Dear friends:
It is an honor for us to host this meeting on the eve of the beginning of the United States-Cuba International Normalization Conference, which will hold its sessions tomorrow, Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20, at the main office of The People's Forum, organized by the Solidarity Movement with our country.
We are graced with your presence here on behalf of the Solidarity Movement, and we highly appreciate it. Please, receive our warm greetings and our gratitude for your countless expressions of support for our country.
I wish to highlight the presence in this event of a delegation from the Federation of Cuban Women headed by its Secretary General, Ms. Teresa Amarelle Boué.
Dear friends:
Since the beginning of 2020, like almost all countries, Cuba was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic which has posed monumental challenges for the entire world. However, in the case of Cuba, the US government took on the virus as an ally in its ruthless unconventional war against our country and deliberately and opportunistically toughened the economic, commercial and financial blockade. It should be recalled that during his four-year term in office, the Administration of then President Donald Trump implemented 243 unilateral coercive measures against Cuba that remain in force and in full practical application by the current U.S. government. A significant number of those measures were adopted just when the pandemic was more severely hitting us.
As you know, the human damage of the blockade is immeasurable. No Cuban family's life escapes the effects of this inhumane policy. It is undeniable that it constitutes a flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people and the major hindrance to the economic and social development of our country.
Within this context, Cuba has also had to face an aggressive media campaign, which has received the overt support from various U.S. legislators and political operators, promoters of the "regime change" strategy.
In spite of the strong hostility of the US government in the context of the pandemic, Cuba managed to sustain the vitality of the major services in the country, treat the sick population, set up in record time more than twenty molecular biology laboratories, manufacture homegrown prototypes of ventilators and diagnostic kits and develop three vaccines and two vaccine candidates against the disease.
The above is a clear confirmation that, in Cuba, the right to life is a priority and public health is not a commodity but a right of all and a responsibility of the State. Today we are one of the countries that have advanced the most in the process of vaccinating its population and the first to have begun and completed the immunization of its children and adolescents from 2 to 18 years of age. We are committed to share our experiences and results with other nations.
Dear friends,
It is neither legal nor ethical for the U.S. government to subject a small nation like Cuba, for decades, to an unceasing economic war in order to impose against our country a political system and a government that are alien to it. It is unacceptable to deprive an entire people of the right to peace, development, well-being and human progress.
It is unacceptable that the government of the United States ignores, for 29 years, the successive resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly on the need to put an end to the blockade against Cuba. Our call for the elimination of this genocidal policy will not cease as long as it remains in force.
In this fight we count on the support of the overwhelming majority of the international community. We also count on the support of many good people around the world, such as you, dear friends, who have been and are tireless advocates of the lifting of the blockade and the right of our people to live in peace, with respect and to decide their own fate.
Allow me to conclude by reiterating that, against the odds, the Cuban people and government will defend their Revolution convinced that it "...means unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism."
Long live the Solidarity Movement with Cuba in the United States!
Long live the Cuban Revolution and its people!
Thank you very much.
I now have the honor to invite the Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Women to deliver a statement.