Egypt’s Diplomatic Journal publishes an article by the former ambassador to Cuba, His Excellency Mr. Abdel Monein Al-Shazli, denouncing the U.S. siege of the island and calling on the international community and the peoples of the world to support Cuba and stand up to the arrogance of power.
We share a translation of the article:
Free Cuba from the U.S. Embargo.
On July 21, the U.S. State Department published a document that, despite my diplomatic experience and my commitment to courteous language, I can only describe as outrageous. It accuses Cuba of infiltrating the U.S. government and planning terrorist attacks against it. The publication of this document coincides with the tightening of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, particularly regarding oil, fuel, and petroleum products.
Then, the esteemed U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, declared that the United States desires Cuba’s liberation.
Perhaps every respectable, peace-loving person wishes for Cuba’s liberation from the U.S. embargo and threat. Perhaps these peace-loving people should ask Rubio when his country has ever supported those seeking liberation, given that its history has consistently backed dictators such as Pinochet, the Shah of Iran, and Fernanando Marcos.
Perhaps my outrage at the threat posed by Cuba stems from the fact that I witnessed firsthand the other side of the coin. I began my diplomatic career at our embassy in El Salvador, which represented Egypt on a non-resident basis in all the Central American countries known as “banana republics,” whose leadership was entirely the product of U.S. intelligence services and the United Fruit Company. I saw in those countries fascist and perverse regimes that inflicted suffering on their people, plundered the country’s wealth, and left them to live in poverty and misery. I witnessed the government of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, whose atrocities would make even Satan himself pale in comparison.
I also witnessed the rule of General Romero in El Salvador, who clashed with the Salvadoran archbishop, Cardinal Romero—a confrontation the press dubbed “the war of Romero against Romero”—which culminated in the general’s assassination of the bishop at the pulpit of the Cathedral of San Salvador. I saw the fascist and criminal governments of Guatemala and Honduras plunder wealth and murder people. When the people rose up against this oppression, the tyrants of these banana republics were defended by U.S. and Israeli military missions.
As the days and years went by, fate would have it that, at the height of my career as an ambassador, I was posted to Cuba. I saw a country that provided its people with basic necessities such as education, health care, housing, clothing, high-quality entertainment, and Olympic-level sports. It was a country that had completely eradicated illiteracy and protected its population from endemic diseases. Instead of sending aircraft carriers and missiles to drag a country back to the Stone Age and destroy its civilization, Cuba had sent more than seventeen thousand teachers and doctors to Latin America and Africa to bring prosperity to their people.
Cuba had made remarkable advances in the fields of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, developing vaccines against deadly diseases such as meningitis and hepatitis B.
During my service in Cuba, I saw Fidel Castro walking through the streets and mingling with the people, surrounded by the affection and love of his nation. I never saw a single person living in poverty during my time there. While Cuba lacked ostentatious displays of luxury, this was due to the unjust embargo imposed on it, the ban on importing oil and fuel, and the sanctions imposed on any third party that supplied them.
In Cuba, I learned about the requirement for a nickel-free import certificate to enter the United States, since Cuba is one of the largest exporters of nickel, a key component in automobile manufacturing. This measure is being implemented by the United States, which has systematically attacked the Arab boycott of Israel, claiming to separate politics from trade. Perhaps the most outrageous aspect of these escalating U.S. measures is the accusation that Cuba supports terrorism and finances terrorist groups to carry out attacks within the United States.
Furthermore, there are calls for the prosecution of Cuban officials, including Raúl Castro—Fidel’s brother and his successor as president—for their role in the downing of two Cuban aircraft in 1996. In 1996, the organization Brothers to the Rescue, a terrorist group composed of Cuban refugees, attempted to infiltrate Cuban airspace to drop hostile leaflets over Havana. Cuban Air Force planes intercepted and shot them down over Cuban territory.
Ironically, the United States did not demand that Israel be brought to justice for shooting down a Libyan civilian aircraft over the Sinai in February 1973, which resulted in the deaths of 108 people. Nor was there any trial of the crew of the U.S. warship that fired a missile that shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf in 1988, killing 290 people. Nor did it demand the prosecution of those who planted the bomb that brought down a Cubana de Aviación aircraft. Cuban terrorists attempted to overthrow the Cuban government, but the Cuban people and the Cuban army thwarted this plot.
The permanent member of the Security Council—responsible for maintaining international peace and security and for respecting international law and the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use or threat of force in international relations—has become a country that relies solely on force and the threat of force in its international relations. Sometimes it threatens Cuba; sometimes it bombs Iran and threatens to send it back to the Stone Age; and sometimes it bombs Venezuela and kidnaps its president and his wife. It is time for the international community and the free peoples of the world to support Cuba and stand up to the arrogance of power.