SPEECH BY FOREIGN MINISTER BRUNO
RODRÍGUEZ PARRILLA AT THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL
ASSEMBLY UNDER THE ITEM "NECESSITY OF ENDING THE
ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL EMBARGO IMPOSED
BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AGAINST CUBA".
(NEW YORK, OCTOBER 28, 2009
Mr. President,
Permanent Representatives and Delegates,
Alexis
García Iribar was born in Cuba, in the province of
Guantánamo. He suffered from a congenital
cardiopathy known as persistent arterial duct. At
the age of 6 and after successive deferrals and
hemodynamic complications, he had to be submitted to
an open-heart surgery on March 9, 2009, because the
government of the United States prevents the US
companies NUMED, AGA and Boston Scientific from
selling to Cuba the ‘amplatzer’ and ‘embolization
coil’ devices required to perform a catheterization
that will spare children from this type of surgery.
I could mention another 12 cases of children between
the ages of 5 months and 13 years who have had to
undergo a similar procedure in the course of the
last one and a half years –two of them underwent
surgery after last January 20.
Cuban children suffering from lymphoblastic
leukemia whose bodies reject traditional medicines
can not be treated with the American product "Elspar"
(Erwinia L-asparaginase), created specially to treat
intolerance. Consequently, the life expectancy of
these children is reduced and their suffering
increases. The U.S. government forbids Merck & Co.
to supply this medication to Cuba.
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Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla |
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Cuba has not been able to acquire Gene Analyzer
Equipment -indispensable to study the origin of
breast, colon, and prostate cancer- which is
manufactured by the company Applied Biosystem (ABI).
Lactalis USA, a supplier of dairy products, was
fined $20,000 by the US government.
[See Washington Punishes Supplier of Milk to Cuba]
Since the election of President Obama, there has
been no change whatsoever in the implementation of
the economic, commercial, and financial blockade
against Cuba. The blockade remains intact.
It continues to be an absurd policy that causes
scarcities and sufferings. It is a mass, flagrant
and systematic violation of human rights. In the
Geneva Convention of 1948, it was classified as an
act of genocide. It is ethically unacceptable.
The blockade is an uncultured act of arrogance.
Recently, the US government prevented the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra from performing in Cuba.
Cuban artists can not receive any compensation for
their performances before American audiences. How
can artistic creation be considered a crime?
Microsoft blocked Cuba’s access to Windows Live
because, as can be read after click-opening that
tool, that is the way it goes for "users from
countries submitted to the US embargo". The same
thing happens with the web pages ‘Cisco System’,
‘SolidWorks’ and ‘Symantec’.
The blockade imposes restrictions on Cuba’s
bandwidth and connectivity. Cuba is not allowed to
connect to the fiber optics submarine cables that
cross nearby our coasts.
Why does the US government hinder free flow of
information and access to the new technologies?
These inhumane prohibitions, improper in this day
and age, are applied not only to Cuba, but also
against the countries that you represent.
Philips Medical failed to comply with the
contract to supply spare parts for medical equipment
bought at a total cost of $72.7 million, which were
installed in Cuba and in Venezuela. Besides, that
company was fined $200,000 dollars. This is a
company from the Netherlands against which the US
applied the extraterritorial precepts of the
blockade.
Hitachi stated that it can not sell to Cuba an
Electronic Transmission Microscope, which is
indispensable for pathological anatomy studies; and
Toshiba said the same about a Gamma Chamber and
other magnetic resonance and high precision ultra-sound
equipment. These are Japanese companies against
which the US also applies the blockade.
The US government forbade the food company
Sensient Flavors, a subsidiary registered and based
in Canada, to export to Cuba.
Siemens, a German company, refused to sell to
Cuba one 125 Mw transformer because of its "obligation
to follow certain U.S. rules". One of its
subsidiaries based in Denmark could not supply
equipment for a cement factory in Cuba because of
the ban imposed by the U.S.
The Australia & New Zealand Bank Group (ANZ),
based in Australia, was imposed a million dollar
fine for carrying out operations with Cuba.
One thousand, nine hundred and forty one vessels
that had entered Cuban ports between July of 2008
and 2009 were banned from entering any U.S. port for
a period of 180 days.
The UN secretary general’s report, which also
includes the report submitted by Cuba, contains many
other examples.
The U.S. representatives lie when they assert
that the blockade is a bilateral issue. The
extraterritorial application of the blockade laws,
such as the Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts,
against the states represented here, is a serious
violation of international law, the UN Charter, and
the freedom of trade and navigation. In recent
months, the blockade laws have been applied to at
least against 56 countries. It is then up to the
General Assembly to discuss this issue. According to
recent polls conducted by institutions of this
country, 76 per cent of American citizens oppose the
blockade. Disregarding the wishes for change and
maintaining the blockade is antidemocratic.
In times characterized by unemployment and
economic crisis, the Cuban market is out of bounds
for American business people. They are not allowed
to invest in Cuba. International companies face no
American competition in Cuba because the U.S.
government prohibits it.
What is wrong with allowing American citizens to
have access to Cuban products? Who could be affected
by the creation of new jobs in US ports as a result
of the development of normal commercial relations
between both countries? Why can’t American citizens
have access to Cuban state-of-the-art medicine
against cancer or diabetes, or the technologies
required to manufacture them, which are only
available in Cuba? Why is Bacardi, which paid for
the lobby that imposed the Helms-Burton Act, evading
competition and forcing American citizens to pay a
higher price for a poor imitation of Cuban rum? Why
should a Cuban cigar be something inaccessible and
exotic in this country?
Last September 11, the U.S. President seemed to
be stuck in the past when he decided to extend the
implementation of the blockade for another year,
claiming it was "in the national interest of the U.S."
and based on the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917,
applicable only to war situations and only enforced
against Cuba.
No serious person could assert that Cuba is a
threat to the national security of the world’s only
super-power. Our strength is that of law, truth and
reason. The inclusion of Cuba in the spurious lists
of alleged states sponsoring terrorism, which is the
reason that justifies some blockade measures, should
cease. Our five anti-terrorist heroes, who have been
unjustly imprisoned in this country, should be freed
now.
On September 11, 2001, Cuba opened up its skies
and airports so that any American plane could have
somewhere to land; it offered plasma and healthcare
personnel. Later on it offered antibiotics and
equipment against anthrax and made a generous offer
to send Cuban doctors when Hurricane Katrina lashed
New Orleans.
Cuba is the hospitable nation that invites
American citizens to visit; it also invites American
scholars and scientists to engage in cooperation and
join an enlightening debate. It invites American
artists to build bridges. It invites American
companies to trade and invest.
Mr. President,
A few days ago, we all applauded President Obama
when he said from this rostrum: "International law
is not an empty promise (…) No nation should try to
dominate another nation."
The international community can not accept –nor
it could accept- that those who govern in Washington
feel they have the authority to implement coercive
economic measures and extraterritorial laws against
sovereign states.
President Obama has a historical opportunity to
lead a change of policy towards Cuba and lift the
blockade. He is even invested with the executive
powers that would allow him, right now and all by
himself, to substantially modify the implementation
of the blockade measures by granting "special
licenses" or waivers, making humanitarian exceptions
or doing so for the sake of U.S. national interest,
even without modifying the laws that enforce such
prohibitions.
Any person who feels aggrieved and righteously
defies the egoism and lack of sensitivity of the
conservative right, as President Obama did in
Congress, because "…a man of Illinois had lost his
health insurance coverage in the middle of his
chemotherapy…and died as a result of that (...) And
another woman from Texas lost her health insurance
when she was about to submit to a double mastectomy",
could not , without lacking basic ethics, prevent
Cuban children who suffer from cancer or a heart
condition from receiving medicines and medical
equipment.
Using the same words expressed by Senator Kennedy
when he referred to the health reforms, the blockade
against Cuba is also "a moral issue" that puts to
the test "the character" of the United States of
America.
Mr. President,
It is true that Cuba purchases significant
amounts of agricultural products from the United
States. However, the U.S. representatives lie when
they say that the United States is one of Cuba’s
trading partners and keep silent about the fact that
such operations are carried out in violation of the
standards established by the international trade
system. Cuba’s payments are to be made in cash and
in advance, without any access to private credits.
Cuban vessels are not allowed to transport any
cargo. Cuba is submitted to onerous and
discriminatory procedures and has to put up with
continued maneuvers aimed at confiscating shipments.
We can not call "trade" certain operations that lack
a minimum reciprocity whereby Cuba would be allowed
to export its products to the United States. A
country that blockades another country can not be
the latter’s trade partner.
It is shameful to see how the representatives of
the U.S. government lie when they assert that the
United States is the main donor of humanitarian
assistance to Cuba. The data they use is false. They
combine, through fictitious and ill-intended
figures, the value of alleged licenses for
operations that turn out to be unviable with the
amount of assistance sent by Cuban immigrants
residing in the U.S., through their own efforts, to
their relatives. Successive U.S. administrations
have persecuted and harassed the non-governmental
organizations that send humanitarian assistance to
Cuba and, as a result of that, half of them have
stopped doing so.
One year ago, when Cuba was devastated by three
hurricanes which caused losses that accounted for 20
per cent of our GDP, the Bush administration did not
even respond to our request for American companies
to be allowed to sell us, as a one-off exception,
construction material, covers to replace broken
roofs and grant private credits.
Mr. President,
At several meetings, the U.S. delegates have
referred to the steps that their government has
taken to dismantle the most brutal restrictions
imposed by George W. Bush on travel by Cuban émigrés
and the sending of remittances to their relatives,
as well as the resumption of talks on bilateral
migration and the re-establishment of direct postal
services.
These actions are positive but they are extremely
limited and insufficient. The truth is that we have
not even gone back to the situation that had
prevailed up until the early days of 2004, when the
United States allowed a certain number of academic,
cultural, scientific and sport exchanges with Cuban
counterparts, which continue to be prohibited today.
Some vague proposals in the area of
telecommunications would be simply impractical as
long as other restrictions still in force are not
eliminated and the practice of stealing Cuban funds
- which remained frozen in American banks- resulting
from these operations by virtue of certain decisions
adopted by venal judges in violation of their own
laws, is not discontinued.
After re-establishing the right of all U.S.
residents of Cuban origin to travel to the island,
the irrationality of preventing American citizens
from traveling to Cuba -the only place forbidden to
them in the whole planet- will become much more
evident. American citizens, who pay taxes, are not
free to travel to Cuba, despite the fact that the
constitution in this country allegedly guarantees
that. American citizens are not allowed to receive
first-hand information about Cuba.
The U.S. representatives have also referred to a
declared new spirit in their relations with our
country.
Cuba’s response is fully consistent with its
historical readiness to talk directly with the
United States. As was done in the past by Commander
in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President Raul Castro Ruz
has reiterated his willingness to establish a
dialogue on any aspect and negotiate all bilateral
problems on the basis of respect, sovereign equality,
and without detriment to our national independence
and self determination. We have clearly stated that
we will not negotiate our internal affairs or our
constitutional order. We are still awaiting a
response from the U.S. government about the proposed
agenda submitted by Cuba last July to start a
bilateral dialogue, which I publicly announced in
this same conference hall on September 28.
Mr. President,
The economic blockade has not met, nor will it,
its purpose of crushing the patriotic determination
of the Cuban people. But it generates shortages; it
restricts our development potential and seriously
affects our economy. It is, without doubt, the
fundamental obstacle that hinders the economic
development of our country.
It is very difficult to estimate the cost it has
had for Cuba. A rigorous and conservative record of
the economic damages it has caused amounts to
hundreds of billions of dollars, based on the
current and decreasing value of that currency.
The U.S. representatives have said that our
shortages result from the failure of our system. But
they lie, perhaps rather by ignorance than out of
bad faith. Thanks to our system, we have been able
to resist for 50 years; and we have developed
despite the blockade. If they are convinced that our
system does not work, what do they need the blockade
for?
Faced with veritable economic warfare and a
vicious manipulation of the media, beneath the
effects of climate change and the global economic
crisis, Cuba is engaged in a deeply human and
fraternal social and cultural work.
Our people are determined to move ahead, in
sovereignty, in order to solve our problems and
perfect our political, economic and social system
within socialism. We Cubans have every right to do
that, without blockades or foreign pressures;
without the funds worth millions with which the U.S.
government finances subversion; without any foreign
interference in the decisions that only we are
entitled to make.
That is the purpose of the resolution that we
intend to adopt and I am honored to present. To
support this resolution would be an act against
aggression and the use of force. It would be an act
in favor of peace, people’s rights and hopes. It
would be an act of justice towards the people of
Cuba who today are paying tribute to the memory of
Camilo Cienfuegos, who was a young and optimistic
Commander in the Sierra Maestra mountain range, from
whom we learned that loyalty to our sacred
achievements and our profound convictions is the
only way to victory
Thank you very much.
Granma International