Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla of Cuba addresses the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters, 2017. Photo: Richard Drew/AP.
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, and subjected to cruelty, aggression, collective punishment, and apartheid.
In the last 11 months, the “Israeli” army has killed more than 40,000 civilians. More boys and girls than men and women have died in these indiscriminate and disproportionate massacres. They die with the complicity and weapons of the US government and with the complicit silence of others. We pay tribute to the more than 220 workers of this organization [the UN], also murdered.
Cuba’s position is clear and unequivocal. President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said and I quote, “History will not forgive the indifferent, and we will not be among them.”
It is a wound against 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 imminent danger of a conflagration of major proportions. The irresponsible aggression against Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the peoples of the Middle East will have consequences that are difficult to estimate.
Excellencies,
79 years after the founding of this organization, continuous violations of the United Nations Charter and international law, aggressions, interference in the internal affairs of states, and the imposition of unilateral coercive measures for political purposes have become 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 US $2.44 trillion in 2023, i.e. trillions of dollars, including for 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 clear and broad sectors of international society, the world is moving backwards.
Furthermore, there will be no “peace without development.”
The developed countries, though inhabitants of the same planet, blindly refuse to invest even minimally in their own prosperity and security, and fail to meet their always insufficient commitments to Official Development Assistance. The stingy figure, boastfully promised in 2023 and quickly forgotten, represents less than 0.37% of their national income.
The illusion of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has vanished.
These 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 temperatures.
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 1.5C, relative to pre-industrial levels.
Responsibilities are shared but distinct; they are not the same for all, nor could they be justly so.
However, a wise step could be taken at the COP29 Conference of the Parties in Azerbaijan by adopting the New Collective Financing Goal. Northern countries would have another chance to start closing the climate financing gap. Those of us from the South would have to design a sufficient target that addresses our needs, with guarantees for development and social justice, in light of the enormous obstacles and challenges we face. The solution will inevitably have to include the repudiation of foreign debt, already paid several times over.
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Only the overcoming of imperialism and capitalism, and in this process, the founding of a new, fair, and democratic international order will be able to save us definitively.
This order must be just and democratic, guaranteeing peace and “the balance of the world” and 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.
This must be 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 force, aggression, occupation, domination, and cultural, political, financial, technological and military hegemonism, or any other mean of threatening peace, independence, and the 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 command and control the destiny of Cuba. It is an old ambition anchored in the Monroe Doctrine, which defines the imperialist, domineering, and hegemonic nature of US policy towards Cuba and the region of “Our America.”
The economic, commercial, and financial blockade is also political, technological, and in the sector of communications. It has been conceived as one of its main weapons of aggression to destroy the Cuban economy. It seeks to cut off 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 towards groups that organize violent terrorist acts against Cuba from US 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 US State Department list 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 that, extraterritorially, 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 solely concerns the people of the US and only them, in spite of the nefarious and historical habit of that country’s government to interfere in the elections and internal affairs of all the Member States of the United Nations, including its own allies.
History has shown us that, regardless of the outcome of these elections, the anti-Cuban politicians and sectors that have turned aggression against Cuba into a lucrative business will continue to have a voice and influence. They have learned to manipulate the US political system to serve a narrow and hostile agenda, one that is very particular and only of interest to a small segment of elites.
They do not, in any 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 the means of coups. This already happened in Bolivia in 2019 and June 26, 2023, and it is intended to be replicated in Honduras.
We denounce the attempts to generate violence and instability in Venezuela. We reiterate our firm support and solidarity with the Bolivarian, Chavista government and the civic-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 popular will and its legitimate institutions.
The destabilizing actions against the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of Nicaragua must cease. The brotherly 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, specific, and distinct treatment to face their challenges. We support their just claim to 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 American continent. We salute the efforts of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to find a sustainable solution to the critical situation in Haiti that respects the independence and sovereignty of that sisterly nation.
We support the legitimate right of sovereignty of the Argentinian 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 Sahrawi people and their exercise of 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 ensure the effectiveness of multilateral institutions so 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.
(Resumen Latinamericano English)
Additional translation by Orinoco Tribune
