28oct04
Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba.
Statement by his excellency Mr. Felipe Pérez Roque, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, under United Nations General Assembly agenda item 28:
Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba
Excellencies:
Millions of Cubans are now closely following what happens in this hall.
Some 70% of them have had to endure all their lives the longest blockade
in history, imposed by the Government of the United States on our
homeland right from the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
However, in voting today on draft resolution "Necessity of Ending the
Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States
of America against Cuba," the 191 UN Member States will not only be
making a decision on an issue of interest to Cuba. They will also be
voting in favor of the respect for the Charter of the United Nations, in
favor of the respect for International Law, in favor of the sovereign
equality of States and the self-determination of the peoples, so that no
government, mighty as it may be, can punish not only Cuba but also any
other country for trading with and investing in ours.
Today, we will cast a vote against the extraterritorial enforcement of
laws; a vote against haughtiness and the disdain for the rights of
others.
I have an odd document here, distributed by the United States to all
delegations -- except Cuba, of course.
It lies so much, and so many times, that it deserves to be commented on.
Let us see:
"The United States maintains that the embargo is a bilateral issue that
should not come before the General Assembly. It is clearly not a
blockade, as we do not interfere with the trade between Cuba and other
nations."
But this General Assembly knows that there is a different truth to it.
Well does it know that it is not just an embargo; it knows that the US
Government has unleashed a worldwide genocidal economic war against
Cuba. Cuba is prevented from exporting to the United States; Cuba is
prevented from receiving American tourism; we are prevented from gaining
access to the technologies produced in this country; Cuba is prevented
from importing any US product, equipment or raw material.
The Assembly knows that the Torricelli Act, which prevents the
subsidiaries of US companies in third countries from trading with Cuba,
has been in force since 1992 and is meticulously enforced. I will just
mention a few examples:
- The Canadian subsidiary of US Picker International could not sell
spare parts for X-ray equipment to Cuba because it is a branch of an
American company.
- France's Bull could not complete the sale of ATMs to Cuba because it
was bought by America's Diebold.
- Refractarios Mexicanos, a company from Mexico, was purchased by US
Harbison Walker Refractory -- and thereinafter it could not continue
selling to Cuba heat-resistant bricks used in furnaces for cement
production.
- The US representative is well aware, even with expressions to the
contrary, that nobody in the world can sell a product or piece of
equipment to Cuba if containing more than 10% of US components.
- The import of a quadruple veterinary vaccine, which should have been
supplied to our country by the Netherlands' Intervet, was curtailed when
the US Government informed the aforementioned company that it could not
sell the product to Cuba because it contained 10% of an antigen made in
the United States.
On the other hand, the US Government prevents any company in the world
from exporting a product or piece of equipment to the United States if
containing Cuban raw materials. A Japanese car manufacturer has to
certify to the US Government that the metals used to make the automobile
do not contain any Cuban nickel. A European confectioner has to prove
that no Cuban sugar was used.
The US document also says the following:
"The embargo regulations apply only to persons or entities subject to US
jurisdiction."
If so, then why, after seven years of investigations, was Canadian
citizen James Sabzali sentenced last February by a Philadelphia Federal
Court to a year's probation and a US$ 10,000 fine for having sold to
Cuba some resins that purify the drinking water supplied to the Cuban
population?
Why does the Torricelli Act prevent vessels of the rest of the world
from calling at Cuban ports under the threat of being "blacklisted" and
denying their access to American ports for a period of six months?
Why does the Helms-Burton Act, in force since 1996, penalize the
businesspeople from the rest of the world who attempt to engage in
business deals with Cuba?
The General Assembly has been informed that last 4 May the US State
Department sent a letter to the Chairman of Jamaica's SuperClubs,
warning him that if his business with Cuba did not terminate within 45
days he would be penalized under the Helms-Burton Act -- which involved
the denial of visas for him and his family to travel to the United
States and the threat of facing a lawsuit in the future in US courts.
The Government of the United States prevents Cuba from using the dollar
as currency for trading operations with the rest of the world. Our
charges or payments in that currency are confiscated.
Is it true or not, Mr. US representative, that your Government imposed a
US$ 100 million fine on Switzerland's banking entity UBS for the
latter's reception of dollar transfers from Cuba following the accrual
of absolutely legal earnings in our tourism and trade?
As of last June, the media controlled by the Miami-based terrorist
groups of Cuban origin unleashed a gross campaign aimed at frightening
the banks that may have financial relations with Cuba.
At the same time, we have been receiving continuous reports that US
authorities are exerting pressure on an ever-increasing number of banks
from other countries in order to thwart the transfers originating in
Cuba.
Finally, last 9 October, Daniel Fisk, Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in addition to recognizing the
efforts of the US Government to boycott tourism to Cuba from Europe,
Canada and other countries, announced that the United States has set up
a Group for the Persecution of Cuban Assets with a view to freezing the
movements of hard currency towards and from Cuba.
As a result of the foregoing, we concluded that all necessary actions
had to be promptly implemented in order to defend our country from the
new aggressions that attempt to prevent the use of the dollars that we
earn to pay for our imports. Therefore, 72 hours ago our President,
Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, informed the public opinion of the
decision to replace the circulation of the dollar with that of the
convertible Cuban peso all across the national territory. On this new
episode of the US blockade and about our sovereign measures to defend
ourselves, the Permanent Mission of Cuba is conveying additional
information to each delegation.
Would the US delegation explain why Cuba does not receive and has never
received a credit from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development
Bank? Because the US Government prevents them from doing so. In 2003,
these two international banks, which are not American-owned or are
legally under its control, loaned US$ 14 billion to Latin America. Why
was not a single dollar lent to Cuba to build houses, roads, hospitals
or schools? Is it not Cuba in the center of the map of the Americas?
It is true that over the last three years we have been able to purchase
food from the United States. However, we can still see the draconian
obstacles imposed on those sales, such as the need for bureaucratic
licenses, the obligation to pay in advance and in cash without the
possibility of receiving not even private credits and the prohibition
for Cuban vessels to carry the goods.
The US delegation also maintains that its Government has introduced
measures "facilitating greatly the export of (...) medicines and medical
supplies" to Cuba.
However, the General Assembly knows, once again, that there is a
different truth to it.
The truth is that this year the US Government prevented Abbott from
selling to Cuba two essential drugs in the treatment of AIDS patients:
Ritonavir and Lopinavir+Ritonavir. Therefore, Cuba had to purchase them in another
country, with a sixfold increase in price.
The truth is that the US Government imposed a fine of US$ 168,500 on
Chiron Corporation because a European subsidiary of such company had
sold -- reportedly by mistake -- two children's vaccines to Cuba.
The American text distributed to those present here goes on to add that
"Cuba is using this resolution to justify its own political and economic
woes." If the US Government is so sure that Cuba uses the issue of the
blockade as a pretext, why does it not lift the blockade and leave us
without a pretext?
I am going to answer that to you: because the US Government is afraid.
It is afraid of our example. It knows that if the blockade on us is
lifted, Cuba's socio-economic development will spiral up. It knows that
we will further prove the possibilities of the Cuban socialism; the
as-yet-untapped potential of a country without any discrimination
whatsoever, with social justice and human rights for all citizens and
not only for a few. It is the Government of a large and mighty empire,
but it is afraid of the example of the small rebellious island.
Excellencies:
We are gathered here only five days away from the elections in this
country, awaited by all with secret hopes. It is true that these four
years have been terrible for the world.
Cuba, however, awaits and works with optimism and confidence. It knows
that it is right. It knows that time is in its favor. It sees the
ever-increasing rejection of the blockade right within the United
States. It does not forget that the blockade has cost us over US$ 79
billion. Cuba knows that if the blockade is lifted, within a few years
there will be a tremendous improvement in the living standards of its
citizens. It knows, for example, that in 10 years our country would
build 1 million new houses, into which some 4 or 5 million Cubans would
move.
Cuba also knows, Excellencies, that if the blockade is not lifted and
there is no end to the hostility that has been in place for over four
decades now, everything will continue to be difficult but not
impossible. Our people are sure that there is no human or moral
constraint capable of hindering their course towards a more prosperous
and just country.
It is true that for the last 12 years the US Government has disregarded
the resolutions adopted by this Assembly with ever-increasing support,
which demand the end of the blockade against Cuba. But that does not
diminish the importance and momentousness of the act to be discharged
today by each delegate on behalf of their people.
Therefore, on behalf of the Cuban people, whose sons and daughters have
gone to heal, teach, build and fight side by side
with every country
that ever needed the Cubans; on behalf of the memory of the 2,000 Cubans
who laid down their lives fighting colonialism and apartheid in Africa;
on behalf of the 22,474 Cuban health cooperators currently rendering
services in 67 countries of the Third World; on behalf of the Cuban
professors who are now teaching over 17,000 youths from 110 countries in
our schools free of charge; on behalf of five young Cuban heroes who are
enduring cruel and unjust prison terms for fighting terrorism; in sum,
on behalf of a small country that is harassed for wanting to be free, I
would like to ask you, once again, to vote in favor of the draft
resolution submitted by Cuba.
Thank you very much.
New York, 28 October 2004
