Cuba, 2014

We live in a globalized world that is moving towards

multipolarity in an age characterized by the threat to

the survival of the human species. The United States

Government and NATO will not be able to reverse that

trend with a new world division through the force of

arms. However, there is a serious risk that in trying to

do so, they render the world ungovernable.

The huge nuclear and conventional arsenals

that have been built up, the imposed annual military

expenditure that amounts to $1.75 trillion and the

increase in military budgets to 2 per cent of the gross

domestic product required of all States members of

NATO will not help to address or to resolve issues such

as poverty, hunger, epidemics or waves of migration or

to overcome the global economic, environmental. food,

energy and water crises.

As has already been demonstrated, wherever the

so-called unconventional warfare described in the 2010

United States Special Forces Army Training Circular

18-01 and the innovations of the 2010 United States

Quadrennial Defense Review are practised, chaos

ensues through the destabilization or destruction

of States, the proliferation of violent and extremist

groups and the tearing apart of nations, cultures and

religions, thereby seriously jeopardizing regional and

international peace and security. It is necessary to

condemn the militarization of cyberspace and the illegal

and covert interference in the information systems

of some countries in order to use them in aggressive

actions against third countries to stir up conflict, as

well as global espionage on Governments and entire

societies.

The extraterritorial application of United States

laws to the detriment of other sovereign nations is

becoming increasingly aggressive and encourages

the use of unilateral sanctions, in particular financial

sanctions, as a tool of foreign policy. The use of its

courts of justice to impose multimillion-dollar fines,

including on its allies, under decisions that violate

international law, has become a means of punishment

and threat and a way to spuriously obtain financial

resources. Governments, by failing to defend their own

sovereignty and to apply their own laws so as to protect

the standards of the international financial system and

the legitimate interests of their nations and those of their

companies and citizens, are creating the conditions

necessary for the proliferation of such practices, which

jeopardize the independence of all States and the rule

of international law.

Media empires, increasingly linked to the

hegemonic goals of the Western Powers, continue their

misinformation campaigns, shamelessly and cynically

manipulate facts and create public opinion matrices

that promote aggression. We need another international

order, where there is no room for the philosophy of war

and the plundering of natural resources.

The foreign intervention in Syria must stop. It is

inconceivable that Western Powers encourage, finance

and arm terrorist groups to set them against a State,

while trying to combat their crimes in another State, as

is now happening in Iraq. The United States Government

violates international law when it launches, in contempt

of the United Nations, unilateral bombings without

respect for sovereign borders or States under the guise

of dubious coalitions.

The attempt to deploy NATO up to Russia’s borders

will have serious consequences for international peace

and security and for the stability of Europe. The

sanctions against Russia are immoral and unjust. The

strategic American deployment in the Asia-Pacific

region will create dangers for the sovereignty of all

nations in the area.

Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,

most recently in the Gaza Strip, should not remain

unpunished under the protection of a veto in the

Security Council. Palestine should already be a State

Member of the United Nations, established within the

1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The General Assembly must exercise the

prerogatives conferred on it by the Charter of the

United Nations in the current dangerous and unstable

international situation, which is full of threats and

challenges. The Security Council should be rebuilt

on the basis of democracy, transparency and the fair

representation of the countries of the South, which are

discriminated against, as permanent and non-permanent

members. It should be built on credibility and strict

observance of the Charter, without double standards,

obscure procedures or the anachronistic veto. The

Organization needs profound reform and the defence

of its principles. The Secretary-General should be the

defender and guarantor of international peace.

The 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty,

the 842 million people who suffer chronic hunger,

the 774 million illiterate adults and the 57 million

uneducated children affirm that the Millennium

Development Goals — which are questionable from

a methodological point of view — were a mirage.

There has been and still is a lack of political will in

the Governments of industrialized States, where

blindness and ineffective selfishness prevail. Insatiable

transnational businesses increasingly focus on the

ownership of huge resources. The unequal distribution

of wealth is increasingly ruthless.

It is necessary, inevitably, to establish a new

international economic order. In these circumstances,

the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda

give us little reason to hope. However, we must try

to reach agreement, as that is the most urgent task. It

must be the result of an inclusive intergovernmental

negotiation. The resulting document should not be the

interpretation of a few parties to the consensus, but

rather of the consensus itself.

It is urgent to make sub-Saharan Africa a priority.

It is essential to confront jointly and decisively, with

sufficient and genuine cooperation, the Ebola epidemic

that is affecting some countries of the continent. Cuba

has decided to maintain its medical cooperation in the

32 African countries where more than 4,000 specialists

are working and is willing to extend its cooperation,

under the auspices of the World Health Organization

(WHO), to other, most affected countries, as has been

reported. Our doctors and paramedics will do so

completely voluntarily.

We call on the international community, particularly

industrialized countries with substantial means, to

forcefully respond to the call of the United Nations

and WHO to supply financial, health and scientific

resources right away in order to eradicate the scourge

and prevent it from claiming more lives. The necessary

resources should also be contributed to support the

African Union’s Agenda 2063, which sets forth the road

map for the development of the region.

In the past five decades, 325,000 Cuban health

workers have assisted 158 nations of the South, including

39 African countries, where 76,000 have worked. Also,

38,000 physicians were trained free of charge in 121

countries; of those, 3,392 were in 45 African nations.

If Cuba, small and subject to a blockade, has been able

to do that, how much more could have been done for

Africa with the cooperation of all, especially of the

richest States?

At the second Summit of the Community of

Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in

Havana, we agreed on what is needed to achieve the

goal of making societies more just and inclusive. It

is indispensable that there be a better distribution of

wealth and income, the eradication of illiteracy, quality

education for all, real food security, health systems

with universal coverage, and the fulfilment of other

human rights.

The solemn Proclamation of Latin America and

the Caribbean as a zone of peace, signed by the Heads

of State and Government, enshrines respect for the

principles and norms of international law, the promotion

of a culture of peace, nuclear disarmament and general

and complete disarmament, and the inalienable right of

every State to choose its political, economic and social

system. We also undertook to make Latin America

and the Caribbean a region free from colonialism and

expressed support for the inalienable right of the people

of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.

The Havana summit recognized that the current

economic, financial and environmental crises have

delivered particularly harsh blows to small island

developing States, including the nations of the

Caribbean. Their efforts to improve the welfare of

their populations should not be punished by calling

them middle-income countries through schematic

calculations of per capita income, without taking into

account their specificities and vulnerabilities.

In CELAC, the region of Latin America and the

Caribbean has found a native and legitimate space

to forge from its rich diversity the essential unity to

fulfil the dreams of our heroes, achieve the complete

independence of “Our America” and make a substantial

contribution to creating balance in the world. In that

effort, there have been significant developments — the

meeting between the Union of South American Nations

and Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and

South Africa (BRICS); the meeting between the

leaders of China and the countries of Latin America

and the Caribbean; and the establishment of the China-

CELAC Forum in Brasilia in July, as had been agreed

in Havana. We welcome the Fortaleza Declaration,

also adopted in July in Brazil, at the sixth summit of

the BRICS countries — whose economies account for

25 per cent of world gross domestic product and almost

40 per cent of the population of the planet — as well

as the setting up of a development bank and a foreign

exchange reserves common fund, which are important

for the countries of the South and for the construction

of a new international financial architecture.

We express our solidarity with the Bolivarian

and Chavista revolution, which, under the leadership

of President Nicolas Maduro, is battling to fend off

destabilizing actions and foreign interference. We

support the worthy fight being waged by Argentina

against speculative capital funds, and we oppose the

interventionist decisions of the United States courts

that are violating international law. In addition, we

reiterate our strong support for the legitimate rights

of Argentina with respect to the Malvinas Islands. We

also reiterate our unwavering support for the fight that

Ecuador is leading against the ecological pillaging

and damage caused by the activities of transnational

companies.

On the eve of the International Decade for People

of African Descent (2015-2024), we would recall that

this year we celebrate the 210th anniversary of the

independence of Haiti, whose anti-slavery and pro-

independence revolution was the precursor of liberation

movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti

deserves special contributions for its reconstruction

and development, under the sovereign leadership of its

Government, in which we encourage the international

community to participate. We support the claim of the

Caribbean to receive reparations from the colonial

Powers for the horrors of slavery.

The State Department has again put Cuba on

its unilateral and arbitrary list of State sponsors of

international terrorism. Its real purpose is to increase

scrutiny of our international financial transactions

worldwide and justify the policy of blockade. During

the current Administration, there has been a tightening

of the extraterritorial dimension of the blockade, with

a strong and unprecedented emphasis in the financial

realm, through the imposition of huge fines on banking

institutions in third-party countries. An example of this

is the scandalous and unjust mega-fine imposed on the

French bank BNP Paribas. Furthermore, the current

Administration has not stepped back from promoting

destabilization in Cuba. It allocates millions of dollars

to that end in its budget every year and increasingly

relies on undercover methods, such as the use of

information and communications technology. The

ZunZuneo project, sponsored by the United States

Agency for International Development (USAID), which

not only violates Cuban law but also the law of its own

country, is the latest evidence of that.

Recent disclosures about the use of young people

from our continent in subversive actions in Cuba,

a project funded and executed by USAID, confirm

that the Cuban Government is right in its countless

denunciations of the ongoing illegal plans of the

United States to subvert Cuba’s internal order, in

violation of Cuban sovereignty, the sovereignty of

third countries and international law. We cannot fail

to remember that this month marks the sixteenth year

of the unjust imprisonment of three Cubans from the

Cuban Five — Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio — who

with the utmost altruism confronted the terrorist plans

organized within United States territory against our

country. I therefore reiterate, on behalf of the people

and Government of Cuba, that we will not cease in our

efforts to call for their return to their homeland.

Cuba, for its part, remains calm and prepared for

mutually respectful and responsible dialogue, based

on reciprocity, with the United States Government.

At the same time, Cuba continues to make progress

in the updating of its socioeconomic model, despite

adverse international circumstances marked by a global

economic crisis and the tightening of the blockade.

Updating Cuban’s economic socialist model is

aimed at ensuring well-being, equity and social justice

for all Cubans. The changes that we are introducing

are also geared to preserving the achievements of the

Revolution, which so many generations have fought for.

The goal is to build an ever more just, prosperous and

sustainable Cuban socialism.