Cuba, 2010

Yesterday was exactly the fiftieth anniversary

of the first speech of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro

Ruz in this Hall, with that memorable sentence that if

the philosophy of plunder disappears, then the

philosophy of war will have disappeared (see

A/PV.872).

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Sixty million people had to die in the Second

World War so that the leaders of the time could create

the United Nations with the aim of saving succeeding

generations from the scourge of war.

Today, the children and grandchildren of that

generation realize that the human race is faced with the

threat of extinction. Within a few decades, the

degradation of living conditions on the planet will be

irreversible. The same could happen in a few hours if

only a small part of the nuclear arsenal were to be

used. Those who met in San Francisco to draft the

Charter of the United Nations could not have imagined

the threat now posed by global warming or the nuclear

winter.

While we deliberate here, as Comrade Fidel has

warned, powerful and influential forces in the United

States and Israel are paving the way to launch a

military attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

For its part, the Security Council, possibly under the

illusion of preventing that, is going ahead with

applying sanctions against that country, which,

together with the unilateral sanctions illegally imposed

by a group of States, seek to strangle the Iranian

economy.

The recent and politically biased report issued by

the Director General of the International Atomic

Energy Agency has contributed to increasing the

tensions and has provided a pretext for military

escalation. Should that aggression in fact materialize, it

would be a crime against the Iranian people and an

assault against peace and international law that could

ignite a conflict that will certainly turn nuclear. The

toll would be millions of lives and the impact on the

environment, the economy and world stability

incalculable.

Who could assert otherwise, and on the basis of

what guarantees? How could it be argued that the

present course of events is distancing the planet from

war in the Middle East? The threat is too serious to

trust in the capacity of the Security Council, where the

main actor responsible for the crisis has relied on its

ability to impose its designs.

The wars against Iraq and Afghanistan

demonstrate that we cannot entrust one or a few

Governments with the authority to decide when all

diplomatic steps to prevent a war have been exhausted,

when the use of force becomes unavoidable, and when

the death of hundreds of thousands or millions of

people and the destabilization of a large area of the

planet — or all these things together — are inevitable.

Sanctions, sieges and conflict are not the way to

preserve international peace and security. On the

contrary, dialogue, negotiation and adherence to the

principle of the sovereign equality of States are the

only way to avoid war.

Cuba commends and encourages the efforts of all

those countries, such as China, Russia, Brazil and

Turkey, that strive to find peaceful solutions, and calls

on the international community to support such

initiatives. It is the duty of this General Assembly to

officially support those efforts.

The United Nations must be radically reformed

and the powers of this General Assembly restored. The

Security Council must be recreated. It must be

reiterated that the Secretary-General and all senior

officials of the international agencies, including the

International Atomic Energy Agency, answer to all

Member States, as set out in clear mandates adopted in

accordance with the Charter and the rules of procedure.

The serious threat posed by nuclear weapons will be

solved only with their total elimination and prohibition.

The manipulation surrounding non-proliferation — based

on double standards and political interest, the existence of

a club of the privileged and the denial to the countries of

the South of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy — must

stop. We urge the United States, the main nuclear Power,

to stop opposing the negotiation of binding agreements

that could rid us once and for all of this threat within a set

time frame. Given the great lethal power and the ongoing

development of conventional weapons, we will also have

to fight for complete and general disarmament.

In order to move ahead on those tasks, the

Non-Aligned Movement submitted a proposal that has

gone unheeded. The proposal envisages a plan of

action that includes the establishment of nuclear-

weapon-free zones. It is urgent to establish such a zone

in the Middle East, where Israel is the only country

that opposes it. Success in this effort would contribute

significantly to dispelling the threats of conflict and

nuclear proliferation and to achieving lasting peace in

that region.

The floods that have affected Pakistan, Central

America and many other countries in the most diverse

latitudes, as well as the droughts and extreme

temperatures that have devastated Russia, are a tragic

reminder of the threats of a climate out of balance. In

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the face of such a serious threat, no selfish interests or

narrow political agendas that prevent the adoption of

concrete and binding agreements at the next

Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change should

prevail. The developed countries, which bear the

greatest responsibility for global warming, should

accept more ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse

gas emissions and refrain from destroying the

framework established by the Convention and its

Kyoto Protocol.

It would be very irresponsible of the

Governments of the industrialized countries to ignore

the legitimate claims of the non-governmental

organizations and social movements that were brutally

suppressed in Copenhagen and later met in

Cochabamba barely five months ago to defend Mother

Earth, or to again seek to deceive public opinion by

blaming the emerging economies.

We call for the full support of the international

community for Venezuela in its struggle. The victory in

yesterday’s parliamentary elections demonstrates the

broad majority support of the people for President

Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution, which have

suffered North American interference and the scorn and

disinformation campaigns of the oligarchic groups and

media empires.

Now that the television cameras have left Haiti,

we call for the pledges of international assistance to be

honoured. The noble Haitian people need resources for

reconstruction and, above all, for development.

The United States Government is aware of Cuba’s

readiness to coexist in a climate of peace, respect and

sovereign equality, which we have expressly conveyed

through official channels and which I reiterate here on

behalf of President Raúl Castro. I am convinced that

the development of relations based on international law

and the purposes and principles of the United Nations

would enable Cuba and the United States to address

many of their differences and to resolve others. It

would help to create an atmosphere conducive to trying

to solve the problems of our region and, at the same

time, provide significant support to the interests of our

respective peoples.

The agenda for dialogue and bilateral cooperation

initiatives submitted to President Obama’s Administration

on 14 July 2009, which I publicly announced in this Hall

exactly a year ago (see A/64/PV.11), have yet to receive a

response. The North American Government has shown no

willingness to address essential matters on the bilateral

agenda, so the official talks that have been held without

great progress have been limited to specific issues.

Contrary to expectations, even within the United

States itself, its Government does not seem willing to

amend even the most irrational and universally rejected

aspects of its policy against Cuba. The main element in

our bilateral relations is the economic, commercial and

financial blockade that the United States Government

imposes against my country directly and through the

extraterritorial application of its laws. The blockade

has been the subject of 18 resolutions that, with the

almost unanimous support of Member States, have

consistently called for its end.

However, in the past two years, there has been no

change in the policy of blockade and subversion

against Cuba, even though all know that the President

of that country is vested with sufficient authority to

make real change and enjoys the broad majority

support of the North American people in that respect.

For United States citizens or foreigners residing

in that country, travelling to Cuba remains illegal. It is

impossible to sell Cuban products or products

containing Cuban components or technology to the

United States. With very limited exceptions, Cuba is

forbidden to acquire, here or in any other country, any

product containing a fraction of American input or

technology. Financial transactions in United States

dollars, whether linked to Cuba or not, can be either

confiscated or frozen and the banks involved may be

fined. Fines worth several millions are imposed on

United States and foreign companies for violating the

venal blockade laws.

In addition, and in open contradiction of

international norms, Cuba’s broadcasting space

continues to be violated and radio and television

broadcasts continue to be used for subversive purposes,

while millions in federal funds are used to foment

political instability in my country. Part of Cuba’s

territory has been seized by the United States, which

has imposed a military base in Guantánamo that has

become a centre of torture beyond the jurisdiction of

international humanitarian law.

United States immigration policy towards Cuba,

based on the Cuban Adjustment Act, is a politically

motivated exception that encourages illegal migration

and costs human lives. Cuba’s inclusion on the United

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States’ spurious list of countries that sponsor

international terrorism is deeply immoral.

Our demand, and the universal appeal concerning

it, is well known. The five Cuban anti-terrorists who

have been incarcerated in the United States for 12 years

as political prisoners must be immediately released.

Setting them free would be an act of justice that would

enable President Obama to show his true commitment to

combating terrorism in our own hemisphere.

The President of the United States still has the

opportunity to make a historical rectification of an

utterly futile 50-year genocidal policy left over from

the cold war. It would be an act of resolve that could

only encourage the support of those who elected him

for change and of the community of nations that votes

for it every year. Whatever the circumstances, the

Cuban revolution will unyieldingly and tenaciously

pursue the sovereign path chosen by our people and

shall not cease in its endeavours, based on the precepts

of Martí and Fidel, to overcome all injustice.