September 28, 2024
Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla speaking to the UN General Assembly
Speech by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the 79th United Nations General Assembly.
Mr. President:
Mr. Secretary-General:
Let my first words be to ratify Cuba’s solidarity and support for the brotherly Palestinian people, victims of more than 75 years of colonial occupation, of flagrant violations of their legitimate rights as a nation, subjected to cruelty, aggression, collective punishment and apartheid.
In the last eleven months, the Israeli army has killed more than 40,000 civilians. More boys and girls than men and women have died in this indiscriminate and disproportionate massacre. They die with the complicity and weapons provided by the U.S. government, with the complicit silence of others. We pay tribute to the more than 220 workers of this Organization, also murdered.
Cuba’s position is clear and unequivocal. President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez has said and I quote: “History will not forgive the indifferent. And we will not be among them”.
It is a wound in the human conscience.
The genocide against the Palestinian people must cease, unconditionally and without delay!
Israel, with the complicity of the US, has placed the world in the imminent danger of a conflagration of major proportions. The irresponsible aggressiveness against Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the peoples of the Middle East will have consequences difficult to estimate.
Excellencies:
79 years after the founding of this Organization, continuous violations of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law, aggressions, interference in the internal affairs of States, and the imposition of unilateral coercive measures for political purposes, happen as daily occurrences.
Aggressive military doctrines of domination, expansionism and supremacism are alarmingly undermining international peace and security.
The danger of nuclear catastrophe is real and immediate. For the ninth consecutive year, global military spending is increasing, reaching a record $2.44 trillion in 2023, i.e. trillions of dollars, including the development of nuclear weapons.
Despite the strenuous efforts of the States Parties and Signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and of lucid and broad sectors of international society, the world is moving backwards.
Nor will there be “peace without development”.
The developed countries, inhabitants of the same planet, blindly refuse to invest at least minimally in their own prosperity and security, and fail to fulfill their always insufficient Official Development Assistance commitments. The selfish figure, boastfully promised in 2023 and quickly forgotten, represents less than 0.37 percent of national income.
The illusion of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has vanished.
The crises are structural, determined by the imperialist system and the international order imposed on us. No problem will be solved by undermining the intergovernmental character of the United Nations, as some would have it, or by weakening its essential role in promoting sustainable development for all.
Climate change is inexorably advancing. This is an irrefutable fact.
In July 2024, scientists announced 13 consecutive months of record-breaking temperature levels.
If capitalism’s irrational and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are not urgently and significantly changed, it will not be possible to contain the increase in global average temperature below 1.5 ◦C, with respect to pre-industrial levels.
Responsibilities are shared, but differentiated; they are not the same for all, nor in fairness could they be.
However, a wise step could be taken at the COP 29 Conference of the Parties in Azerbaijan and the adoption of the New Collective Financing Goal. Northern countries would have another chance to start closing the climate finance gap. Those of us from the South would have to design a sufficient target that responds to the needs, with guarantees for development and social justice, in the face of the enormous obstacles and challenges we face. The solution will inevitably have to include the condemnation of the foreign debt, already paid several times over.
Only the overcoming of imperialism and capitalism, and in this process, the founding of a new international order: fair and democratic, that guarantees a just and democratic international order, will be able to save it definitively:
Just and democratic, guaranteeing peace and “the balance of the world”, the exercise of the right to development by all States; under conditions of sovereign equality, expanding and strengthening the participation and representation of developing countries in the processes of governance, decision making and policy formulation at the global level; providing for the common good and prosperity of all peoples, in harmony with nature and the sustainable management of natural resources, and ensuring the exercise of all human rights for all people.
A new civilized coexistence among nations where solidarity, international cooperation, integration and the peaceful settlement of disputes prevail, as alternatives to the “philosophy of dispossession”, war, the use or threat of use of force, aggression, occupation, domination and cultural, political, financial, technological and military hegemonism or any other manifestation that threatens peace, independence and sovereignty of States. An order without blockades or unilateral coercive measures, based on multilateralism and with full respect for the Charter of the United Nations and International Law.
Mr. President:
The government of the United States continues to show clearly the impossible but pernicious determination to determine and control the destiny of Cuba. It is an old ambition anchored in the Monroe Doctrine, which defines the imperialist, dominant and hegemonic nature of U.S. policy towards Cuba and the region of Our America.
The economic, commercial and financial blockade is also political, technological and communicational.
It has been conceived as one of its main weapons of aggression to destroy the Cuban economy. It seeks to prevent the country’s financial income, to provoke the collapse of the economy and to generate a situation of political and social instability. The damage is visible and indisputable. It has an impact on the lives of all Cubans.
It is accompanied by the most ferocious campaign of disinformation and slander, by perennial attempts to interfere in our internal affairs and by the complicit tolerance of groups that organize violent and terrorist acts against Cuba from U.S. territory.
These actions violate international law. They contravene the purposes and principles of this Organization and numerous resolutions adopted by the General Assembly.
The siege thus conceived has been reinforced with the inclusion of Cuba in the arbitrary list of the US State Department of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism.
This is a fraudulent designation, with no moral authority or international mandate whatsoever. By virtue of it, retaliatory actions are unleashed against Cuba which, in an extraterritorial manner, go beyond the framework of the sovereign jurisdiction of the United States and are manifested in and against any country.
Last May, the State Department itself acknowledged that Cuba cooperates fully in the fight against terrorism. This mere acknowledgement of the truth, universally known, has not made the coercive measures of the blockade more flexible, but it does make Cuba’s presence on this illegitimate list even more incongruous, confusing and unjustifiable.
Soon there will be new presidential elections in the United States, a matter that only concerns the Americans. Only to them, in spite of the nefarious and historical habit of the government of that country to interfere in the elections and internal affairs of all the Member States of the United Nations, including those of its allies.
History has shown us that, regardless of the outcome of these elections, the anti-Cuban politicians and sectors that have made aggression against Cuba a lucrative business will continue to have a voice and influence. They are the ones who have learned to manipulate the U.S. political system in function of a narrow and hostile agenda, very particular, only of interest to a small elite segment.
They in no way represent the will of the majority of the people of the United States, nor of the Cubans who live here.
Whatever the electoral outcome, Cuba will continue to defend its sovereign right to independence and to build socialism, as we Cubans have decided, without foreign interference. We will also continue to advocate for a respectful and constructive relationship with the United States.
Mr. President:
In 2014, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) decided in Havana to proclaim our region as a Zone of Peace. That historic commitment becomes more relevant every day.
We defend peace and multilateralism in the face of unilateral coercive measures that seriously harm Syria, Belarus, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Russia, Cuba and other nations.
We strongly reject any attempt to undermine the legitimate constitutional order in our countries through coup methods. It has already happened in Bolivia in 2019 and last June 26, and it is intended to be reedited in Honduras.
We denounce the attempts to generate violence and destabilization in Venezuela. We reiterate our firm support and solidarity with the Bolivarian, Chavista government and the civil-military union of the Venezuelan people, led by President Nicolás Maduro Moros. The calls to disregard the electoral results are irresponsible and disrespectful to the will of the people and their legitimate institutions.
The destabilizing actions against the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of Nicaragua must cease. The brother people of Sandino will continue to have our full support.
We reiterate our support for Puerto Rico’s legitimate right to self-determination and independence.
Caribbean countries deserve fair, special and differentiated treatment to face their challenges. We support their just claim for reparations for the damages of colonialism and slavery.
The international community has a historical debt with Haiti, protagonist of the first independence and anti-slavery revolution of the continent. We salute the efforts of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to find a sustainable solution to the dramatic situation in Haiti that respects the independence and sovereignty of that sister nation.
We support the legitimate right of sovereignty of the Argentine people over the Malvinas, South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.
We reaffirm our support and commitment to the peace efforts in Colombia, to which Cuba will continue to contribute as much as possible in its capacity as Guarantor.
Africa, the cradle of humanity, will always be able to count on Cuba in its efforts to advance on its path to development.
We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the Saharawi people and the exercise of their self-determination.
Cuba expresses its firm rejection of actions aimed at harming the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China, condemns interference in its internal affairs and reiterates its unwavering support for the principle of “One China” as decided by this General Assembly in its historic resolution 2758 recognizing the People’s Republic as the sole and legitimate representative of the Chinese people.
We advocate a serious, constructive, realistic and diplomatic solution by peaceful means to the current war in Ukraine in accordance with international law that guarantees the security and sovereignty of all. In this context, Cuba supports the joint proposal presented by China and Brazil for a political solution to that crisis.
Mr. President:
Let us join forces to achieve the effectiveness of multilateral institutions and that they respond to the interests of the humble, the poor, the needy and the exploited, who are the vast majority, on the basis of just equality, the exercise of human rights by all human beings and respect for the sovereign rights of each nation.
Thank you very much.
Source: Cuba en Resumen