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The address of Cuba's Parliament President, Ricardo Alarcon, before the United Nation s General Assembly in New York on the need to end Washington's blockade against Cuba

From Radio Havana Cuba
11 November 1999

Mr. President:

For seven consecutive years and by a wide margin, the General Assembly has adopted seven resolutions similar to the one I now have the honor to submit, conclusively establishing the need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba.

They have all been ignored. Instead of complying with them, in that same period Washington has enacted two Acts and numerous amendments, as well as executive and statutory provisions, extending and intensifying a policy rejected by the international community.

On April 13 this year, an U.S. court forced to take this action arbitrarily deprived a Cuban-European corporation of its rights by an amendment furtively added to the 1999 Appropriation Law. International agreements on trademarks and patents have thus become the most recent victims of a policy that is as insolent as it is irresponsible.

Neither has Washington respected its own commitments. It promised to partially modify some secondary aspects of the most offensive of its laws --those having to do with the denial of visas to foreign business executives investing in Cuba-- but it has done absolutely nothing in this regard. On the contrary, a few days before this session of the Assembly, it published threats against several companies from Europe and other countries. These actions directly and explicitly belie its widely publicized agreement with the European Union, and are also escalation in the implementation of the so-called Helms-Burton Act, because in this case Washington is acting in favor of people who were not U.S. citizens when their property was nationalized.

Resolutions have been ignored and understandings have been broken. At the same time, they are carrying out a dishonest campaign aimed at creating confusion and perpetuating their unacceptable conduct, which goes against the legal and ethical obligations that all states must respect.

Pressures and maneuvers intended to thwart the actions of the Assembly have multiplied this year. Letters have been sent from Washington and other moves have been made urging member states to vote against the draft resolution submitted by Cuba. I am not revealing any secrets. I am sure you know the text of those communications signed by senior State Department officials. I have three of them here with me.

They are examples of arrogance and a lack of respect for the dignity of the member states and the intelligence of their representatives. The largest debtor of this organization, the country that is largely to blame for the organization's financial crisis because it has not paid its meager assessment rate while it reaps the greatest benefits from the income obtained from the UN and all its members for the privilege of being home to its headquarters, not only ignores the repeated decisions of the Assembly, but insults it with its presumptuousness and lies.

How can they say at this point in time that there is no blockade, that "the embargo is a bilateral issue," that its "regulations apply only to persons or entities subject to United States jurisdiction"? Who do they think they are fooling? If this is so, why have other countries, which are U.S. trade partners, been forced to adopt specific regulations to protect themselves from its extraterritorial intentions? Why has it been necessary to resort to the WTO? Why the majority votes year after year at this Assembly? Or are they perhaps trying to say that all persons and entities on this planet are subject to Washington's jurisdiction?

This letter is not only an offense to the international community, it is also mockery at the expense of the American people and their elected officials. It does so when it shamelessly affirms that the U.S. government is "facilitating greatly the export of U.S. medicines and medical supplies to Cuba, and permitting food sales." The American Association for World Health refuted this utterly cynical falsehood and after thoroughly considering the matter it concluded: "The embargo's restrictions signify the deliberate blockading of the Cuban population's access to food and medicine."

If there were an ounce of truth in the State Department's fallacy, why do U.S. farmers protest and demand precisely to be allowed to sell their products to Cuba? Why did 70 senators unsuccessfully strive to put an end to this prohibition? Or is it that Washington bureaucrats have no regard for the U.S. Senate either?

In the letter they have circulated, they claim that the purpose of the blockade is "to restore freedom and democracy in Cuba," and they attempt to slander our country, accusing it of alleged human rights violations.

This from a government that with its economic war denies all Cubans -- children, sick people, the elderly and women included-- essential food and necessary medicines to save their lives or relieve their pain; a government that supported Batista's dictatorship to its very end, that trained, armed and advised the henchmen and torturers who murdered 20,000 Cubans; a government that attacks the Cuban people because it has never forgiven them for defeating tyranny and reaching full liberation through a heroic struggle.

The U.S. letter also omits some important details. It fails to mention that Washington shamelessly interferes in Cuba's internal affairs, that it organizes, promotes and finances subversive actions intended to undermine Cuban society and overthrow its government, and openly proclaims all this.

Here we have, for example, an AID press release detailing the funds spent on these activities during the first eight months of 1999: a total of 6,111,000 dollars. This amount, budgeted under Section 109 of the Helms-Burton Act, is but a small part of the resources overtly used against Cuba. Another 22 million US dollars allocated this year for their illegal radio and TV broadcasts should be added to it. This is federal budget money directly and openly supplied by governmental agencies; it would be necessary to add to it that which is indirectly handed out through seemingly private agencies.

We can only imagine the funds, which are certainly copious, secretly channeled through the Central Intelligence Agency, to which reference is made in Section 115 of the same Act, or those earmarked, under Section 108, for secretly gathering information on the Cuban economy and the activities of foreign companies there, which serves as a basis for the punitive measures that Washington takes against the executives of these companies and their relatives, and on which the Administration regularly informs the Congress, although confidentially, of course.

Freedom and democracy are not the exclusive property of the United States, and its government has no reason to claim them as its own. No one has empowered them to decide what the political and social organization of other countries should be, and Cuba is not and will never again be their colony. The economic warfare against Cuba began at exactly the moment when the Cubans overthrew the Batista dictatorship, a loyal ally and servile instrument of the United States, and the actual purpose of that policy is, precisely, to snatch away the freedom and democracy conquered after a long, hard struggle. The true purpose of the blockade is to divest Cubans of their country and appropriate their lands, their houses, their schools and hospitals, and submit them once again to U.S. domination, and this is what the infamous Helms-Burton Act expresses with detailed accuracy.

This policy also hurts the sovereign prerogatives of the rest of the world's countries, and It could not be any other way, because from the first day and throughout four decades the blockade has permanently and systematically attacked the very foundation of civilization, its most sacred principle: an entire people right to life.

It has been and still is the United States' objective since 1959 to destroy the Cuban people. It is genocide, purely and simply. For four decades that blockade has deliberately been sustained against the Republic of Cuba and all of its people, thus causing illnesses and deaths, pain and suffering to millions of Cubans victims of a policy still in force. The guilty parties should be punished in compliance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted on December 9, 1948. No matter how much they try to hide it, there is more than enough irrefutable evidence to prove it, and it can now be read in declassified official documents.

On January 1, 1959, even before the revolutionary government was in place, the first blow was dealt to the national economy, when those who had plundered the Treasury escaped to the United States under U.S. protection. Four hundred and twenty-four million dollars, the country's only reserves, left with them and were never returned to Cuba.

Not only did they gain control of these Cuban assets but on February 12 that year, Washington decided against granting any loans to Cuba, not even the very modest one that was requested to support the Cuban currency, which had been the victim of this brutal robbery.

The economic warfare against Cuba began before the adoption of the first revolutionary measure, and long before the Cuban Revolution was proclaimed a socialist revolution.

From its earliest stage, this warfare was and continues to be today a war against the Cuban nation, against its independence, and against all the Cuban people.

In a U.S. State Department memorandum dated June 24, 1959, the essence of the policy already being implemented against Cuba was clearly set out. It was believed at that time that if Cuba were deprived of its quota privilege in the US sugar market, "the sugar industry would promptly suffer an abrupt decline, causing widespread further unemployment. The large numbers of people thus forced out of work would begin to go hungry." At the same meeting where this memorandum was issued, U.S. Secretary of State Herter defined these initial actions as "measures of economic warfare." Another document, drafted on April 6, 1960 and approved that same day, expanded the aggression and was even more explicit: "Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba... to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of government."

A genocidal strategy had been put into effect that has now lasted four decades. Three generations of Cubans have suffered its consequences, and two-thirds of the current Cuban population were born and have lived their entire lives under it. The Cuban people have had to suffer, survive and develop under totally unfair and unjustifiable conditions, imposed in the most cold-blooded and calculated manner by the most powerful nation on Earth, which is seeking in this way to destroy the Cuban nation and exterminate its people.

The blockade has been implemented by nine U.S. administrations; they have enforced it through laws, regulations and by-laws in violation of both law and morality; they have attempted to force other nations to comply with it, thus trampling their sovereignty and smashing international norms; they have threatened and suppressed citizens of the United States and other countries; they have pressured and bribed people everywhere, and attempted to deceive and manipulate the entire world.

This blockade has always been extraterritorial in nature, because it seeks to rob Cuba of its independence, trample the sovereignty of other countries, and punish the entire Cuban population with deliberate cruelty. This is the way it has always been, from the very first day, 40 years ago. To confirm this, one need only examine the provisions contained in the Regulations for Cuban Assets Control (31 CFR.515) in force since July 8, 1963. Included here are the numerous and illegal measures that interfere with the legitimate economic and commercial activities of foreign companies based outside U.S. jurisdiction, and the complete prohibitions not only against the Republic of Cuba, but also against all persons of Cuban nationality, without exception, residing in Cuban territory, who are prevented from engaging in any transactions, and from whom all properties, deposits, savings, inheritances and pensions have been confiscated and withheld in the United States.

The U.S. authorities have used countless means to carry out, with full impunity, the abominable crime they are committing against my people. They have had no qualms about lying to this very Assembly, as they will surely do once again today.

Very recently, it was demonstrated beyond any doubt that this genocidal policy has not been modified, and that those who implement it are prepared to do anything to make it last endlessly. This past August, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment by a vote of 70 to 28, which was included in the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, aimed at revising the policy of unilateral economic sanctions imposed by Washington on other countries by eliminating the prohibitions related to food and medicine. At the time that the U.S. Senate was promoting this initiative, Cuba became the only country in the world to which the United States unilaterally prohibits the sale of food and medicine. On July 27, they had lifted the prohibition against Iran, Libya and Sudan, and on September 17, the one applied against the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.

Despite such a wide majority backing in the Senate, the proposal was not included in the text of the bill that was finally approved. In order to remove it, a vote was not taken in the Senate-House conference, which was arbitrarily shut down in violation of the usual legislative practices and procedures.

A good number of U.S. lawmakers protested and denounced the unusual situation created by forcing them to adopt a text that did not represent the interest of the majority. What led to this unprecedented action?

Senators John Ashcroft and Sam Brownback and Representative George Nethercutt, the authors of the amendment, signed a statement published in the Washington Times on October 20, in which they explain the reason, the sole reason, why the amendment was not put to a vote: "The unilateral food and medicine embargo against Cuba must be maintained at any cost." William Clinton himself acknowledged, on November 5th, that the will to deny those products to Cuba had been the only cause of what happened in Congress. Curiously enough, that same day, before a different audience, the president of the United States insisted on keeping in place the blockade, and tried to justify it, although he had to admit that almost everybody rejects it.

The group that controls the leadership of the U.S. Congress went so far as to break with democratic procedures in order to continue depriving the Cuban people of food and medicine. Moreover, the Cuban people are now the only people on Earth against which Washington unilaterally applies this criminal policy, which was prohibited half a century ago by the Geneva Conventions, even in time of war. And as if that were not enough, by prohibiting trade with Cuba to its subsidiaries abroad, whose sales in food and medicine totaled over 700 million dollars, Washington is forcing others to collude in this crime.

In order to ensure the total prohibition on exporting food and medicine to Cuba, they turned a deaf ear to the demands of farmers and other sectors of U.S. society, and disregarded the views of most lawmakers. To deny the Cuban people access to food and medicine from the United States, the perpetrators of this genocide resorted even to this "affront" to their own legislative procedures, to borrow the term used by the above-mentioned congressmen.

What happened in the case of the Ashcroft Amendment proves that the blockade completely prevents exports of food and medicine to Cuba. If there were any truth to the official U.S. propaganda, there would have been no need for such an amendment, for the votes in favor cast by 70 senators, and for the clumsy scheming to exclude it from the final text of the bill.

By thwarting its approval, those who sustain the blockade have defied the opinion of Congress while exposing their determination to maintain the most cruel and condemnable aspects of a clearly genocidal policy.

The noble intentions inspiring those who strive to introduce this reform into current U.S. policy notwithstanding, I have to say that even if it had been approved, it would not have made such a difference nor would it have made the blockade any less cruel and inhumane. How could we acquire food and medicine in the U.S. market while that fierce blockade is maintained, denying us the resources needed for development and preventing normal trade with the United States, which also tries to boycott our trade with the rest of the world?

The blockade has created countless obstacles for Cuba's economic development; it has made it impossible for Cuba to acquire products, equipment, goods, services and technology; it has deprived it of funding and credits; it has inflicted severe damage on its foreign trade by depressing the prices of what we sell and raising the costs of our imports and transportation; it has affected every sector of the national economy, with severe consequences for the material conditions in which our people live.

American bureaucrats and diplomats have tirelessly dedicated themselves to tracking down, throughout the world, every gram of Cuban nickel or sugar that might be contained in some foreign product to ban it from the U.S. market, or to prevent the sale to Cuba of any foreign products that contain as much as a particle originated in the U.S.

It is this blockade, all of it, that must be completely, totally and unconditionally lifted.

Mr. President,
Delegates all,

The government that it is my honor to represent here is about to undertake every legal action to fight the blockade and defend the right of its people. In this token, I am officially announcing to this Assembly that a lawsuit will be filed against the government of the United States for compensation of over 100 billion dollars on account of the enormous damages caused to the people of Cuba by the blockade, which has lasted over 40 years now, since it really began in 1959 with the first economic measures taken against our country.

Mr. President:

Cuba has never been and will never be subdued. Despite the tightening of the blockade and the aggression, it has succeeded in halting its economy's downslide and initiating a process of sustained and irreversible recovery.

The capacity for resistance of its heroic, self-sacrificing and noble people is founded on the unity and patriotism that nothing and no one will ever be able to destroy.

These people have traveled a long and hazardous road in their endless struggle for independence and justice. They know that the road ahead will neither be easy but they march on full of confidence because they believe in the value of principles, and they are persuaded of the righteousness of their cause that transcends the borders of their small territory.

They also believe in international solidarity, in equality and fraternity among peoples, and in the political and moral strength of this Assembly, in whose vote they trust.