Press Release: Cuba regrets that 72 years after the United Nations was created, there are still 17 colonial territories.

New York, October 2nd, 2017. Cuba regretted that 72 years after the United Nations was founded and  56 years after the adoption of the historic Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 1514 (XV), there are still 17 territories that live the tragedy of colonialism, called "non-autonomous territories".

During his statement at the general debate of the Fourth Committee of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, on the Decolonization topic, Ambassador Humberto Rivero Rosario, Cuban Representative to the international organization, recognized the commitment of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, with the decolonization process, who described the issue as one of the main mandates of the organization

The Cuban representative expressed Cuba's support for the cause of Palestine, which has lived under a bloody foreign occupation for more than 50 years; to the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara and to the claim of Argentina to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.

In particular, he referred to the situation in Puerto Rico, whose colonial question has been considered for more than 40 years at the Special Committee on Decolonization. He once again called upon the United States Government to assume its responsibility to accelerate a process that would enable the people of Puerto Rico to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the aforementioned UN resolutions and decisions.

Rivero Rosario described as outrageous the response given by the colonial government to the dramatic humanitarian situation that the brotherly Puerto Rican people live today after the devastation left by Hurricane Maria.

The Cuban diplomat recalled that the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, reiterated the Latin American and Caribbean character of Puerto Rico at the Summit of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in January 2017; while the Non-Aligned Movement reiterated at the 17th Summit of Isla Margarita, Venezuela, its support for a Puerto Rico that exercises its right to self-determination.      

To conclude Rivero Rosario reiterated Cuba's unwavering commitment to the eradication of colonialism and recalled that as long as there is only one people under that condition, the work of the Organization will be unfinished.

Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations

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