypothetical possibility of Cuba

returning to the so-called Organization of American States.

In this very Assembly some representatives of Latin

American Governments have felt bound to make statements

on this matter.

20. The position of Cuba has been stated time and time

again and in very clear terms, but time and time again

attempts have been made to cloud it. What interest could

Cuba have in re-entering an international organization that

lacks the most elementary qualifications for the discharge

of its supposed mission? If there is any institution in the

world which exemplifies the most ignommious subordination

to the policy of a great Power, it is undoubtedly the

so-called Organization of American States. In the constellation

of organizations operating today in the international

system of relationships, OAS stands lowest in prestige and

effectiveness. It is universally and quite correctly regarded

as a mere appendix of the State Department in Washington.

21. The history of OAS with regard to Cuba is embarrassing.

In the first place it cravenly closed its eyes when, in

open violation of the Bogota Charter, economic aggression

was committed against Cuba. Next, when the military

invasion of Playa Giron was notoriously organized and

launched by the Government of the United States, it not

only closed its eyes but lowered its head in cowardly

shame. In the last 10 years of revolution it has been used by

the imperialists time and time again to set up ministerial

meetings against Cuba. With unprecedented hypocrisy it has

lent itself to the whole policy of aggression against our

people and has on numerous occasions been an open

accomplice. It has been called the colonial office of the

imperialist United States Government. That, we think, is an

exaggeration. It does not reach that level. It is merely a

low-ranking bureaucratic office for the transmission of orders.

22. The shamelessness of OAS knows no bounds in its

service of imperialist policies. It endorsed the aggression of

the Yankee Marines against the Dominican Republic without

the slightest repugnance. It associated itself with the

naval blockade of Cuba and with the economic sanctions.

As a regional organization of the United Nations it thereby

violated both the letter and spirit of the Charter, not to

mention its own constitutional documents, by inventing

and applying the strange theory of incompatibility in order

to exclude Cuba from its deliberations. Never has it spoken

out against the subversion of imperialist espionage agencies

in Latin America, against acts of military intervention,

army take-overs or the exactions levied by monopolies on

the Latin American peoples. Never has it raised its voice for

any purpose, but has tamely followed the orders given to it.

23. Cuba will not return to the Organization of American

States while that organization continues to be what it now

is, We shall not enter any regional organization except the

Organization of Revolutionary States of Latin America, as

our Prime Minister, Commandant Fidel Castro, recently

declared. As for Cuba’s alleged interest in resuming diplomatic

relations with the countries of Latin America, it

should be remembered that those countries themselves

broke off diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba, not in

exercise of sovereignty but in compliance with a policy

dictated by imperialism, since it suited the strategy of

isolation and encirclement of the Cuban revolution. Those

Governments, the very ones which belong to OAS, accepted

imperialist propaganda accusing Cuba of promoting subversion.

At the same time, with the most astonishing

effrontery, they invited CIA and its mercenaries to use their

countryside for training and for attacking Cuba, placed

themselves at the service of the Yankee spies, offered bases

in their territory for piratical attacks against our production

centres, helped saboteurs to steal in, echoed the worst

calumnies against our people, and called in chorus for

military intervention. They carried out the whole of this

criminal policy precisely at the time when they were

accusing Cuba of the crimes they were committing against our people.

24. Taking cynicism to its extreme, they rushed to

distribute the Cuban sugar quota among themselves when

the imperialists deprived our people of it. Those crumbs

were the payment for their complicity and involvement, for

the historic crime they had committed against a people

which was gaining its independence and assuming its full

national dignity.

25. Over the last 10 years Cuba has constantly had to

defend itself against the attacks and intrigues of the

imperialists and their Latin American lackeys, while at the

same time making heroic creative efforts in the midst of an

economic blockade and of a diplomatic isolation which in

the long run has been a resounding failure. Today the

Governments that are isolated are those very ones which

took the road of servility and blackmail, of faithlessness to

their own peoples, the road to disgrace.

26. They conspired together in the Organization of American

States to vilify and attack us, trampling underfoot

every moral principle and violating even the articles they

themselves had drafted when they thought that a legal

mantle could be drawn over their total subjection to

imperialist policy.

27. The picture which the imperialist press and those

governed by it have attempted to present of a repentant

Cuba seeking diplomatic relations with those Latin American

Governments is a perfidious, calumnious and ridiculous

lie. In a speech made on 14 July last, when referring to this

question, our Prime Minister expressed himself very clearly

as follows:

“Those who believe that we are here to beg for favours

are mistaken. Those who believe that this country could

ever flinch are wrong. Those who believe that we shall go

round pleading for relations are mistaken. This country

has resisted for 10 years with its head held high. It has

lived through its most difficult hour.... It has had to

endure crimes, blockades, aggressions, connivances with

its head held high. We are very much aware of what we

have achieved during these 10 years, of what we are doing

now, of what is worthy and of what is significant; and we

are making ready for another 10 years with our heads

held higher than ever!”

He added, unequivocally:

“And any Latin American country wishing to have

diplomatic relations with Cuba must begin by declaring

that the OAS agreements were arbitrary and unjust and

that, above and beyond these agreements, and as reparation

for the crime committed against our homeland and

for their complicity with the Yankee imperialists, they

are prepared to disregard those agreements.”

28. That is the Cuban position. Our foreign policy is

guided by principles and not by opportunism. The OAS

agreements instituting sanctions against Cuba are morally

invalid, because Cuba was not the aggressor but the victim

of aggression; because OAS, even in the face of the world

scandal of the invasion prepared by the United States

Government, gave not even a sigh of disapproval, thus

making a mockery of the Bogota Charter and of all the

commitments that had been signed with all pomp and

circumstance over the years; because, when the imperialist

Government eliminated the Cuban sugar quota, shamelessly

violating article 16 of the Bogota Charter, not only did

OAS keep its mouth shut but its members even opened

their hands to take advantage of the economic sanctions

against Cuba and to share in the spoliation of our people;

because OAS invented the legal monstrosity of the

incompatibility between the social regime established in Cuba

and the so-called inter-American system in order to exclude

us; and because the Cuban presence there, in the midst of

imperialists and their lackeys representing gangsters,

oligarchs and corrupt politicians, was a perpetual denunciation

of the tortuous shifts and manoeuvres of the masters of OAS.

29. The arbitrariness and injustice of those agreements can

be neither forgotten nor condoned. Those decisions must

be revoked. Cuba has corrected nothing and has nothing to

correct. What we have done will be done by other peoples,

by the force of history. To save the country’s wealth for

our own people, to offer alliance to those struggling for

their own welfare, to defend our national independence, to

work for a higher degree of development, to rid ourselves of

exploiters and parasites — these are things which need no

correction. The amendment must come from those Latin

American Governments which have been and are accomplices

in the arbitrary, unjust and immoral measures

dictated by the imperialists.

30. Now that preparations for the Second United Nations

Development Decade are occupying a prominent place in

the work of this Assembly, we can draw conclusions from

the first Decade and see that its most noticeable result was

the disillusionment it produced in the countries of the third

world, including those of Latin America, which are daily

becoming more and more convinced that the road to

development does not pass through an illusory co-operation

with the former exploiters but presupposes, above all, a

radical transformation of internal structures and mobilization

of the efforts of the whole population.

31. It is an interesting coincidence that the years of the

first Decade have been those during which the Revolutionary

Government of Cuba was being established, and

also coincide to a large extent with the unhappy existence

of the Alliance for Progress. It is easy to draw up a

balance-sheet at this juncture, since not even the most naive

have any illusions left concerning the plan conceived by the

imperialists to counter the example of the Cuban Revolution,

while the results of the first Decade are before us. For

our people this decade has been one of profound change

and of intense and vigorous creative activity. We were

obliged to begin our march towards development with a

distorted economic structure, without financial resources,

without technical or scientific staff, with a great demand

for imports and without the necessary export earnings;

while at the same time we bore the brunt of the aggressive

policy of United States imperialism with its savage economic

and commercial blockade, constantly threatened

with aggression and subjected to provocation, harassment

and pressures.

32. The hostility of United States imperialism and of its

Latin American lackeys has roughened Cuba’s road towards

a prosperous and independent economy, and has compelled

our people to bear an additional burden of sacrifice; but the

goal they sought, to weaken and strangle us, they have not

achieved. The difficulties have tempered the character of

the Cuban people and have strengthened its will to resist

and to overcome, aware that on its labours will depend the

future of its country and that its efforts will be decisive in

winning a better tomorrow.

33. On this the threshold of the Second Development

Decade, Cuba has resolved basic social problems in education,

public health and human relations for once and for all,

It has rapidly developed its merchant marine and fishing

fleet; laid the bases of its technological and industrial

development; recovered all its wealth for its people and

eliminated unemployment; it will shortly harvest the fruits

of these years of work. The present sugar crop, which for

the first time in history will reach 10 million tons, will

demonstrate the organizational progress, the technical

advance, and the masses’ ability to achieve great feats even

in the most adverse circumstances. The impetus given to

agriculture will begin from 1970 to be reflected in

continuous growth in the production of food-stuffs for

domestic consumption and in the expansion of our export

capacity. The imperialist blockade will go down in history

as a futile example of arrogance and impotence.

34. What results can the puppet Governments of imperialism

in Latin America present to their peoples and to

the world? In the last 10 years the social, economic and

political crisis of that continent has become more acute.

Political instability and social insecurity are inseparable

parts of the Latin American drama. At best the economy of

Latin America remains static with a growing demographic

burden; and in most countries it is deteriorating. Rates of

illiteracy are still high; and poverty, disease and unemployment

are certainly not hallucinations in the minds

of those peoples, but rather heart-breaking tragedies.

35. The magical formula of the Alliance for Progress,

heralded as the panacea for all the ills of Latin America, has

become a resounding failure. It was claimed to be the

imperialistic counterpart of the Cuban revolution, so that

the governing classes of Latin America, in the imperialist

service, could retain their power without the threat of

radical changes. In the long run it had been useful in that

our new society’s achievements are set off against its

gloomy background in an ever brighter light, and the eyes

of the peoples are thus opened to their real road towards

the destiny to which they aspire.

36. Within the context of backwardness, poverty and

exploitation of Latin America into which the Alliance for

Progress has been inserted, important events are taking

place in our sister country Peru, where the new Government

has adopted some measures which we welcome, in

that they are aimed at developing the economy and raising

the country from its prostration. Logically, the first

measure adopted was against an imperialist company, an oil

company with a long history of exploitation. Next came a

radical law on agrarian reform. The Peruvian oligarchy and

the imperialist press have already begun to vilify the

Peruvian Government, to raise obstacles and to exert

pressure, It is natural that this should happen; and, as the

Government of Peru moves forward on a patriotic and

revolutionary road, the net will tighten round it and the

lackey Governments of the continent will begin to echo the

imperialist policy.

37. The bankruptcy of United States policy, which in the

Western hemisphere already presents the imperialists with

these alarming symptoms, has become even deeper in

South-East Asia. During this year the armed forces of the

National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam have

achieved some important military victories which demonstrate

the spirit of constant offensive of that heroic people.

The establishment of the Provisional Revolutionary Government,

recognized by a large number of States and by all the

peoples of the world as the sole authentic representative of

the people of South Viet-Nam, is a far-reaching step

towards the complete liberation of the country and reflects

full support and patriotic union of all social levels and

sectors for resistance against the aggressors.

38. Assailed by the solidarity of the whole world with the

people of Viet-Nam, a solidarity which has even been

expressed in the United States itself, the Washington

Government has found itself compelled to declare the

suspension of the criminal bombardment of the Democratic

Republic of Viet-Nam, though in actual fact it continues to

violate that country’s sovereignty, since the United States

Air Force still attacks many areas between the seventeenth

and the nineteenth parallels, as the Government of the

Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam has just charged. At the

same time, imperialism has manoeuvred under cover of a

feigned peaceful intent while all the time its aggression continues.

39. The partial withdrawal of troops described by the

Head of the United States Government in this General

Assembly as a peace initiative is a complete farce. Both the

Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet-Nam

and the Government of the Democratic Republic of

Viet-Nam have clearly stated that what the Washington

Government is trying to do is to prolong the United States

military occupation and cling firmly to the corrupt puppet

administration in Saigon, in an attempt to continue its

domination of South Viet-Nam and perpetuate the division

of the country.

40. The imperialist manoeuvres cannot conceal their criminal

basis. References to a “mutual withdrawal of troops”

are an attempt to place the aggressor and the victim on a

footing of equality and deny the right of the people of

Viet-Nam to defend its country and its dignity. Despite the

denunciations of the two Governments of Viet-Nam, the

United States has also persisted in its demand that the

people which is the victim of aggression should lay down its

arms and submit to the treacherous puppet administration,

opposing the establishment of a provisional coalition government.

41. Clearly, to set conditions for the withdrawal of the

Yankee troops is to demand a reward for aggression. The

35,000 men which the United States has allegedly withdrawn

are insignificant in comparison with the more than

half a million United States soldiers in South Viet-Nam; and

to demand that the puppet administration of Saigon should

be the one to organize fraudulent elections in the presence

of United States troops is unacceptable from every point of

view. In his appeal of 20 July 1969 President Ho Chi Minh

stated that:

“The people of Viet-Nam demands the withdrawal of

all United States troops: not the withdrawal of 25,000,

250,000 or 500,000 men, but total and unconditional

withdrawal. As long as United States troops and the

puppet administration remain in South Viet-Nam, genuinely

free and democratic general elections will be

absolutely impossible.”

42. That is the only honourable attitude, the only one

supported by all peoples. The Provisional Revolutionary

Government of South Viet-Nam has denounced the

attempts of the United States at the Paris talks to distort

the truth by every means and to conceal its aggressive

actions and the treachery of the puppet administration in

Saigon. These diplomatic ploys are obviously in line with

the purpose of denying the people of Viet-Nam its

independence and freedom. That is why the peace talks in

Paris cannot make progress, as the representatives of the

people of Viet-Nam have stated.

43. The global 10-point solution presented by the

National Liberation Front and later adopted by the

Provisional Revolutionary Government is the only political

way out guaranteeing the fundamental national rights of

the people of South Viet-Nam. The people of Viet-Nam has

an undeniable right to self-determination and to live in

independence. Yankee imperialism has no right to intervene

in problems that fall exclusively within the competence of

that people. The immediate withdrawal of the aggressive

troops and a guarantee of the independence and freedom of

Viet-Nam are a vital interest for all States which, like that

heroic people of South-East Asia, wish to be masters of

their destinies.

44. No one doubts that the people of Viet-Nam will

continue their struggle until complete victory is achieved

and that every day they will be able to count on greater and

more militant solidarity among all the peoples of the world.

Our own people, through the Revolutionary Government,

wishes to renew its complete solidarity with them in the

battle they are waging against the aggressors and to reiterate

its complete identification with the just stand taken by the

Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and

the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet-Nam.

45. We consider it a duty to pay from this rostrum a

heartfelt tribute to President Ho Chi Minh, the great leader

of the nation of Viet-Nam in its long fight for independence.

For half a century Ho Chi Minh has fought for

the freedom of his country. He led it to the victory over the

Japanese occupation which culminated in the establishment,

24 years ago, of the Democratic Republic of

Viet-Nam: and later he fought against the French colonial

occupation. He also led his country during its heroic

resistance to United States aggression, which is now close to

total rout. Ho Chi Minh died before he could see his

country reunited and free of foreign soldiers; but he will be

reborn very shortly in the glorious victory of his people and

will live eternally in every battle, sacrifice and victory of

the peoples of the third world in their fight for independence,

and will remain for ever in the memory of all

oppressed peoples as a symbol of purity, abnegation and nobility.

46. In another part of the world, the Far East, the warlike

activities of imperialism continue also. In recent months

this has been expressed particularly through the increase in

the number of acts of armed provocation and hostility

against the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea. United States troops continue to occupy the

southern part of Korea and to keep its population in

colonial subjection under the usurped banner of the United Nations.

47. During the last year the patriotic movement in South

Korea against Yankee domination has gained strength.

Hundreds of workers, farmers, students, teachers and

intellectuals have fallen victim to the repressive fury of the

puppet regime for the sole crime of endeavouring to unify

their country. The Washington Government is constantly

increasing its war potential and supplying every type of

military equipment to the Seoul clique as part of its

preparations for a new war of aggression.

48. Nevertheless, pressures exercised by the United States

delegation prevented this Assembly at its twenty-third

session from adopting proper resolutions with regard to the

so-called Korean problem. They are more necessary this

year than ever, in view of the increasing frenzy of the

Yankees in their acts of warlike provocation.

49. A just solution of this problem is, moreover, of the

utmost importance for all States desirous of preserving their

independence and sovereignty. In connexion with this

question, two matters arise which affect the cardinal

principles of our Organization. In the first place there is the

right of the Korean people to self-determination and

independence, its inalienable right to resolve, by itself and

without any type of external interference whatsoever, all its

problems, including the reunification of the country. In the

second place there is the shameful fact that for almost two

decades the United States Government has been using this

Organization as a tool for its aggressive and colonialist

policies against the Korean people.

50. This is why, for most of the States represented here, it

is an urgent task to change the policy which the General

Assembly has thus far followed with respect to Korea.

There is only one possible alternative: to decide upon the

immediate withdrawal of all United States troops and

troops of other States that are now trampling upon Korean

sovereignty, to dissolve the so-called United Nations

Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea,

and to put an end once and for all to United Nations

interference in the internal affairs of the Korean people.

51. The problems of Africa have taken up the attention of

the Assembly in recent years. Numerous resolutions have

been adopted with the aim of defending the independence

and freedom of its peoples. However, the forces of

colonialism and racism refuse to abandon the positions they

have gained as a result of past exploitation and infamy.

Recent events in Rhodesia and Namibia have caused

mounting indignation in public opinion, which demands

decisive action against the minorities of fascist settlers who

in the mid-twentieth century are trying to maintain the

most odious practices of slavery.

52. Cuba reaffirms its complete support for the struggle of

the African peoples for full national independence, and

declares its militant solidarity with the liberation

movements in Guinea (Bissau), Angola and Mozambique and

with the oppressed African peoples in South Africa,

Namibia and Zimbabwe.

53. Another typical case of the anti-colonial farce being

staged in the United Nations, another indication that this

Organization cannot possibly act as an instrument for the

liberation of oppressed peoples, is that of Puerto Rico.

Since 1965 the representatives of all the patriotic forces in

Puerto Rico and our own delegation have demanded that

the Committee should consider the case. Despite the time

that has elapsed, however, the Committee has not succeeded

even in beginning to consider the substance of that

request, owing to the stubborn opposition of the United

States delegation. ‘The Yankee refusal to discuss this matter

constitutes the best proof that Puerto Rico is a classical

example of colonial oppression and denial of the right of

peoples to self-determination.

54. The crisis in the Middle East continues to be a cause of

concern to the international community; and this Organization

has been incapable of restoring peace and guaranteeing

the rights of the Arab States that were attacked in 1967.

55. The struggle of the Arab peoples, and particularly that

of the Palestinian people, against the interference of United

States imperialism is a key link in the movement towards

the emancipation of the third world and enjoys the

sympathy and support of all progressive forces.

56. Another problem which has not yet been resolved

after two decades is that of the representation of China in

this Organization. As in the past, my delegation requests

the restoration of the legitimate rights of the People’s

Republic of China in the United Nations and the expulsion

of those who usurp its seat.

57. The increasingly intense antagonism between the

under-developed peoples and imperialism has been a

characteristic of the past years of international life. The failure

of reforming experiments and the growing aggressiveness of

the imperialist forces is teaching the peoples how to

discover their enemies, even when they are disguised in the

apparel of saviours.

58. Nor have the peoples any more illusions about the

fertility of the international organizations, whose incapacity

to solve the vital problems of mankind runs

parallel with an exaggerated production of useless documents

and of exuberant rhetoric. Political freedom, economic

independence and an end to exploitation will not be

won either by promises or by debates in deliberative bodies

manipulated by the aggressors and by those who benefit

from exploitation.

59. At this session of the General Assembly the subject of

peace is possibly the one that has been mentioned most

from this rostrum. We all speak of peace. Reference is made

to peace by those who need peace in order to devote their

efforts to creative purposes, and also by those who

constantly disturb the peace in order to maintain their

privileges. We hear about peace from countries which are

victims of aggression and from aggressor countries, particularly

the latter, since what they seek from the peoples is

calm and tranquillity so that these will not rebel against

injustice; but they do not seek a harmony based on equality

and mutual respect.

60. Peace is talked about by the colonialists who forcibly

maintain veritable systems of slavery in Africa; by

neo-colonialists who work for the monopolies in Asia, Africa

and Latin America; by the Powers that maintain military

bases in foreign territories; by those that have moved their

guns and bombers to Viet-Nam, and by those that have

committed aggressions against Cuba and blockaded and

provoked it. But the false redeemers will no longer be able

to hide behind hypocritical policies or behind prolific

principles inscribed in the documents of the international

organizations.

61. As long as there is no solution in favour of the peoples

to the antagonism between them and their exploiters, as

long as there is no reciprocity in the solution of international

conflicts, and as long as the Powers continue to

discuss from positions of force, it will be illusory to expect

genuine peace which will be of benefit to all without

exception and without discrimination.