Madam Vice-President:
A dictatorship has emerged in the globalized world. The order born out of World War II to prevent a third one is being destroyed. Its foundations—the International Law, the United Nations, and the organizations of the international system—are under attack, while the “philosophy of dispossession” is proclaimed as the exceptional and supreme right of the United States of America to conquest and the use of force as an inherent, natural, and everyday way of being.
To the nuclear threat and the inexorable climate change is now added the conduct of a predatory, insatiable, aggressive, and irresponsible superpower that faces the decline of its hegemony with the power of military, technological, economic, and cognitive violence.
Beyond ideologies, all nation-states are in danger, regardless of their cultural or political models. The world’s largest oil reserve, Venezuela, was vilely attacked. What will happen with deposits of critical minerals and rare earths, water reserves, the Amazon, the seabed, the Arctic and Antarctic, the occupation of supposedly strategic enclaves, interoceanic passages, and trade routes? There is abundant evidence that permissiveness, weakness, cowardice, and selfish opportunism only encourage conquest. What will happen with the control of data, algorithmic manipulation, intangibles, quantum computing, and Artificial Intelligence if the philosophy of war, the arms race, and cognitive warfare prevail?
What would freedom of trade and navigation look like, with tariffs used as instruments of aggression and with the extraterritorial application of U.S. laws and the jurisdiction of its courts?
Cuba has historically been a dramatic crossroads. The Executive Order of January 29 by the President of the United States, which declares collective punishment against the Cuban people and seeks to create a humanitarian catastrophe through an energy siege, places the symbolic and mystical Island at the center of the global dilemma.
Can a great power be allowed to destroy a small nation of peace, provoke a humanitarian tragedy, destroy its national culture, subject a noble and supportive people to genocide under the crude pretext of national security or the supposed and hypocritical “support for Cuban citizens,” with the aim of changing a government or political system, burying an alternative model of development to savage capitalism, carrying out historical revenge, intimidating Our America?
The Cuban people will defend, with the greatest vigor and courage, in close unity and broad consensus, their right to self-determination, independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and constitutional order. We will do so with the participation of Cubans residing in other latitudes.
We will prevent a humanitarian crisis in Cuba. It will not happen, although we will endure hardships and suffering. We will rely on our culture and history, patriotic tradition, experience, will, and fortitude. We are a conscious, educated, and brave people, with highly qualified human resources, powerful and universal systems of education, health, and science; we have arable land, water, mineral reserves, and infrastructure, produce almost half of the crude oil we consume, have refining capacity, and are advancing in significant and efficient investment in solar energy. With suffering and damage, three generations of Cubans have overcome the U.S. blockade for more than 60 years and built a recognized humanist and social work. We have been in solidarity with all, especially with the nations of the South.
A broad international solidarity movement with Cuba is already taking shape and being appreciated.
Even in the worst scenario, we will persist, we will find creative solutions. In the face of all difficulties, we will mitigate humanitarian damage, protect children and the elderly, people and families in greatest difficulty, and we will be supportive.
As always, we will also be willing to engage in serious and responsible dialogue with the United States, based on sovereign equality and International Law, mutual respect, reciprocal benefit, without preconditions or interference in internal affairs, aimed at achieving a civilized relationship, within our differences, and even promoting cooperation in areas where possible.
Mr. President:
Our commitment to the defense and promotion of all human rights for all is strengthened. We will continue to be an active, sovereign, and authentic voice in this Council. We will continue to defend the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and the integrity of migrants. We admire the people of Minnesota in their community resistance. We will oppose double standards and political manipulation.
On the centenary of the birth of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, our determination to defend the country is total, and our decision to safeguard a society centered on achieving the full dignity of the human being and the broadest justice is irrevocable.
Thank you very much.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8DaaXuahF8
(Cubaminrex)