New York, 6 October 2016. At the Third Committee, on Agenda items 106: Prevention of Crime and Criminal Justice and 107: International Drug Control, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal underscored the magnitude reached and cost in social and humanitarian terms of drug trafficking nowadays and called upon its consideration in a comprehensive, balanced and multidisciplinary manner.
At this forum, the Cuban diplomat highlighted the way in which Cuba meets all its international obligations in terms of international cooperation and fight against organized crime with an outstanding record in confronting crimes of higher incidence, such as international terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, piracy, trafficking in persons, among others. She also stated that Cuba has denounced in previous occasions, 3 478 Cuban citizens who have died and other 2 099 maimed due to the occurrence of terrorist acts in the territory for more than half a century. Thus, she made sure that the Cuban territory has never been used nor will ever be to organize, finance or carry out terrorist acts against any country and reiterated Cuba’s readiness to cooperate with any State, in the prevention and confrontation of terrorism on the basis of mutual respect, sovereign equality and the principles and rules of International Law.
While rejecting the compilation of unilateral lists of countries that supposedly commit violations linked to transnational organized crime and condemning the implementation of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the so called “wet-foot/dry-foot policy”, which aims at encouraging illegal and unsafe migration and the trafficking of Cuban citizens to the United States, she reaffirmed Cuba’s unwavering commitment to continue fighting transnational organized crime in all its manifestations and the world drug problem and related crimes. (Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations)