New York, December 18, 2025. — The Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, spoke today in the High-Level Plenary Meeting to Commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Cuba is a co-author of Resolution 80/106, for which this meeting was convened.
Ambassador Guzmán emphasized that honoring the Declaration requires political will and collective action to eliminate contemporary forms of domination, including economic blockades, unilateral coercive measures, and practices that are contrary to the Charter of the United Nations.
Regarding regional issues, Ambassador Guzmán condemned renewed colonialist pretensions in Latin America and the Caribbean and warned against the attempts to reinstate interventionist approaches that contradict the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.
Likewise, he denounced the United States government’s threats and use of force against Venezuela, including the military deployment in the Caribbean Sea under false pretenses, aerial interference, an announced naval blockade, and psychological warfare against the Venezuelan population. He condemned the economic suffocation and unilateral coercive measures imposed on Venezuela and reaffirmed Cuba’s unwavering support for President Nicolás Maduro, the Bolivarian Revolution, and the Venezuelan people.
The Cuban diplomat also reiterated Cuba's solidarity with Puerto Ricans in their pursuit of self-determination, endorsed Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas, and advocated for a political solution for Western Sahara based on the self-determination of the Sahrawi people, in accordance with Resolution 1514 (XV).
The ambassador recalled the historic debt owed to Palestine, condemning decades of illegal colonization policies and warning that the suffering of its population demands an urgent response from the international community.
To conclude, he noted that colonization continues to be an “open wound” and that Caribbean and African nations deserve historical reparations for the horrors of colonization and slavery. Cuba ratified that decolonization will remain a priority until its complete eradication, and defended the inalienable right of all peoples to independence, sovereignty, and development.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations.