Cuba has not relented, nor will it ever relent, in its determination to preserve and steadfastly defend its full independence and absolute sovereignty.
Excellencies,
Cuba is a founding State of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and has attended all its Summits with the will to promote and strengthen integration among our nations, as well as inclusive dialogue and political coordination among our States and Governments.
We have engaged from broad and deep areas of agreement, and with respect for our differences, we have placed our modest efforts at the service of the peoples of the region and, when necessary, have sacrificed national interests for the sake of integration. Without hesitation or conditions, we have firmly defended sovereign equality and collective independence, and have promoted within our Community the principle of unity in diversity.
Cuba has always been loyal to shared objectives, alliances, and values, and to the interests of the peoples of Our America—always consistent in its statements and actions, always committed to truth, justice, reason, and solidarity. We reject betrayal of values, opportunism, and submission. We have never remained silent in the face of abuse and the suffering of a people.
Cuba has not relented, nor will it relent, in its determination to preserve and resolutely defend its full independence and absolute sovereignty, despite the illegal and cruel policy of economic warfare and persecution carried out by the Government of the United States against our country, sustained uninterruptedly for more than 60 years, and now materialized in a blockade intensified to extreme levels, whose most recent expression has been the Executive Order of January 29 and the imposition of a brutal energy siege with severe humanitarian consequences for our population.
We have been able to mitigate its worst impacts thanks to the participation, awareness, unity, and dedication of our people; to the effective efforts of the State and Government; to the support of popular and social organizations; and under the leadership of the leader of the Revolution, Raúl Castro Ruz, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
It is also the result of our social achievements, infrastructure, the resilience of our economy, our own resources, and the creativity and perseverance of the Cuban people. It is likewise the product of the economic transformation program we are implementing, whose most visible element has been effective investment in photovoltaic energy.
It is well known that Cuba is not a threat to the national security of the United States. History shows—even in recent times—that Cuba has been a victim of acts of terrorism financed and organized from U.S. territory. Powerful toxic platforms of communicational aggression against our country spread slander and incite violence from the North.
Now, the United States publicly declares almost daily its intentions to militarily attack Cuba or to achieve, through coercion, the overthrow of the Cuban government. It presents this as imminent. To justify such intentions, it merely invokes the pretext that Cuba’s political and economic model has failed, as if such an argument were sufficient grounds to subject an entire population to collective punishment or military aggression.
If that were the case, what explains the ruthless economic war aimed precisely at causing the country’s failure? Why is it necessary to deprive Cuba of access to sources of financing, markets, technology, and fuel?
Who could defend the conduct of a superpower that imposes a terrible collective punishment on an entire people simply because it does not approve of the political, economic, and social system that people has chosen?
Remarkably, the infamous and once highly secret 1960 memorandum by Undersecretary Mallory has now become official and public policy. They constantly boast of being directly responsible for the harm they deliberately inflict on Cuban families.
Despite everything, faithful to our tradition, we maintain talks with the U.S. government based on sovereign equality, mutual respect, reciprocal benefit, and international law, without interference in internal affairs or political systems. We do so seriously and responsibly, without media campaigns, with due discretion, goodwill, and the utmost realism.
We are aware of the immense pressures the U.S. government exerts on many of the governments represented here, including those with which we share longstanding and fraternal ties of cooperation and solidarity. Some low-income populations and remote areas have been deprived of the nearly sole medical services they received, due to the ruthless U.S. persecution of Cuban international cooperation. In a few regrettable cases, damage has been caused, but in none have they succeeded in breaking the deep bonds between our peoples.
Beyond ideological positions, political contradictions, historical differences, or narrow interests, what must change in our hemisphere is the aggressive conduct of domination, dispossession, and conquest by the United States—its adherence to the Monroe Doctrine and its corollaries, and to the supremacist and racist notion that Latin America and the Caribbean are its backyard.
With clarity and firmness, we denounce before this Summit that, as warned by our National Hero José Martí, today the United States threatens the peoples of Our America, and that danger can only be confronted if we stand united in defense of the sovereignty and independence of our nations.
CELAC emerged to realize the dream of our independence heroes, and we have devoted efforts and commitment to its defense and strengthening.
It has been and remains our alternative to elitist agendas subordinated to external interests of neocolonial domination. From it, let us defend international law against attempts to impose arbitrary, discriminatory, and tyrannical rules. Let us protect and preserve CELAC and the United Nations from ideological and dictatorial constructs such as the so-called “Shield of the Americas,” intended to impose subordination and spurious objectives in hemispheric defense and security.
Let us defend ourselves collectively against military aggression; against the kidnapping of Heads of State, as in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; against invasions and preemptive bombings such as those in Iran that set the Middle East ablaze and undermine the global economy; or against genocides such as that of Palestine—acts that, if not firmly stopped by a powerful and democratic international response, will in the future be directed against our own peoples.
History will not forgive those who seek to ignore or evade the complexity and danger of the current regional context, nor the threats looming over Our America and Cuba.
Nor will we renounce the resolute implementation of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, a historic achievement of our Community and the foundation of relations among our countries and with the rest of the world, including our powerful neighbor. Let us defend our dignity.
On behalf of the Cuban government and people, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to those who have extended a hand and shown solidarity with Cuba.
We firmly believe that CELAC will regain its capacity to act as the voice and body of Our America, and will gather momentum to defend the right of Latin America and the Caribbean to preserve the sovereignty and independence won through centuries of struggle against colonialism; to refuse to bow to threats and the designs of a power that disdains us; and to proclaim unity, cooperation, and mutual respect among our countries as the essential foundation for advancing the aspirations of the peoples of our region toward a future of peace, justice, and development.
Thank you very much.
(Cubaminrex)