Mr. Chairman:

I am speaking on behalf of Cuba.

We have come here to accuse those who lie; to tell our truths. And we have come armed with reasons: an arsenal of just ideas and the history of struggle of our people - the endeavor of which to achieve full justice cannot be subdued by nothing or no one; and that aggressions, blockades and slandering have not been able to crush its ironclad will of struggle or even dented its full independence.

The Commission on Human Rights is today more divided than ever and on the verge of reaching an irreversible point of disrepute. On the one hand, we have the representatives of the Third World: we are hostages to debt, victims of the unfair disorder imposed around the world; we only own our poverty and backwardness; we are the ones contributing millions of starving, poor, illiterate people; children and mothers who die; the ones who have grievously sustained, with our suffering, the opulence of our exploiters. At this Commission, we always stand accused. On the other hand, we have the representatives of the rich and developed countries: they are the creditors; those who consume almost everything that is produced; those who squander, pollute and forget that they owe their wealth to us. And, in addition, they are the ones pretending to become the accusers and judges of our countries.

It is high time we swept hypocrisy and double standards away from the work of this Commission. Could the United States explain why they vote against considering famine - currently affecting nearly 1 billion people - as an outrage and a violation of human dignity? Could they explain that while an attempt is made to accuse Cuba they also refuse to condemn the flagrant, large-scale human rights violations committed by the Israeli army against the courageous Palestinian people?

The time has come to demand that an extensive reform and democratization process be implemented on this Commission. We discuss the issue every year - and several resolutions have been adopted for such purposes. But the truth is that the Commission on Human Rights continues being an instrument at the service of the interests of domination of the United States and its allies.

Could this situation change? Of course. But it is required that you, the representatives of the developed countries, modestly accept the fairness of our demands. It is required that you recognize that you are not the absolute owners of the truth. It is necessary to renounce the racist notion that poor people cannot be also right.

We need a more democratic, tolerant world. Why does a small group of rich, powerful countries want to impose an increasingly less democratic and pluralistic world? Why don't we fight for greater tolerance - not only within countries but also in country-to-country relations? Why can't the existence of diverse models of civil and political ordering be accepted? What is the reason behind the attempt to have a single model of democracy prevail? Didn't we already agree at the World Conference on Human Rights that all peoples are entitled to self-determination and thus freely establish their political conditions under this right?

The work of this Commission can be useful only if resulting from respectful cooperation - never from dogmatic imposition and arrogance.

Cuba will continue to demand that this Commission cease being a hostage to unjustifiable interests. Cuba will not give up its struggle as long as the right of all countries is not respected; as long as there is no guarantee for the pluralistic, transparent, objective and democratic functioning of this Commission.

Mr. Chairman:

The United States accuses Cuba of human rights violations. As we all know, a genuine concern over the human rights situation in Cuba is not at stake in this accusation. What is really at stake is whether a small Third World country can or cannot choose its own path and build, in its own way, a future of equality and well-being for its children.

I reject and deeply despise the accusation against Cuba - fabricated by the United States and imposed on this Commission through extreme pressures. I steadfastly uphold, looking each of you in the eye, that there are no human rights violations in Cuba; that there is no justification whatsoever behind the attempt to single Cuba out at this Commission; that such assertion can only be possible on account of the pathological incapacity of the United States to accept Cuba as an independent country that no longer belongs to it.

After more than 40 years of a genocidal blockade and an economic war; invasions; terrorist acts; subversive attempts; sabotage; assassination plots against Cuban leaders; biological warfare and many other acts of aggression, the Commission on Human Rights is the most recent battlefield between the US oppressive design against Cuba and our desires for independence, justice and development.

I am not going to spend any time explaining the Cuban reality and proving the unfair, selective nature of the US accusations. There is really no need. You know it, whether you recognize it or not. I will just say that the United States is the country with the least moral authority to judge Cuba over human rights and democracy issues.

I cannot help asking: Has any one ever seen the police in Cuba beating up the workers or the students during a demonstration, shooting rubber bullets at them, sicking dogs or horses on them, throwing tear gas at them - as it happens on a daily basis in quite a few places of the world today? You know that in Cuba leaders demonstrate alongside the people.

Even the recent report of the US State Department on the human rights situation around the world - which, of course, I do not view as legitimate and in which, as we know, the only country that is not included is the US itself - recognizes that there are no politically motivated deaths or missing people in Cuba. Despite their deep-rooted hatred against our country, their obsession to condemn us and their lack of scruples, the United States has not dared to lie, at least, in this respect. So transparent and humane is our record, that it is impossible to deny it!

Can anybody in this hall mention a single case of torture, murder or disappearance in Cuba? Does anyone in this hall know of a single case of journalists assassinated in Cuba, or of the kidnapping of children - other than the failed attempt to retain a Cuban child in the United States - or the sale of children, or child slavery?

Has any one ever heard of a death squad in Cuba? Has any one seen in Cuba a demonstration of mothers and grandmothers crying out for their murdered or missing children and grandchildren? Has any one of you heard that the Cuban Government, by deceiving its people, has imposed an IMF adjustment program or given the country's riches away to transnational corporations? Have you not wondered why after 40 years of blockade and 10 years of dire economic constraints we retain, increasingly, the overwhelming support of our people? The answer is that the Revolution belongs to the people, not to a power-obsessed elite.

Leaders in Cuba view our responsibilities as a duty, an attitude to life, not a lifestyle. Our authority is not only based on our democratic and transparent election, with no money or corruption involved, but on our people's conviction that we do not steal; that we are not above their needs and dreams; that we share their difficulties; that we will not stop living an austere, committed life.

Should it be interpreted then that we think of ourselves as a perfect society? No, we are not satisfied. We are only beginning. We are trying to obliterate centuries of marginalization and injustices. We intend to raise education and culture to levels that have never been achieved by our people. We are striving to pass down to our children levels of equality, social justice and citizen participation never before attained by any other society.

We will do our utmost to continue improving our achievements, to makeour political system more efficient and participatory, which is - we know it well - by far more democratic than the one of our fallacious accusers.

In Cuba, we struggle for an increasingly tolerant and humane society. We dream of an increasingly cultivated and educated people - which translates into a freer people. We look forward to instilling all possible knowledge in our people, not only for a select group. We dream of a people with profound social sensitivity, devoid of selfishness, with deep-rooted humanist convictions. We dream of - and are ever closer to - fulfilling those dreams, with a people for which Homeland means Humankind. A society likes ours, in which men and their dignity is the cornerstone, does not agree with violence, repression or deceit.

No pressure can be exerted on us. We do what we think is fair and convenient. We have ethics. We have morale. And I should be emphatically clear about this: We do not and will not accept either pressures or threats!

This is a time of definition. Whoever seconds the United States in its wicked maneuvers against Cuba has no moral authority to talk to us about human rights. One cannot reject the blockade against Cuba while colluding with the United States in the manipulation used to justify it.

We have the encouragement and sympathy of the peoples of Latin America - who know that our struggle is also for their rights; who recall Cuba's solidarity and support at a time when US-sponsored dictatorships tortured, murdered and caused the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of people in Our America.

We also know that Cuba's struggle is in favor of the respect for the rights of everyone in the Third World - so that contempt and disregard can cease over our right to a more equitable and just world, over our right to development and life.

Mr. Chairman:

The United States is upset about Cuba wanting to be free and independent. And Cuba is not going to cease being ever free and more independent!

The United States is upset about Cuba being socialist. And Cuba is going to be increasingly socialist!

The United States is upset about the fact that it is the people who rule in Cuba. And in Cuba our people will increasingly determine its destiny!

The United States is upset about Cuba curtailing their imperialist and hegemonic designs. And Cuba will increase its anti-imperialism and solidarity towards just causes!

The United States wants to organize the party calling for the annexation to the United States in a fragmented, weak Cuba. And Cuba will continue to have the party of unity and independence, of social justice and dignity, of real equality and true solidarity among all men and all peoples - without which there can be no liberty, democracy or peace!

Forty years of heroic endurance underpin our ideas, our reasons, our truths, our invincible strength, and our unflinching and indestructible freedom!

Rulers in the United States no longer know what to do about Cuba. In one field or another, they will continue to sustain one defeat after the other. What they are trying to achieve at this Commission, on the basis of humiliating pressures on its members and a very high political cost, reveals that they have forgotten that famous thought of King Pyrrhus: "With another victory like this, I am lost."

They have turned us into the freest people on Earth; no longer dependent on their trade, their credits and their investments. We currently enjoy the rare and almost unique privilege of being able to tell them the whole truth and destroy each and every one of their lies, from this or any other rostrum.

We are not accusing their people, capable of being noble and idealistic; we are accusing a hegemonic system of domination and a selfish, rapacious political and economic order imposed on the world that is, in addition, unsustainable.

There are some who ask a gesture from us in order to please the United States. The gesture that I make, on behalf of my people, is to raise my fist and loudly proclaim the words that for forty years all Cubans have uttered in light of each of their crimes and acts of aggression against Cuba:

Fatherland or Death! We shall overcome!

Mr. President:

I have come to speak on behalf of the only country on the planet subjected to a blockade. Here, I represent a friendly and courageous nation that has earned the respect of the international public opinion on account of its steadfast, determined struggle for independence and the defense of the right of small, poor countries to have a place in the world.

On behalf of Cuba, I hereby submit to the General Assembly for consideration the draft resolution entitled “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”

I do not find it necessary to repeat how, when and why the US blockade against Cuba was put in place – or the methods by means of which it has been reinforced and worsened every year. Nor do I believe it is fitting to once again reveal the countless pretexts with which the representatives of the US Government have unsuccessfully attempted to justify the unjustifiable year after year. This Assembly has enough information on the issue and has clearly supported the need to put an end to this irrational, inhumane policy for eight consecutive years.

However, I am particularly interested in stating that – contrary to what has been repeated with suspicious persistence – the economic, trade and financial blockade against Cuba has not only failed to be eased as a result of the recent legislative decisions adopted by the US Congress, but it has also been further tightened.

And how was that possible, you may wonder, if nobody argues anymore that – after seven months of an outstanding struggle in favor of the return of the child Elián González to his family in Cuba – the overwhelming majority of people in the US, the press, an ever-increasing section of the Cuban-born community in the United States, the businesspeople in this country and even a large number of Members of Congress are demanding the end of the blockade against Cuba? How could the powerful, extremist minority in the Cuban-born community benefiting from the blockade and its allies of the GOP leadership in Congress impose their obscure designs if Capitol Hill had already seen six overwhelmingly favorable votes in favor of changing the policy towards Cuba?

On 5 August 1999, the Senate adopted the so-called Ashcroft Amendment with 70 yeas and 28 nays – that would have allowed the sales of food and medicines to Cuba. However, the GOP leadership – in collusion with the Miami-based anti-Cuban sectors – managed to remove it from the final text of the law by resorting to pressures and outrageously anti-democratic practices.

On 23 March 2000, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee once again adopted the Ashcroft Amendment by consensus.

On 10 May 2000, the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives adopted the Nethercutt Amendment – aimed at allowing the sales of food and medicines to Cuba – with 35 yeas and 24 nays. It was never discussed on the House Floor either.

On 20 July 2000, the Dorgan-Gorton Amendment – similar in purpose to the previous initiatives – passed the Senate with 79 yeas and 13 nays.

That same day, another two significant votes took place in the House of Representatives: the Sanford Amendment – that would have enabled Americans to freely travel to Cuba – was adopted with 232 yeas and 186 nays; and the Moran Amendment – authorizing the sales of food and medicines – passed with 301 yeas and 116 nays.

With these elements, was it not logical to think then that a real change would come about in the arbitrary policy that the United States has imposed on Cuba for over forty years?

Nevertheless, the GOP leadership and the Cuban-American Congresspeople not only managed to prevent these proposals from being included – in violation of the rules of the US legislative process – but they alimposed other amendments that actually reinforce the blockade against Cuba. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate were later forced to adopt the poorly worked out plan because legislators were deprived of all possibilities to discuss or attempt to change these new amendments. Finally, on 28 October the US President signed the bill – thus codifying into law the new measures that tighten the blockade against Cuba, even though the following had been stated before:

“I hope I’m wrong, but what I’ve been told is that the embargo on food and medicines has been allegedly eased – although it probably won’t do much because it doesn’t offer any credits or financing facilities, which we give to poor countries. Besides, it definitely restrains the ability of the Executive to enhance the people-to-people contacts between Americans and Cubans, thus further punishing and increasing the hardships of the Cuban people […]. Certainly, this agreement is restrictive.

“I think that in a thoroughly unjustified manner it restricts the US ability to make decisions on the policy of travels […]. I think it’s incorrect.

“[…] I can’t believe that the majority supports this and I think it was a big mistake,” the President concluded.

And it is fitting to tell the naked truth: the alleged authorization for US companies to sell food and medicines to Cuba is established under such restrictions and obstacles that render those activities practically impossible.

Is it by any chance feasible to consider the sales of food and medicines to Cuba if the complex, bureaucratic license-granting process for such transactions – expressly devised to render them impossible – remains in force; if any kind of sale-related government assistance and even private financing is prohibited; if Cuban-made products cannot be imported as payment? How could Cuba purchase food and medicines from the United States if maritime and air transportation between both countries is still banned; if direct relations between US and Cuban banking institutions are not allowed; if – inter alia – there are such prohibitions in place as the one preventing Cuba from using the US dollar in its foreign trade transactions?

But that is not all. Why do we also say that the blockade has been reinforced? Because not only are the sales of food and medicines to Cuba still prohibited, but from now on – for the first time ever in these four decades – US citizens are expressly barred under law from freely traveling to Cuba. Until now, authorizing such travels was a prerogative of the President. It has ceased to be so. No US President will be able to make a decision in that respect unless it is determined by Congress.

If there were still any doubts, here are two enlightening statements:

Republican Congresswoman from Florida Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the masterminds behind the kidnapping of the Cuban child, stated the following about the legislation adopted: “It’s just smoke and mirrors […]. We have obtained a tremendous victory in freezing the ban preventing US tourists from going to Cuba.”

The also Republican Congressman from Florida Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a close ally and relative of the Miami-based Cuban-born terrorist groups, gloated: “It’s the most important victory since the Helms-Burton Act […]. No barter trade, no granting of credits, no imports from Cuba, no public or private financing […]. Denying credits and tourism to Cuba is an extraordinary and important victory.”

Anyone understands that those accountable for the reinforcement of the blockade against my country have likewise attempted to cynically deceive the international public opinion.

It is necessary to provide another precise element: recurrently, the US Government cites the authorization of donations to Cuba amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars per year in humanitarian aid. I can confirm that it is absolutely false. Actually, donations to Cuba from US non-governmental and religious organizations have averaged some US$ 4 million per year. What I am interested in underlining is that such donations – usually prepared in open defiance of the constraints, obstacles and persecutions imposed by the Federal Government on its organizers – are an unmistakable testimony to the spirit of solidarity and sensitivity of many of the best and most honest native sons and daughters of the American people.

Mr. President:

As if everything I have just said to this Assembly were not enough, I must now warn against the new aggression committed by the United States against Cuba. Last 28 October, the US President signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act – whereby that country’s Government is authorized to appropriate US$ 161 million in frozen funds belonging to Cuban enterprises and banks. It also sets down the right to such dispossession in the future should any transactions come about once the blockade is lifted.

This money will be handed over to Miami-based terrorist groups and its lawyers – with the pretext of compensating the relatives of the pilots of one of these terrorist organizations, who died when engaged in one of the many acts of provocation against Cuba, jeopardizing the life of innocent people and air traffic in the area. The US Government is well aware of how that unfortunate incident happened and who should be held accountable for it.

This new action is another escalation in the policy of aggression against Cuba – while setting a negative international precedent that will most certainly cause problems in the future.

Cuba reiterates to this Assembly its determination to face this new aggression and its steadfast commitment to enforce the recent provisions adopted by our Government in reaction to the US legislative stunt.

Distinguished Representatives:

The General Assembly of the United Nations did not abandon Cuba in these tough years when it had to confront – in addition to its own hardships – the economic war that the United States reinforced when it believed that the time had come to launch the final attack on my country. While the United States relentlessly toughened its unprecedented blockade, Cuba received more solidarity and support from the General Assembly of the United Nations. However, while year after year a larger number of members of this Assembly asked the United States to change its policy, such repeated appeal was disregarded with imperial arrogance.

When back in 1992 the Torricelli Act was enacted (currently in force) – prohibiting, inter alia, trade transactions between Cuba and the subsidiaries of US companies based in third countries and seriously hindering international maritime transportation; and when former President Bush stated: “My Administration will continue to exert pressure on all the Governments of the world about the need to isolate Castro’s regime economically” – 59 members of this General Assembly voted against the blockade for the first time.

When in 1993 the United States declared that in order to provide economic assistance to any country all economic relations with Cuba must cease – further expanding the extraterritorial scope of the blockade – 88 countries in this Assembly demanded the end of such policy.

When in 1994 the United States increased its aggressive radio broadcasts against my country; banned the sending of remittances and packages of food and medicines to Cuba; and restricted family-related travels between both countries – with the aim of “further tightening the embargo on Cuba, thereby limiting the capacity of the Cuban Government to accumulate foreign exchange,” as expressly declared by the Treasury – 101 countries voted in this Assembly against that policy.

When in 1995 this General Assembly knew – among other pieces of information disclosing the progressive reinforcement of the blockade – that the only two companies (both based in third countries) supplying pacemakers for patients with heart disease had discontinued such supply to Cuba – one because their equipment contained US-made components and the other because it had been bought by a firm located in the United States – and when this country was already debating new initiatives to internationalize the blockade, 11countries supported Cuba’s right.

When in 1996 the Helms-Burton Act was signed and President Clinton himself stated: “Nobody in the world supports our policy towards Cuba,” the General Assembly of the United Nations demanded the end of the blockade through the favorable vote of 137 countries.

When in 1997 the United States imposed its conditions on the European Union and prevented the issue of the blockade on Cuba from being discussed at the World Trade Organization – while sanctioning those companies and businesspeople that, in defiance of the blockade, had relations with Cuba – the number of countries voting in favor of the Cuban resolution at the General Assembly increased to 143.

When in 1998, on the one hand, the US Government stepped up its harassment against the enterprises that maintained relations with our country and stated that “twelve companies from over seven countries are being investigated for conducting activities in Cuba” with the aim of punishing them and, on the other, the US Association for World Health asserted that “the embargo of the United States has significantly increased Cuba’s suffering” and confirmed that “such embargo violates the basic international agreements and conventions that provide guidelines on human rights,” the General Assembly once again condemned the blockade on Cuba through 157 votes.

When in 1999 the international agreements on trademarks and patents were arbitrarily infringed in the US Congress to tighten the blockade – and US farmers and even the Senate were already demanding authorization to sell food and medicines to Cuba – 158 countries then supported the end of the blockade against Cuba in this General Assembly.

That is how we have come to this day.

Nobody should be deceived. All laws and pieces of legislation adopted against Cuba throughout these years with irrational hatred and outright disrespect for International Law are still in force.

Distinguished Representatives:

The new President of the United States should decide whether to promote a change in this outdated policy in Congress or continue being held hostage to the mean interests and delusions of revenge of an extremist, unscrupulous minority long overridden by history.

The current US President is perhaps a case in point. He probably wanted in the beginning to transform the situation that was passed down to him. However, he will go down in history as the President who – being able to do so – was forced to act in a completely opposite direction. Perhaps after having normalized US relations with China and Vietnam, and even a number of countries once labeled terrorists; and when flying to the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea – a country with which the United States has still not signed the peace – he will ponder on his actions towards Cuba. There are men who make history for their courage and the conviction prevailing in their deeds; there are others who fail to make it for what they could not or did not want to do out of incapacity or fear.

The President-elect and the new US Congress must decide. Cuba, in the meantime – more determined and optimistic than ever in its decision to continue being a free nation – stands both ready to have normal and respectful relations with the United States, towards whose people it does not feel any hatred or hold any grudges for our suffering, and to face another century of blockade and acts of aggression. No wonder all my generation and 60 in every 100 Cubans have lived all their lives under the harshness of the blockade. Our children will also be capable of doing so.

Our adherence to man’s full independence, freedom and dignity – and the thorough enjoyment of human rights, attained forty years ago for the first time in our history – is far higher than the sanctions imposed by the blockade.

I would like to remind the Representative of Israel – whose Government, bound to the United States by ties of mutual complicity, has been the only one that together with the former has voted against our right to life for eight consecutive years, but whose people, persecuted and decimated by famine and diseases, surely understands and supports us – that our struggle against the blockade not condemned by his country is also in favor of the rights of the Cuban-Hebrew community that with all respect, freedom and consideration is currently living in our homeland.

I would like to confess to the Representative of the United States that I recognize how tough it must be for him to try and defend – without any arguments whatsoever – the right of his country to kill Cuban children through famine and diseases. After the voting, when the Honorable US Ambassador leaves this hall, he should recall what I will say to him now:

You can cause terror through the use of force, but never sympathy. You can be the strongest, but not loved or respected. You can impose power, but never moral authority. You can be the richest, but not the most virtuous. You can lie, but you cannot deceive everybody indefinitely. You can harass a people, but you cannot prevent it from fighting with all its might for the right to freedom and life.

The vote that you will cast today, dear Representatives, does not settle a bilateral difference between Cuba and the United States, but the staying power of the principles of International Law; the rejection of the extraterritorial implementation of laws; the respect for the sovereign equality of States and the freedom to engage in international trade and navigation.

On behalf of the people that invasions, blockades and acts of aggression have not caused it to lose its courage and optimism, whose inhabitants are willing to fight, teach, build or heal anywhere on Earth; on behalf of the people that feels every injustice or pain in the world as its own, for which its homeland has been humankind – and that is now expecting over there in our country with justified confidence that this General Assembly will vote against injustice and in favor of International Law – I ask you, distinguished Representatives, to once again express your support for the effective end of the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba