"Cuba believes that the U.S. attempt to condemn the island at the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC) was a deafening defeat and that the majority rejection of the amendment presented by Costa Rica constitutes a clear signal that the greater part of the international community recognizes our right to apply laws in defense of national sovereignty," confirmed Felipe Pérez Roque at a press conference in which he recounted the most important aspects of the debate at the HRC in Geneva.

He noted that it is likewise an acknowledgement of the pertinence and legality of the measures adopted by Cuba in defense of its sovereignty and to punish, in line with our laws and full guarantees, groups of individuals acting in the service and on the payroll of a foreign power that is harassing it, or committing crimes defined by international laws as terrorism and severely punished by Cuban legislation.

The Cuban foreign minister noted that it has once again been corroborated that in present conditions, above all after the aggression against Iraq, the European Union (EU) unfortunately lacks the capacity to formulate its own independent policy on Cuba, "although we trust that one day, a more mature EU, more clear as to its objectives and responsibilities in the world, will erase this shameful page of its relations with our country."

Later in the conference Pérez Roque recalled that the post of UN high commissioner for human rights has only existed for nine years and Cuba was the first Latin American country to invite that post holder to visit the country in 1994. However, the former high commissioner waited five years for an invitation from the U.S. government, which sharply informed her that there was nothing to be concerned about in relation to human rights and did not invite her.

"Cuba is not refusing to cooperate with the high commissioner, quite the opposite, but what it is not prepared to accept is the manipulation of this issue, the unscrupulous employment of this UN figure to justify the campaign against our country and to maintain the blockade," he explained.

DEATH PENALTY AS AN EXCEPTIONAL RESORT

The Cuban foreign minister observed that certain persons have said that the death penalty has been applied to political dissidents, while referring to common criminals with appalling criminal records who endangered the lives of people traveling aboard a vessel by committing an act of terrorism.

He clarified that the Cuban government does not support the death sentence. "We would like not to have it one day. It is not consubstantial with our philosophy of life. For us today, it is no more than a exceptional resort to which we only have recourse to for reasons of cause majeur, with which we have had to defend a country under attack for more than 40 years.