His Excellency Mr. Xavier Espot Zamora, Head of Government of the Principality of Andorra;
His Majesty King Phillip VI;
Excellencies, Heads of State and Government of Ibero-America and other heads of delegations;
Her Excellency Mrs. Rebeca Grynspan, Ibero-American Secretary-General;
May you receive cordial greetings on behalf of the Cuban people and government.
We should recognize and appreciate the efforts made by the Principality of Andorra to convene this Summit and ensure continuity to the work of the Ibero-American Conference through the period that has now expired, under the exceptional circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We convey our best wishes and support to the sister nation of the Dominican Republic, which will be at the helm of the new Pro Tempore Secretariat.
Excellencies;
Cuba has some experiences to show and attaches special relevance to the theme of this conference: “Innovation for Sustainable Development – 2030 Goals. Ibero-America facing the challenge of the Coronavirus”.
Within hardly a year, a devastating pandemic has worsened the living conditions of millions of human beings in the planet and caused the worst economic decline in nine decades. By contrast, five years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda hardly any progress has been made in its implementation.
There is talk now about the numerous crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some problems date back tens of years.
Developing countries are also carrying the unbearable burden of a foreign debt that has already been paid for several times now. Some of them are suffering from the additional impact of unilateral coercive measures that violate International Law and impair their legitimate right to development.
As long as a just, democratic and equitable international economic order that is more focused on the root causes of inequalities and makes it possible to move on towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is not established, these will keep on being a pipedream for most of the peoples of the world.
Let’s be honest. The current development paradigms cause poverty and exclude the majorities due to their irrational patterns of production and consumption which, under the designs of the market, disregard what is most precious: human life and dignity.
An inclusive Ibero-America, taking into account the interests and development needs of all the members of this Conference, could favor the advancement of our nations.
Sustainable development demands political will, solidarity, cooperation, and financial and technological transfers from developed countries as well as equal access to those resources, bearing in mind the accumulated inequalities.
The pandemic has laid bare an indisputable truth: the health and social protection systems, education, science, technology as well as all the available material resources should be at the service of all, not at the mercy of the mean interests of a few. Aside from ideologies, the State has a responsibility to bear when it comes to the use of resources associated to the life and wellbeing of citizens.
As I explained at the Ibero-American Summit held in Veracruz in 2014, in Cuba, science and innovation have been key factors in the development process and the achievement of social justice. This premise, which is a fundamental part of the legacy of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, has allowed us to cope with the current pandemic under the blockade.
A robust scientific and technological innovation system with an advanced and efficient biotechnological and pharmaceutical industry, in alliance with a universal, free and quality health system with highly specialized human resources have made possible the Cuban response to the pandemic that seems to have surprised quite a few.
Just over a year after detecting the first COVID-19 cases in our country, we now have five candidate vaccines. Two of them, Soberana 02 and Abdala, are going through Phase III clinical trials. We expect to immunize the entire Cuban population with our own vaccines before the end of 2021.
Our National Economic and Social Development Plan by the year 2030, which is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, attaches a leading role to scientific innovation and research.
The links between government entities and the sectors of knowledge, production and services have been strengthened with the purpose of promoting innovation in the interest of the economic and social development, with emphasis on local development.
Today Cuba has 229 entities devoted to Science, Technology and Innovation. Of them, 141 are Research Centers; 26 are Scientific and Technological Services Centers; 61 are Development and Innovation Centers and 1 of them is a Scientific and Technological Park. Besides, our country is implementing a system of government based on science and innovation.
The US government, in the midst of the pandemic, has brutally tightened the economic, commercial and financial blockade and has funded and supported dangerous acts of violence and defiance of the law to promote social and political instability in our country. The Cuban people have responded to that by redoubling their proverbial resilience through sheer creativity.
The campaigns launched by the US government to discredit and boycott the medical cooperation offered by Cuba have not marred our vocation for solidarity and cooperation: 57 medical brigades of the ‘Henry Reeve’ Contingent have contributed to fight the pandemic in 40 countries and territories. Many members of this Conference have been witness to the lofty altruism of Cuban health professionals.
Excellencies:
The legitimacy of a government emanates from the express and sovereign will of its people, not from the recognition of foreign powers. The government presided over by the constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros deserves respect.
It is unfair to blame the Venezuelan government for the economic and social situation facing Venezuela, while cruel unilateral coercive measures, designed and applied by the United States, in connivance with several of its allies, are still being implemented against that country with the purpose of causing hardships to the people. Those coercive measures incite migration, a phenomenon about which some have expressed great concern, when they could contribute to eliminate its root causes.
It will be both useful and honest to recognize that the US designed intervention in Venezuela has absolutely failed and has placed all those countries that supported it in an unsustainable political and legal situation.
Those who are said to respect the will of the Venezuelan people and promote a political solution among Venezuelans should recognize that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a sovereign State; they should cease interfering and abide by the UN Charter and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.
Excellencies:
On behalf of the Cuban people I appreciate the traditional support of the Ibero-American community to the just claim to put an end to the blockade against Cuba; as well as the expressions of rejection of the arbitrary and unilateral qualification of our country as a State sponsor of terrorism by the US government.
Cuba’s solidarity and international cooperation, for the benefit of our peoples, will remain unchanged. It will never renounce to the construction of a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation, always ready to share, as a human patrimony, the results of our experiences based on Science and Innovation.
Thank you very much to all.