Mr. President,
Today, a silent genocide is taking place in Cuba as a result of the extreme intensification of the economic war imposed on us by the Government of the United States.
The Executive Orders of January 29 and May 1, 2026, define a policy of maximum pressure. The United States declares collective punishment against the Cuban people. Through the energy blockade, they seek to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe.
Their absurd pretext is that our small island is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the national security of the nuclear superpower.
The humanitarian impact is devastating and incalculable. Cuban families are suffering prolonged electricity outages, difficulties in affording food, insufficient availability of medicines, problems with water supplies, and the paralysis of public transportation due to fuel shortages.
As many mandate holders of the Council have denounced, this policy of suffocation violates the human rights of the Cuban people.
Can a great power be allowed to destroy a small peaceful nation and provoke a humanitarian tragedy, with the aim of changing a political system? What would come next? Who would be next?
No matter how hard they try, they will not bring us to our knees. We will mitigate the humanitarian damage through creative solutions. We will protect children and older persons, as well as those individuals and families facing the greatest difficulties. We will not waver in our social policies.
Despite the difficulties, our determination to continue strengthening our legal and institutional framework for the protection of all human rights for all is irrevocable.
We will also continue to honor our commitments to cooperate with all human rights mechanisms of universal application.
No country is exempt from challenges, and no country has the authority to consider itself a paradigm in the field of human rights, or to use them for political purposes to stigmatize other States.
In contrast to punitive approaches, political manipulation and selectivity, we will continue to defend in this Council respectful dialogue and cooperation as the only effective means of advancing the noble cause of human rights.
Thank you very much.