Cuba, 1992

I wish

to congratulate Mr. Ganev on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at this session. He can be sure of the cooperation of the Cuban

delegation.

We shall soon be commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the clash

between two worlds and the beginning of an era that was to transform radically

relations between nations. That dramatic and as yet unfinished piece of

history started in the Caribbean Sea and forever left its mark upon the fate

of the peoples of the area.

Our deepest root, which gave us life as a nation and a place in history,

is our rebelliousness. For centuries the Caribbean was the victim of the

brutal greed of all sorts of intruders, the crossroads of slave-traders and

pirates, of traffickers and invaders; violence and cruelty were its constant

scourges. But it was also witness to the heroic resistance of its peoples,

which time and again rose up, pushed by the powerful and anonymous force of

the Caribbean winds, in their eagerness to achieve their freedom. While the

plundering of its resources and the iniquitous exploitation of its people led

the Caribbean to its encounter with the rest of the world, it was the struggle

to abolish all kinds of servitude and to have no master other than our own

conscience, which shaped our profound and irreducible identity and allowed us

to discover ourselves.

The Assembly is meeting at a crucial moment of definition. Today, as

five centuries ago, we are faced with attempts to reshape the world and

reorder relations between nations. Today, as in the past, the idea is to

determine whether the future will allow human solidarity to flourish or

whether it will still be weighed down by selfishness; whether it will one day

lead to the emancipation of the dispossessed, or whether it will for ever

perpetuate their tragedy; whether we are on the verge of a new colonizing

adventure, or whether, at long last, hope will begin to emerge for the poor of

this Earth.

In recent years humanity has been surprised by a series of developments

which have radically changed important elements of international relations and

have led to an avalanche of hasty interpretations and conclusions promoted by

the unrestrained haste of the privileged and the naive optimism of many others.

The end of the cold war, and with it the lessening of the danger of a

nuclear holocaust, should not be used to attempt to conceal what everyone

knows. It is true that military confrontation between the super-Powers

which threatened mankind with extermination never happened, and that the

rancorous antagonism of yesteryear was transformed through the unilateral

incantation of a baffling kind of alchemy into complacent subordination and a

show of fondness. That that war never occurred is of course salutary and

deserving of praise, but to identify with that fact the emergence of universal

peace is an absurdity which can make sense only from the profoundly racist

perspective of the new conquerors.

The period which now seems to be coming to an end was for the third world

a period of hard-fought struggles for independence and freedom. While

threatening with a battle which never occurred, imperialists used

all their means and resources to invade, attack, repress and oppress the

peoples of the South; many of their sons and daughters fell in confrontations

which had nothing to do with the rivalries between the powerful, and they died

without knowing how that antagonism was to be transmuted into a bizarre

convergence.

Just as the existence of the cold war did not alter the fate of the

third world, its disappearance does not, so far, seem to be benefiting its

peoples. The previous balance of power that contained the opposing blocs and

avoided a direct military conflict between them did not prevent the practice

of war, aggression and intervention against the third world.

We have no reason to imagine that the effects of the present conditions

of unipolarity and hegemonism will be more favourable to our peoples. On the

contrary, dangers are greater than ever in the face of a triumphant ecstasy on

the part of those who are in possession not only of the largest military power

but also of an insurmountable historical ignorance and the most gross moral

callousness.

The cold war is disappearing, but the arms race is not being reduced in

parallel, nor are militarism and bellicose mentalities being abandoned. If

the danger of war has been reduced, why does the United States aspire to

continue developing its military superiority, as was recently announced by the

occupant of the White House? Against whom will the empire now direct its

weapons?

We hear unending rhetoric about the end of confrontation and the

beginning of a new era of international cooperation, but it seems to exist

only in the imagination of those so gullible as to believe it. If a spirit of

international cooperation does really exist and if the cold war has ended, why

are the military expenditures of the big Powers not being drastically reduced

and why are the resources thus released not being channelled to the promotion

of development in underdeveloped countries? How can it be explained that

now precisely now attempts are being made to reduce international

cooperation for development to an even more subordinate and hypothetical role,

further to diminish the already limited presence of the United Nations in that

field and also to introduce unacceptable conditionalities and restrictions?

The changes that have occurred between the countries of the North have

no meaning for the majority of the inhabitants of the planet. If those

changes are to make some sense for them, it is necessary to undertake decisive

and effective action against the hunger and poverty which affect hundreds of

millions of people in the third world; and against infant malnutrition and

incurable diseases which are daily taking the lives of thousands of children

in an ongoing and silent war that some choose to ignore.

The economic crisis, the external debt of the third world, which has

risen to the figure of $1.50 trillion, unequal exchange, and increased hunger

and poverty have never been greater amongst the immense majority of mankind.

Their effects are staggering even for the most solid economies of the world.

Open subsidies and other selfish policies threaten to impede the conclusion of

agreements which have been in course of negotiation for years to regulate

international trade and which may provoke disastrous confrontations between

the large economic Powers. This clearly demonstrates that the history of

capitalism cannot escape its terrible and self-destructive laws.

There is meagre cause for optimism at present, when many cannot even

defy the consequences of recalling the principles of the new international

economic order solemnly proclaimed by the Assembly in times that were

supposedly less favourable for international cooperation.

True, universal and durable peace will be possible only in a world full

of hegemony, based on the rights, interests and aspirations of all peoples, in

a world in which the purposes and principles of the San Francisco Charter will

become a reality and, in particular, in a world which pays full respect to the

sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and non-interference in the

internal affairs of States, self-determination of peoples, and the right to

development.

But to achieve this, it is indispensable to democratize international

relations and the United Nations, providing the Organization with the

conditions necessary for it to fulfil the mission for which it should exist.

The United Nations cannot be reduced to a simple instrument of

domination by the powerful. Member States must prevent that; if they do not

they would in practice be permitting its termination and the elimination of

all possibility of achieving an equitable and peaceful world.

We must not accept the Security Council's operating as a secret society,

turning its back on the Organization which created it and in whose name it

should be acting; we must not accept its assuming functions which it does not

have and which no one has conferred upon it. The Security Council's

composition, functions and modus operandi must be urgently examined in depth

so that it can become a truly representative body, so that the anachronistic

and anti-democratic veto privilege can be eliminated and transparency can be

introduced into its activities, while limiting them strictly to those set down

in the Charter, and so that it will fully respect the obligation enshrined in

the Charter to be accountable to the General Assembly, which, in turn, should

strictly fulfil its responsibility to exercise control over the Council.

The Security Council has no authority whatsoever to interpret the Charter

or to broaden the scope of its powers, or to carry out all the orders coming

from its surreptitious informal gatherings. We must not tolerate the use of

the Council by those who so frequently defile the ideals of democracy as an

instrument for carrying out a virtual coup d'etat in the United Nations. Nor

can we we allow ideas to take hold that would introduce the concept of limited

sovereignty and promote the creation of mechanisms that would result in

converting the Organization into a permanent source of intrusion, interference

and intervention, to the benefit of the interests of the powerful.

The Organization must be democratized in order to strengthen its role and

enhance its efficiency. To that end, it is indispensable to reinforce, not to

weaken, the responsibilities of the General Assembly as the sole body in which

all of us have equal responsibilities and which therefore has the capacity to

represent the international community as a whole.

During the tenth summit conference that we held at Jakarta early this

month, the non-aligned countries adopted a common platform to face the present

international situation and to ensure concerted action in the United Nations.

The Jakarta Message, the Final Document and the resolutions that were adopted

should become our tools to mobilize the third world in defence of its rights

and to organize our resistance to those who are attempting to impose a

self-styled new world order, which was conceived against, and without taking

into account the interests of, the peoples of the South and which would

constitute nothing but the installation on a global scale of the kind of

hegemonistic delusions upon the cinders of which this Organization was created.

The aims of those who are concocting the reorganization of the world,

with a view to dominating it, are becoming increasingly obvious.

Underdevelopment and poverty would be permanently reserved for the peoples of

the South, which constitute three quarters of humankind, and they would

continue to be the providers of wealth for the affluent minorities of the

North. International bodies would be converted into mechanisms for domination

and intervention to guarantee a world system where the powerful would impose

their corrupted ideas and values. The new conquerors are not bearers of the

cross; rather, they brandish the sword and the moneybag, and the only gospel

they preach is profits.

Cynically they proclaim themselves the representatives of a superior

society and they go so far as to attempt to present themselves as the very

image of democracy, freedom and human rights. With the same arrogance shown

by their colonialist ancestors, with the same haughtiness shown by their

fascist inspirers, today's hegemonists boast about the alleged superiority of

their societies, their way of life, their ideas, beliefs and values, and use

every means in attempting to impose them upon other peoples.

They are attempting to impose not only their ideas, but also their

"justice", which lacks the slightest equity and which, even within the

territory of the United States, and with an openly racist point of view,

pronounces the harshest sentences, including the death penalty, on, almost

exclusively, blacks and hispanics. What is the sense of, and how can we

condone, the decision of that country's Supreme Court which legalized the

right to kidnap anyone of any nationality in any part of the world? Has

mankind ever seen such an abuse of power and high-handedness at any other

stage in its history?

At the same time, encouraged by the setbacks of European socialism, they

are trying to decree the end of socialist ideals and to impose capitalism, in

its most uncontrolled fashion, as the sole, definitive and permanent model to

be applied around the world. They proclaim the so-called neo-liberal formulas

as dogma which everyone must observe and they do not even blush when they

portray themselves as having the exclusive recipe for mankind's prosperity and

happiness.

Millions of dollars that could be devoted to more noble purposes are

being spent today in selling those ideas. But the peoples of the third world

have not forgotten that it was the unrestrained voraciousness of capitalism

that compelled them to endure the long and harsh experience of colonialism,

that crushed them with racism and discrimination, that subjected them to the

backwardness and poverty still besetting them. Capitalism was and is the

essential cause of the evils afflicting our peoples; it can never be their

solution.

The euphoric promoters of so-called neo-liberalism are overcome with joy

when they see the bankruptcy of a number of socialist projects which, as is

well known, lasted barely a few decades and were tested in adverse conditions

and in comparatively less developed countries.

Those who exult over the failure of some socialist societies should be

capable of demonstrating that capitalism is solving the problems of mankind or

at least that it is doing so somewhere. After all, capitalism has been the

predominant system in the world for centuries and has come to full development

in some of the more wealthy countries. But, after more than 200 years of

capitalism in a rich, developed and powerful country such as the United

States, the population as a whole still lacks a health system; millions are

calling for employment, housing, education and protection in their old age or

are suffering the consequences of drug addiction, violence and other social

evils; and tens of millions are victims of the worst expressions of racism and

racial discrimination. The most powerful country has not been able in two

centuries to solve any of those problems through capitalism, although it not

only has been able to rely on its own wealth but also has been pitilessly

exploiting other peoples during that lengthy period.

Certain turncoats may kneel before that deceptive golden calf, but to

understand the failure of capitalism as a social project it is not necessary

to read Karl Marx one need only take stroll through the New York or Los

Angeles inner city. The American dream may dazzle some weak minds, but for

broad, and growing, sectors in this country and, above all, for tens of

millions of Afro-Americans, Latinos, native Americans and Asians, the

unemployed, the poor and the destitute - that dream has been, and is, a

bitter, sad and perpetual nightmare.

On what moral grounds can profoundly unjust societies present themselves

as a universal archetype when the inordinate consumption patterns and the

extravagance of their insolent minorities mock the plight of countless others

in their midst who are suffering a life as miserable as that of the poorest in

the third world? In terms of human solidarity they have nothing to teach us;

on the contrary, they have much to learn from us.

In truth, not only is the type of society that would be imposed upon us

intrinsically unjust and inhuman: it threatens the survival of the human

species - indeed, life itself on our planet. The irrational consumption

patterns of the wealthy exhaust non-renewable resources, poison oceans and

rivers, make the air in our cities unbreathable, adversely change the climate,

dangerously raise the sea level, irreparably damage the soil, destroy forests,

enlarge deserts and deepen the poverty of hundreds of millions of human

beings. The environment is also the victim of a relentless war that has

already caused the death of numerous species and is putting many others in

danger of extinction.

When will it be man's turn to fall victim to his own folly? For how long

will a lifestyle that condemns each and every one of us to death continue to

be worshipped?

I address this Assembly at what is, for Cuba, a particularly difficult

time. The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United

States against the Cuban people has been in force for more than 30 years, but

it is now being intensified and extended. While talking hypocritically of

peace and international cooperation, the Government in Washington forbids

foreign vessels involved in any business with Cuba to enter United States

ports and tries to compel corporations based in other countries to follow its

anti-Cuban policy. Thus it is grossly violating not only the most basic

rights of my people but also the sovereignty of other countries and the

fundamental principles and norms of international law.

While former adversaries become partners, and while the number of

countries to which Washington applies economic restrictions diminishes, the

budget and resources of the Government office entrusted with enforcement of

those restrictions have been increased, and it is publicly acknowledged that

those actions are geared towards reinforcement of the blockade against Cuba.

The United States obstructs Cuban economic and commercial activities world

wide. It strives to prevent us from purchasing oil, foodstuffs and medicines;

puts pressure on investors and businessmen; and, more than once, has been able

to intimidate others, and thus frustrate entirely legitimate operations, by

its stubborn and criminal attempts to starve our people into surrender.

Never before, other than in the course of war, has a people been

subjected to such rigorous, prolonged and total attack. This aggression is

being carried out against a small and poor country - a country with very few

natural resources, and no substantial sources of energy; a country whose

development prospects are totally dependent on foreign trade; a country that

receives no credit or finance from international organizations; a country to

which even various types of humanitarian aid are restricted. And now attempts

are being made even to prevent us from trading.

The blockade is being intensified at a time when Cuba is suffering an

extremely trying situation arising from the dissolution of the Socialist bloc,

the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the sudden and radical change in

relations with the countries with which we conducted 80 per cent of our trade,

as well as from the abrupt disappearance of the fair and equitable prices that

governed those relations. This has meant the loss of 70 per cent of Cuba's

purchasing power the figure having fallen from $8,139 million in 1989 to

$2.2 million this year. In truth, Cuba is confronted by a double blockade

that is becoming harsher and more implacable every day.

Indeed, the enormous damage to our economy has had inevitable

repercussions for the living standards and consumption levels of the

population, as well as for the country's production and development

programmes. In these grave circumstances the imperialists nurture the hope

that, by making their blockade tougher and more oppressive, they will be able

to create conditions of poverty and hunger and, thus, make our people

surrender. However, that is nothing but a foolish hope. Those who seek to

annihilate us are ignoring the fact that Cuba's main resource - its only true

wealth is its people.

Only a united, informed and resolute people, a people prepared to fight

for what it wants to achieve, a people whose social relations are governed by

equity and solidarity, can confront and overcome such adversity. Only in a

society such as that of Cuba could such disastrous conditions have occurred

without leading to the closure of a single school, to neglect of the health of

a single child or elderly man or woman, or to the abandonment of a single

citizen. Can the same be said of our rabid enemies or our hypocritical

critics?

There is no greater proof of the strength of our social system or of the

implacable resolve and unity of the Cuban people in defence of its revolution

than the heroic popular resistance to this imperialist onslaught. How many

countries have endured such a trial?

But this large-scale economic warfare is not the only action being taken

against Cuba. Part of our territory continues to be illegally occupied by a

United States military base, which is the source of frequent provocation; the

air above and the sea around the country are constantly being used for

manoeuvres by the mighty who assault us; more than 1,500 hours of aggressive

radio broadcasts are transmitted to Cuba weekly, and there have been

unsuccessful attempts to invade our television spectrum; the territory of the

United States is used openly and shamelessly, and with the apparent complicity

of the authorities of that country, for the purpose of carrying out terrorist

attacks against us; and Cuba is being subjected to a systematic campaign of

slander to distort the image of a country which the United States has not been

able to defeat and which refuses to renounce its independence.

As it has not been able to bend us to its will, imperialism threatens us

with extermination and endeavours to compel the rest of the world to acquiesce

to its genocidal infamy. The Yankee blockade is a brutal violation of the

rights of all the Cuban people and of international norms and the sovereignty

of other countries. It is, above all, a moral disgrace.

Those who think they can bring Cuba to its knees are mistaken. Our

people has travelled a long road to achieve its full emancipation. It started

its trek, totally alone, more than 120 years ago. Within its limited island

space, without allies, without the material support of any Government, it

struggled for three decades against a better and larger military force than

the total of the forces which Spain had used to combat rebellion in all its

other colonies. Attempts were made even then to isolate our people from the

rest of the world; even then the oppressor found accomplices; even then

attempts were made to compel our people to surrender because of hunger, and a

substantial part of our population was annihilated.

The Puerto Rican patriot, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, described those

painful times for Cuba in the following words:

"It is necessary to imagine oneself in that terrifying situation,

the most tragic ever faced by any people: deprived of everything itself,

while its enemy possesses all the power and resources of civilization;

abandoned, while its enemy is abetted; disdained, while its enemy is

flattered by the complicity of all. It is necessary to be able to feel

all the torments of the agony of many years to understand how long a

revolution lasts, to realize how much time passes, to understand the

prodigious resistance of the combatants, to appreciate their heroism, to

be worthy of admiring those admirable men ...

"It is necessary to live in such infamous times, stumbling through

the darkness of injustice, to feel for those men, elevated by their own

efforts to the dignity of complete men, all the enthusiastic reverence,

all the impulsive admiration, inspired by those capable of heroically

representing the highest virtues of mankind."

Those times referred to by Hostos were certainly even more difficult for

our people. Today we are facing an enemy more powerful than Spain was then,

but we have a united, brave people, worthy heirs of those combatants who never

retreated despite the greatest misfortunes. We will never betray their

memory; we will never renounce a fatherland which we liberated with rivers of

blood and sacrifice.

We also rely on the solidarity of peoples. We know that the oppressed,

the exploited and the victims of discrimination on this Earth who place their

hopes in Cuba's survival are many.

For our dead, and for those who hope for a worthy life, we will continue

resisting. We will not betray the mandate of our ancestors and the confidence

of peoples. We will prove ourselves capable of resisting and we will know how

to resist.

We will continue to pursue our most sacred duty: to save the fatherland,

the revolution and socialism. For their sake, we shall continue our struggle,

without hesitating, despite all obstacles, hard and difficult though

circumstances may be; ever onward to victory.