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Che Guevara Archive
At the United Nations
Ernesto Che Guevara represented Cuba in the 19th Session
of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Address to General Assembly
DECEMBER 11,1964
Mr. President;
Distinguished delegates:
The Delegation of Cuba to this assembly, first of all, is pleased
to fulfil the agreeable duty of welcoming the addition of three new
nations to the important number of those that discuss the problems
of the world here. We therefore greet, in the persons of their presidents
and prime ministers, the peoples of Zambia, Malawi, and Malta, and
express the hope that from the outset these countries will be added
to the group of Non-aligned countries that struggle against imperialism,
colonialism, and neo-colonialism.
 We
also wish to convey our congratulations to the president of this assembly
(Alex Quaison-Sackey of Ghana), whose elevation to so high a post
is of special significance since it reflects this new historic stage
of resounding triumphs for the peoples of Africa, who up until recently
were subject to the colonial system of imperialism. Today, in their
immense majority these peoples have become sovereign states through
the legitimate exercise of their self-determination. The final hour
of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of Africa,
Asia, and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their unrestricted
right to self-determination and to the independent development of
their nations.
We wish you, Mr. President, the greatest success in the tasks entrusted
to you by the member states.
Cuba comes here to state its position on the most important points
of controversy and will do so with the full sense of responsibility
that the use of this rostrum implies, while at the same time fulfilling
the unavoidable duty of speaking clearly and frankly.
We would like to see this assembly shake itself out of complacency
and move forward. We would like to see the committees begin their
work and not stop at the first confrontation. Imperialism wants to
turn this meeting into a pointless oratorical tournament, instead
of solving the serious problems of the world. We must prevent it from
doing so. This session of the assembly should not be remembered in
the future solely by the number nineteen that identifies it. Our efforts
are directed to that end.
We feel that we have the right and the obligation to do so, because
our country is one of the most constant points of friction. It is
one of the places where the principles upholding the right of small
countries to sovereignty are put to the test day by day, minute by
minute. At the same time our country is one of the trenches of freedom
in the world, situated a few steps away from United States imperialism,
showing by its actions, its daily example, that in the present conditions
of humanity the peoples can liberate themselves and can keep themselves
free.
Of course, there now exists a socialist camp that becomes stronger
day by day and has more powerful weapons of struggle. But additional
conditions are required for survival: the maintenance of internal
unity, faith in one's own destiny, and the irrevocable decision to
fight to the death for the defence of one's country and revolution.
These conditions, distinguished delegates, exist in Cuba.
Of all the burning problems to be dealt with by this assembly, one
of special significance for us, and one whose solution we feel must
be found first — so as to leave no doubt in the minds of anyone
— is that of peaceful coexistence among states with different
economic and social systems. Much progress has been made in the world
in this field. But imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, has
attempted to make the world believe that peaceful coexistence is the
exclusive right of the earth's great powers. We say here what our
president said in Cairo, and what later was expressed in the declaration
of the Second Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-aligned
Countries: that peaceful coexistence cannot be limited to the powerful
countries if we want to ensure world peace. Peaceful coexistence must
be exercised among all states, regardless of size, regardless of the
previous historical relations that linked them, and regardless of
the problems that may arise among some of them at a given moment.
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At present, the type of peaceful coexistence to which we aspire is
often violated. Merely because the Kingdom of Cambodia maintained
a neutral attitude and did not bow to the machinations of United States
imperialism, it has been subjected to all kinds of treacherous and
brutal attacks from the Yankee bases in South Vietnam.
Laos, a divided country, has also been the object of imperialist aggression
of every kind. Its people have been massacred from the air. The conventions
concluded at Geneva have been violated, and part of its territory
is in constant danger of cowardly attacks by imperialist forces.
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam knows all these histories of aggression
as do few nations on earth. It has once again seen its frontier violated,
has seen enemy bombers and fighter planes attack its installations,
and has seen U.S. warships, violating territorial waters, attack its
naval posts. At this time, the threat hangs over the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam that the U.S. war makers may openly extend into its territory
the war that for many years they have been waging against the people
of South Vietnam. The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China
have given serious warnings to the United States. We are faced with
a case in which world peace is in danger and, moreover, the lives
of millions of human beings in this part of Asia are constantly threatened
and subjected to the whim of the U.S. invader.
Peaceful coexistence has also been brutally put to the test in Cyprus,
due to pressures from the Turkish government and NATO, compelling
the people and the government of Cyprus to make a heroic and firm
stand in defence of their sovereignty.
 In
all these parts of the world, imperialism attempts to impose its version
of what coexistence should be. It is the oppressed peoples in alliance
with the socialist camp that must show them what true coexistence
is, and it is the obligation of the United Nations to support them.
We must also state that it is not only in relations among sovereign
states that the concept of peaceful coexistence needs to be precisely
defined. As Marxists we have maintained that peaceful coexistence
among nations does not encompass coexistence between the exploiters
and the exploited, between the oppressors and the oppressed. Furthermore,
the right to full independence from all forms of colonial oppression
is a fundamental principle of this organization. That is why we express
our solidarity with the colonial peoples of so-called Portuguese Guinea,
Angola, and Mozambique, who have been massacred for the crime of demanding
their freedom. And we are prepared to help them to the extent of our
ability in accordance with the Cairo declaration.
We express our solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and their
great leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, who, in another act of hypocrisy,
has been set free at the age of seventy-two, almost unable to speak,
paralysed, after spending a lifetime in jail. Albizu Campos is a symbol
of the as yet unfree but indomitable Latin America. Years and years
of prison, almost unbearable pressures in jail, mental torture, solitude,
total isolation from his people and his family, the insolence of the
conqueror and its lackeys in the land of his birth — nothing
broke his will. The delegation of Cuba, on behalf of its people, pays
a tribute of admiration and gratitude to a patriot who confers honour
upon Our America.
The United States for many years has tried to convert Puerto Rico
into a model of hybrid culture: the Spanish language with English
inflections, the Spanish language with hinges on its backbone —
the better to bow down before the Yankee soldier. Puerto Rican soldiers
have been used as cannon fodder in imperialist wars, as in Korea,
and have even been made to fire at their own brothers, as in the massacre
perpetrated by the U.S. army a few months ago against the unarmed
people of Panama — one of the most recent crimes carried out
by Yankee imperialism. And yet, despite this assault on their will
and their historical destiny, the people of Puerto Rico have preserved
their culture, their Latin character, their national feelings, which
in themselves give proof of the implacable desire for independence
lying within the masses of that Latin American island.
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We must also warn that the principle of peaceful coexistence does
not encompass the right to mock the will of the peoples, as is happening
in the case of so-called British Guiana. There the government of Prime
Minister Cheddi Jagan has been the victim of every kind of pressure
and manoeuvre, and independence has been delayed to gain time to find
ways to flout the people's will and guarantee the docility of a new
government, placed in power by covert means, in order to grant a castrated
freedom to this country of the Americas. Whatever roads Guiana may
be compelled to follow to obtain independence, the moral and militant
support of Cuba goes to its people.
Furthermore, we must point out that the islands of Guadeloupe and
Martinique have been fighting for a long time for self-government
without obtaining it. This state of affairs must not continue.
Once again we speak out to put the world on guard against what is
happening in South Africa. The brutal policy of apartheid is applied
before the eyes of the nations of the world. The peoples of Africa
are compelled to endure the fact that on the African continent the
superiority of one race over another remains official policy, and
that in the name of this racial superiority murder is committed with
impunity. Can the United Nations do nothing to stop this!
I would like to refer specifically to the painful case of the Congo,
unique in the history of the modern world, which shows how, with absolute
impunity, with the most insolent cynicism, the rights of peoples can
be flouted. The direct reason for all this is the enormous wealth
of the Congo, which the imperialist countries want to keep under their
control. In the speech he made during his first visit to the United
Nations, Compañero Fidel Castro observed that the whole problem
of coexistence among peoples boils down to the wrongful appropriation
of other peoples' wealth. He made the following statement: "End
the philosophy of plunder and the philosophy of war will be ended
as well."
But the philosophy of plunder has not only not been ended, it is stronger
than ever. And that is why those who used the name of the United Nations
to commit the murder of Lumumba are today, in the name of the defence
of the white race, murdering thousands of Congolese. How can we forget
the betrayal of the hope that Patrice Lumumba placed in the United
Nations? How can we forget the machinations and manoeuvres that followed
in the wake of the occupation of that country by United Nations troops,
under whose auspices the assassins of this great African patriot acted
with impunity? How can we forget, distinguished delegates, that the
one who flouted the authority of the UN in the Congo — and not
exactly for patriotic reasons, but rather by virtue of conflicts between
imperialists — was Moise Tshombe, who initiated the secession
of Katanga with Belgian support? And how can one justify, how can
one explain, that at the end of all the United Nations activities
there, Tshombe, dislodged from Katanga, should return as lord and
master of the Congo? Who can deny the sad role that the imperialists
compelled the United Nations to play?
To sum up: dramatic mobilizations were carried out to avoid the secession
of Katanga, but today Tshombe is in power, the wealth of the Congo
is in imperialist hands — and the expenses have to be paid by
the honourable nations. The merchants of war certainly do good business!
That is why the government of Cuba supports the just stance of the
Soviet Union in refusing to pay the expenses for this crime.
And as if this were not enough, we now have flung in our faces these
latest acts that have filled the world with indignation. Who are the
perpetrators? Belgian paratroopers, carried by United States planes,
who took off from British bases. We remember as if it were yesterday
that we saw a small country in Europe, a civilized and industrious
country, the Kingdom of Belgium, invaded by Hitler's hordes. We were
embittered by the knowledge that this small nation was massacred by
German imperialism, and we felt affection for its people. But this
other side of the imperialist coin was the one that many of us did
not see. Perhaps the sons of Belgian patriots who died defending their
country's liberty are now murdering in cold blood thousands of Congolese
in the name of the white race, just as they suffered under the German
heel because their blood was not sufficiently Aryan.
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Our free eyes open now on new horizons and can see what yesterday,
in our condition as colonial slaves, we could not observe: that "Western
civilization" disguises behind its showy facade a picture of
hyenas and jackals. That is the only name that can be applied to those
who have gone to fulfil such "humanitarian" tasks in the
Congo. A carnivorous animal that feeds on unarmed peoples. That is
what imperialism does to men. That is what distinguishes the imperial
"white man."
All free men of the world must be prepared to avenge the crime of
the Congo. Perhaps many of those soldiers, who were turned into subhumans
by imperialist machinery, believe in good faith that they are defending
the rights of a superior race. In this assembly, however, those peoples
whose skins are darkened by a different sun, coloured by different
pigments, constitute the majority. And they fully and clearly understand
that the difference between men does not lie in the colour of their
skin, but in the forms of ownership of the means of production, in
the relations of production.
The Cuban delegation extends greetings to the peoples of Southern
Rhodesia and South-West Africa, oppressed by white colonialist minorities;
to the peoples of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, French Somaliland,
the Arabs of Palestine, Aden and the Protectorates, Oman; and to all
peoples in conflict with imperialism and colonialism. We reaffirm
our support to them. I express also the hope that there will be a
just solution to the conflict facing our sister republic of Indonesia
in its relations with Malaysia.
 Mr.
President: One of the fundamental themes of this conference is general
and complete disarmament. We express our support for general and complete
disarmament. Furthermore, we advocate the complete destruction of
all thermonuclear devices and we support the holding of a conference
of all the nations of the world to make this aspiration of all people
a reality. In his statement before this assembly, our prime minister
warned that arms races have always led to war. There are new nuclear
powers in the world, and the possibilities of a confrontation are
growing.
We believe that such a conference is necessary to obtain the total
destruction of thermonuclear weapons and, as a first step, the total
prohibition of tests. At the same time, we have to establish clearly
the duty of all countries to respect the present borders of other
states and to refrain from engaging in any aggression, even with conventional
weapons.
In adding our voice to that of all the peoples of the world who ask
for general and complete disarmament, the destruction of all nuclear
arsenals, the complete halt to the building of new thermonuclear devices
and of nuclear tests of any kind, we believe it necessary to also
stress that the territorial integrity of nations must be respected
and the armed hand of imperialism held back, for it is no less dangerous
when it uses only conventional weapons. Those who murdered thousands
of defenceless citizens of the Congo did not use the atomic bomb.
They used conventional weapons. Conventional weapons have also been
used by imperialism, causing so many deaths.
Even if the measures advocated here were to become effective and make
it unnecessary to mention it, we must point out that we cannot adhere
to any regional pact for denuclearisation so long as the United States
maintains aggressive bases on our own territory, in Puerto Rico, Panama,
and in other Latin American states where it feels it has the right
to place both conventional and nuclear weapons without any restrictions.
We feel that we must be able to provide for our own defence in the
light of the recent resolution of the Organization of American States
against Cuba, on the basis of which an attack may be carried out invoking
the Rio Treaty.
If the conference to which we have just referred were to achieve all
these objectives — which, unfortunately, would be difficult
— we believe it would be the most important one in the history
of humanity. To ensure this it would be necessary for the People's
Republic of China to be represented, and that is why a conference
of this type must be held. But it would be much simpler for the peoples
of the world to recognize the undeniable truth of the existence of
the People's Republic of China, whose government is the sole representative
of its people, and to give it the seat it deserves, which is, at present,
usurped by the gang that controls the province of Taiwan, with United
States support.
The problem of the representation of China in the United Nations cannot
in any way be considered as a case of a new admission to the organization,
but rather as the restoration of the legitimate rights of the People's
Republic of China.
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We must repudiate energetically the "two Chinas" plot. The
Chiang Kai-shek gang of Taiwan cannot remain in the United Nations.
What we are dealing with, we repeat, is the expulsion of the usurper
and the installation of the legitimate representative of the Chinese
people.
We also warn against the United States government's insistence on
presenting the problem of the legitimate representation of China in
the UN as an "important question," in order to impose a
requirement of a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.
The admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations
is, in fact, an important question for the entire world, but not for
the machinery of the United Nations, where it must constitute a mere
question of procedure. In this way justice will be done. Almost as
important as attaining justice, however, would be the demonstration,
once and for all, that this august assembly has eyes to see, ears
to hear, tongues to speak with, and sound criteria for making its
decisions.
The proliferation of nuclear weapons among the member states of NATO,
and especially the possession of these devices of mass destruction
by the Federal Republic of Germany, would make the possibility of
an agreement on disarmament even more remote, and linked to such an
agreement is the problem of the peaceful reunification of Germany.
So long as there is no clear understanding, the existence of two Germanys
must be recognized: that of the German Democratic Republic and the
Federal Republic. The German problem can be solved only with the direct
participation in negotiations of the German Democratic Republic with
full rights.
We shall only touch on the questions of economic development and international
trade that are broadly represented in the agenda. In this very year
of 1964 the Geneva conference was held at which a multitude of matters
related to these aspects of international relations were dealt with.
The warnings and forecasts of our delegation were fully confirmed,
to the misfortune of the economically dependent countries.
We wish only to point out that insofar as Cuba is concerned, the United
States of America has not implemented the explicit recommendations
of that conference, and recently the U.S. government also prohibited
the sale of medicines to Cuba. By doing so it divested itself, once
and for all, of the mask of humanitarianism with which it attempted
to disguise the aggressive nature of its blockade against the people
of Cuba.
Furthermore, we state once more that the scars left by colonialism
that impede the development of the peoples are expressed not only
in political relations. The so-called deterioration of the terms of
trade is nothing but the result of the unequal exchange between countries
producing raw materials and industrial countries, which dominate markets
and impose the illusory justice of equal exchange of values.
So long as the economically dependent peoples do not free themselves
from the capitalist markets and, in a firm bloc with the socialist
countries, impose new relations between the exploited and the exploiters,
there will be no solid economic development. In certain cases there
will be retrogression, in which the weak countries will fall under
the political domination of the imperialists and colonialists.
Finally, distinguished delegates, it must be made clear that in the
area of the Caribbean, manoeuvres and preparations for aggression
against Cuba are taking place, on the coasts of Nicaragua above all,
in Costa Rica as well, in the Panama Canal Zone, on Vieques Island
in Puerto Rico, in Florida, and possibly in other parts of United
States territory and perhaps also in Honduras. In these places Cuban
mercenaries are training, as well as mercenaries of other nationalities,
with a purpose that cannot be the most peaceful one.
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After a big scandal, the government of Costa Rica — it is said
— has ordered the elimination of all training camps of Cuban
exiles in that country. No one knows whether this position is sincere,
or whether it is simply an alibi because the mercenaries training
there were about to commit some misdeed. We hope that full cognisance
will be taken of the real existence of bases for aggression, which
we denounced long ago, and that the world will ponder the international
responsibility of the government of a country that authorizes and
facilitates the training of mercenaries to attack Cuba.
We should note that news of the training of mercenaries in different
parts of the Caribbean and the participation of the U.S. government
in such acts is presented as completely natural in the newspapers
in the United States. We know of no Latin American voice that has
officially protested this. This shows the cynicism with which the
United States government moves its pawns.
The sharp foreign ministers of the OAS had eyes to see Cuban emblems
and to find "irrefutable" proof in the weapons that the
Yankees exhibited in Venezuela, but they do not see the preparations
for aggression in the United States, just as they did not hear the
voice of President Kennedy, who explicitly declared himself the aggressor
against Cuba at Playa Girón. In some cases, it is a blindness
provoked by the hatred against our revolution by the ruling classes
of the Latin American countries. In others — and these are sadder
and more deplorable — it is the product of the dazzling glitter
of mammon.
As is well known, after the tremendous commotion of the so-called
Caribbean crisis, the United States undertook certain commitments
with the Soviet Union. These culminated in the withdrawal of certain
types of weapons that the continued acts of aggression of the United
States — such as the mercenary at tack at Playa Girón
and threats of invasion against our homeland — had compelled
us to install in Cuba as an act of legitimate and essential defence.
The United States, furthermore, tried to get the UN to inspect our
territory. But we emphatically refuse, since Cuba does not recognize
the right of the United States, or of anyone else in the world, to
determine the type of weapons Cuba may have within its borders.
In this connection, we would abide only by multilateral agreements,
with equal obligations for all the parties concerned. As Fidel Castro
has said:
So long as the concept of sovereignty exists as the prerogative of
nations and of independent peoples, as a right of all peoples, we
will not accept the exclusion of our people from that right. So long
as the world is governed by these principles, so long as the world
is governed by those concepts that have universal validity because
they are universally accepted and recognized by the peoples, we will
not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights, and we
will renounce none of those rights.
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The secretary-general of the United Nations, U Thant, understood our
reasons. Nevertheless, the United States attempted to establish a
new prerogative, an arbitrary and illegal one: that of violating the
airspace of a small country. Thus, we see flying over our country
U-2 aircraft and other types of spy planes that, with complete impunity,
fly over our airspace. We have made all the necessary warnings for
the violations of our airspace to cease, as well as for a halt to
the provocations of the United States Navy against our sentry posts
in the zone of Guantánamo, the buzzing by aircraft of our ships
or the ships of other nationalities in international waters, the pirate
attacks against ships sailing under different flags, and the infiltration
of spies, saboteurs, and weapons onto our island.
We want to build socialism. We have declared that we are supporters
of those who strive for peace. We have declared ourselves to be within
the group of Non-aligned countries, although we are Marxist-Leninists,
because the Non-aligned countries, like ourselves, fight imperialism.
We want peace. We want to build a better life for our people. That
is why we avoid, insofar as possible, falling into the provocations
manufactured by the Yankees. But we know the mentality of those who
govern them. They want to make us pay a very high price for that peace.
We reply that the price cannot go beyond the bounds of dignity.
And Cuba reaffirms once again the right to maintain on its territory
the weapons it deems appropriate, and its refusal to recognize the
right of any power on earth — no matter how powerful —
to violate our soil, our territorial waters, or our airspace.
If in any assembly Cuba assumes obligations of a collective nature,
it will fulfil them to the letter. So long as this does not happen,
Cuba maintains all its rights, just as any other nation. In the face
of the demands of imperialism, our prime minister laid out the five
points necessary for the existence of a secure peace in the Caribbean.
They are:
| 1. |
A halt to the economic blockade and all economic and trade
pressures by the United States, in all parts of the world, against
our country.
|
| 2. |
A halt to all subversive activities, launching and landing
of weapons and explosives by air and sea, organization of mercenary
invasions, infiltration of spies and saboteurs, acts all carried
out from the territory of the United States and some accomplice
countries.
|
| 3. |
A halt to pirate attacks carried out from existing bases in
the United States and Puerto Rico.
|
| 4. |
A halt to all the violations of our airspace and our territorial
waters by United States aircraft and warships.
|
| 5. |
Withdrawal from the Guantánamo naval base and return
of the Cuban territory occupied by the United States. |
None of these elementary demands has been met, and our forces are
still being provoked from the naval base at Guantánamo. That
base has become a nest of thieves and a launching pad for them into
our territory. We would tire this assembly were we to give a detailed
account of the large number of provocations of all kinds. Suffice
it to say that including the first days of December the number amounts
to 1,323 in 1964 alone. The list covers minor provocations such as
violation of the boundary line, launching of objects from the territory
controlled by the United States, the commission of acts of sexual
exhibitionism by U.S. personnel of both sexes, and verbal insults.
It includes others that are more serious, such as shooting off small-calibre
weapons, aiming weapons at our territory, and offences against our
national flag. Extremely serious provocations include those of crossing
the boundary line and starting fires in installations on the Cuban
side, as well as rifle fire. There have been seventy-eight rifle shots
this year, with the sorrowful toll of one death: that of Ramon Lopez
Pefia, a soldier, killed by two shots fired from the United States
post three and a half kilometres from the coast on the northern boundary.
This extremely grave provocation took place at 7:07 p.m. on July 19,
1964, and the prime minister of our government publicly stated on
July 26 that if the event were to recur he would give orders for our
troops to repel the aggression. At the same time orders were given
for the withdrawal of the forward line of Cuban forces to positions
farther away from the boundary line and construction of the necessary
fortified positions.
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One thousand three hundred and twenty-three provocations in 340 days
amount to approximately four per day. Only a perfectly disciplined
army with a morale such as ours could resist so many hostile acts
without losing its self-control.
Forty-seven countries meeting at the Second Conference of Heads of
State or Government of Non-aligned Countries in Cairo unanimously
agreed:
Noting with concern that foreign military bases are in practice a
means of bringing pressure on nations and retarding their emancipation
and development, based on their own ideological, political, economic,
and cultural ideas, the conference declares its full support to the
countries which are seeking to secure the evacuation of foreign bases
on their territory and calls upon all states maintaining troops and
bases in other countries to remove them forthwith.
The conference considers that the maintenance at Guantánamo
( Cuba) of a military base of the United States of America, in defiance
of the will of the government and people of Cuba and in defiance of
the provisions embodied in the declaration of the Belgrade conference,
constitutes a violation of Cuba's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Noting that the Cuban government expresses its readiness to settle
its dispute over the base of Guantánamo with the United States
of America on an equal footing, the conference urges the United States
government to negotiate the evacuation of this base with the Cuban
government. The government of the United States has not responded
to this request of the Cairo conference and is attempting to maintain
indefinitely by force its occupation of a piece of our territory,
from which it carries out acts of aggression such as those detailed
earlier.
The Organization of American States — which the people also
call the United States Ministry of Colonies — condemned us "energetically,"
even though it had just excluded us from its midst, ordering its members
to break off diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba. The OAS authorized
aggression against our country at any time and under any pretext,
violating the most fundamental international laws, completely disregarding
the United Nations. Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico opposed that
measure, and the government of the United States of Mexico refused
to comply with the sanctions that had been approved. Since then we
have had no relations with any Latin American countries except Mexico,
and this fulfils one of the necessary conditions for direct aggression
by imperialism.
 We
want to make clear once again that our concern for Latin America is
based on the ties that unite us: the language we speak, the culture
we maintain, and the common master we had. We have no other reason
for desiring the liberation of Latin America from the U.S. colonial
yoke. If any of the Latin American countries here decide to re-establish
relations with Cuba, we would be willing to do so on the basis of
equality, and without viewing that recognition of Cuba as a free country
in the world to be a gift to our government. Because we won that recognition
with our blood in the days of the liberation struggle. We acquired
it with our blood in the defence of our shores against the Yankee
invasion.
Although we reject any accusations against us of interference in the
internal affairs of other countries, we cannot deny that we sympathize
with those people who strive for their freedom. We must fulfil the
obligation of our government and people to state clearly and categorically
to the world that we morally support and stand in solidarity with
peoples who struggle anywhere in the world to make a reality of the
rights of full sovereignty proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.
It is the United States that intervenes. It has done so historically
in Latin America. Since the end of the last century Cuba has experienced
this truth; but it has been experienced, too, by Venezuela, Nicaragua,
Central America in general, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
In recent years, apart from our people, Panama has experienced direct
aggression, where the marines in the Canal Zone opened fire in cold
blood against the defenceless people; the Dominican Republic, whose
coast was violated by the Yankee fleet to avoid an outbreak of the
just fury of the people after the death of Trujillo; and Colombia,
whose capital was taken by assault as a result of a rebellion provoked
by the assassination of Gaitán.
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Covert interventions are carried out through military missions that
participate in internal repression, organizing forces designed for
that purpose in many countries, and also in coups d'etat, which have
been repeated so frequently on the Latin American continent during
recent years. Concretely, United States forces intervened in the repression
of the peoples of Venezuela, Colombia, and Guatemala, who fought with
weapons for their freedom. In Venezuela, not only do U.S. forces advise
the army and the police, but they also direct acts of genocide carried
out from the air against the peasant population in vast insurgent
areas. And the Yankee companies operating there exert pressures of
every kind to increase direct interference. The imperialists are preparing
to repress the peoples of the Americas and are establishing an International
of Crime.
The United States intervenes in Latin America invoking the defence
of free institutions. The time will come when this assembly will acquire
greater maturity and demand of the United States government guarantees
for the lives of the Blacks and Latin Americans who live in that country,
most of them U.S. citizens by origin or adoption.
Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them
because of the colour of their skin; those who let the murderers of
Blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the
Black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free
men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians
of freedom? We understand that today the assembly is not in a position
to ask for explanations of these acts. It must be clearly established,
however, that the government of the United States is not the champion
of freedom, but rather the perpetuator of exploitation and oppression
against the peoples of the world and against a large part of its own
population.
To the ambiguous language with which some delegates have described
the case of Cuba and the OAS, we reply with clear-cut words and we
proclaim that the peoples of Latin America will make those servile,
sell-out governments pay for their treason. Cuba, distinguished delegates,
a free and sovereign state with no chains binding it to anyone, with
no foreign investments on its territory, with no proconsuls directing
its policy, can speak with its head held high in this assembly and
can demonstrate the justice of the phrase by which it has been baptized:
"Free Territory of the Americas."
Our example will bear fruit in the continent, as it is already doing
to a certain extent in Guatemala, Colombia, and Venezuela.
There is no small enemy nor insignificant force, because no longer
are there isolated peoples. As the Second Declaration of Havana states:
No nation in Latin America is weak — because each forms part
of a family of 200 million brothers, who suffer the same miseries,
who harbor the same sentiments, who have the same enemy, who dream
about the same better future, and who count upon the solidarity of
all honest men and women throughout the world. ...
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This epic before us is going to be written by the hungry Indian masses,
the peasants without land, the exploited workers. It is going to be
written by the progressive masses, the honest and brilliant intellectuals,
who so greatly abound in our suffering Latin American lands. A struggle
of masses and of ideas. An epic that will be carried forward by our
peoples, mistreated and scorned by imperialism; our people, unreckoned
with until today, who are now beginning to shake off their slumber.
Imperialism considered us a weak and submissive flock; and now it
begins to be terrified of that flock; a gigantic flock of 200 million
Latin Americans in whom Yankee monopoly capitalism now sees its gravediggers.
...
But now from one end of the continent to the other they are signalling
with clarity that the hour has come — the hour of their vindication.
Now this anonymous mass, this America of colour, somber, taciturn
America, which all over the continent sings with the same sadness
and disillusionment, now this mass is beginning to enter definitively
into its own history, is beginning to write it with its own blood,
is beginning to suffer and die for it.
Because now in the mountains and fields of America, on its flatlands
and in its jungles, in the wilderness or in the traffic of cities,
on the banks of its great oceans or rivers, this world is beginning
to tremble. Anxious hands are stretched forth, ready to die for what
is theirs, to win those rights that were laughed at by one and all
for five hundred years. Yes, now history will have to take the poor
of America into account, the exploited and spurned of America, who
have decided to begin writing their history for themselves for all
time. Already they can be seen on the roads, on foot, day after day,
in an endless march of hundreds of kilometres to the governmental
"eminences", there to obtain their rights.
Already they can be seen armed with stones, sticks, machetes, in one
direction and another, each day, occupying lands, sinking hooks into
the land that belongs to them and defending it with their lives. They
can be seen carrying signs, slogans, flags; letting them flap in the
mountain or prairie winds. And the wave of anger, of demands for justice,
of claims for rights trampled underfoot, which is beginning to sweep
the lands of Latin America, will not stop. That wave will swell with
every passing day. For that wave is composed of the greatest number,
the majorities in every respect, those whose labour amasses the wealth
and turns the wheels of history. Now they are awakening from the long,
brutalizing sleep to which they had been subjected. For this great
mass of humanity has said, "Enough!" and has begun to march.
And their march of giants will not be halted until they conquer true
independence — for which they have vainly died more than once.
Today, however, those who die will die like the Cubans at Playa Girón.
They will die for their own true and never-to-be-surrendered independence.
All this, distinguished delegates, this new will of a whole continent,
of Latin America, is made manifest in the cry proclaimed daily by
our masses as the irrefutable expression of their decision to fight
and to paralyse the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has
the understanding and support of all the peoples of the world and
especially of the socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union.
That cry is: Patria o muerte! (Homeland or death)
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