Statement by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the Open Debate of the Security Council on “Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations and Strengthening the UN-Centered International System,” New York, May 26, 2026.
Mr. President, Distinguished Permanent Representatives:
We highly value the leadership of the People’s Republic of China in defending international peace and security, upholding International Law, preserving, strengthening, and appropriately reforming the United Nations Organization — particularly through the democratization, transparency, and effectiveness of the Security Council and the empowerment of the General Assembly — as well as in building a multilateral international order based on sovereign equality, justice, and democracy.
Evidence of this includes the global initiatives promoted by President Xi Jinping, which we support, aimed at addressing current challenges through genuine multilateral cooperation. The convening of this open debate is itself further proof of that commitment.
On September 26, 1960, at the United Nations General Assembly, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz stated: “Let the philosophy of plunder disappear, and the philosophy of war will disappear as well!” We recall those words vividly in the year marking the centenary of his birth.
Mr. President:
How can one speak of defending the central role of the United Nations, promoting peace and development, safeguarding the international order founded upon International Law and the basic norms governing relations among States, in order to prevent new conflicts in which the strong impose their will upon the weak, without mentioning the genocide against Palestine, or the imperialist aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the war in the Middle East?
The Government of the United States is, in practice, in a position of undermining international peace and security and violating International Law and International Humanitarian Law with respect to the Republic of Cuba.
The filing of criminal charges against the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, constitutes an act that is morally infamous and legally arbitrary, through the abusive use of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts; through the manipulation of the location of the downing of the aircraft, which occurred within Cuban airspace and maritime territory; through the concealment of the terrorist and illegal missions these aircraft frequently carried out in violation of U.S. law; through the impunity and complicity of authorities in that country; and through the denial of the right of States to legitimate self-defense.
It is a politically motivated and fraudulent decision, intended to deceive U.S. and foreign citizens thirty years after the events in question, with the vile purpose of securing support for a military venture against Cuba in pursuit of “regime change” or what they now euphemistically call “nation-building.”
The oil and energy siege imposed by the United States against Cuba is, in its effects, equivalent to a naval blockade — an act of war and genocide that subjects the Cuban population to conditions threatening their integrity and survival and constitutes a cruel and indiscriminate form of “collective punishment.” It is already causing deaths, as reflected in the doubling of the infant mortality rate from 4.0 to 9.2 per thousand live births, and in the reduction of life expectancy among children suffering from cancer from 85 percent to 65 percent.
A military aggression would unleash a bloodbath. Thousands of Cubans would die defending the Homeland and sacred values and principles. Young Americans would also perish, with neither cause nor ideal to defend, dragged into violence by an imperialist, neo-fascist policy of domination, plunder, and conquest.
I address myself especially to the citizens of the United States, particularly its youth, and I appeal to their human values and their noble and peace-loving sentiments. I ask them to seek the truth and not allow themselves to be deceived or manipulated by an elitist, corrupt, and powerful clique in Miami that is not representative of the American people nor of the Cuban residents in this country, who overwhelmingly oppose the barbarity of war and the energy blockade.
The President who issued such an order of military attack, along with the Secretary of State and Secretary of War who encourage it, would go down in history as war criminals and direct perpetrators of crimes against humanity. No justification whatsoever can be invoked for aggression, or for coercive and inhumane acts, whose humanitarian impact resembles such aggression. Let Cuba live in peace!
For more than six decades, the U.S. government has manufactured pretexts to attempt to justify its criminal conduct.
It has resorted to the absurd argument of portraying a small yet symbolic island as a supposed threat to the national security of a nuclear superpower — an idea that defies logic and common sense and rests upon utterly false allegations and insinuations.
As President Miguel Díaz-Canel has reiterated, Cuba neither is nor can be a threat. It is not an enemy of the United States and does not wish to become one, despite significant differences with its government. Cuba maintains deep and fraternal ties with the American people and culture. We will continue welcoming American travelers with warmth and hospitality, despite restrictions imposed on their freedoms by their own government; and we will continue welcoming American businesspeople and companies with competitive projects to participate, without discrimination, in our economic development, even though the blockade hinders such efforts.
Yet today, a corrupt and immoral plutocracy invokes the narrative of the incompetence and alleged corruption of our government, and the supposed danger of a “humanitarian crisis,” as justification for foreign intervention. This is cynically proclaimed by the very executioner who coldly, maliciously, and deliberately causes the devastating effects that such intervention would produce in any country, regardless of its economic potential, level of development, or political system.
Despite the lack of progress and goodwill, and despite the lack of seriousness and coherence on the part of the United States, we remain willing to continue discussions; to address bilateral problems without interference in our internal affairs, political system, or elections; and to seek forms of civilized conduct and multifaceted cooperation, particularly in the areas of terrorism, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime, regular and safe migration, human trafficking, mutual economic compensation, and other matters.
This constitutes an unprecedented unilateral aggression without any justification whatsoever. Through intimidation and “secondary” sanctions imposed on third parties, the United States government seeks to compel all States to participate, against their will, in its atrocious policies against Cuba. This will not happen.
I call upon the international community to mobilize in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe that may be imposed either through military means or through the energy siege and the extreme tightening of the blockade, which also kill and inflict suffering.
I call upon Latin America and the Caribbean to act in order to preserve their condition as a Zone of Peace and to avert adverse consequences that would destabilize the region.
The time has come for a broad international coalition — transcending political differences, ideological approaches, and historical disputes — to place limits upon and prevent the excesses that threaten and harm the national interests, peoples, and sovereign prerogatives of all States.
The Global South should struggle for this objective and collectively protect itself from any retaliation through a united voice, collective action, and mutual cooperation. I humbly appeal: the time has come for solidarity with Cuba, which has always shown solidarity with all others, never deterred by risks — at times mortal — nor by material interests or scarcity.
I find no way to speak of defending the central role of the United Nations, promoting Peace and Development, and affirming the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of International Peace and Security and its contribution to dialogue and political solutions, without calling upon this Security Council, realistically, at the very least to attempt to fulfill its primary and supreme mandate with respect to the military threat and energy blockade against Cuba; nor can I refrain from encouraging the United Nations General Assembly, under any circumstances, to make determined use of its broad and decisive powers and of the moral, legal, and democratic authority conferred upon it by the peoples of the world in relation to the situation of Cuba.
Let no one doubt that should the moment we hope never arrives, the people of Cuba will fight to the very end.
Homeland or death, we shall overcome!
Thank you very much.