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 defense 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
Nonaligned 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.
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 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 defense 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 peace, (1) 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 socalled 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, paralyzed, 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 honor 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.(2) 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 on that Latin American island.
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 maneuver, 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.(3) 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 Guadaloupe 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
of ficial 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, Companero 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 defense 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 maneuvers 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 honorable 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 come.
And as if this were
not enough, we now have flung in our faces these latest acts that have
filled the world with indignation.(4) 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.
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 fulfill 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, colored by different pigments, constitute the majority.
And they fully and clearly understand that the difference between men does
not lie in the color 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 defenseless 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 denuclearization 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 defense 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.(5)
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.
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 Germanysmust 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 justify 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, maneuvers 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.
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 a simple alibi
because the mercenaries training there were about to commit some misdeed.
We hope that full cognizance 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 in 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 GAS 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 Giron.
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 socalled 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
attack at Playa Giron and threats of invasion against our homeland--had
compelled us to install in Cuba as an act of legitimate and essential
defense.
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."
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 Guantanamo, 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 Nonaligned
countries, although we are MarxistLeninists, because the Nonaligned
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 fulfill 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:
-
"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;
-
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;
-
A halt to pirate
attacks carried out from existing bases in the United States and Puerto
Rico;
-
A halt to all the
violations of our airspace and our territorial waters by United States
aircraft and warships;
-
Withdrawal from
the Guantanamo 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 Guantanamo. 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 smallcaliber weapons, aiming weapons at our territory, and offenses
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 seventyeight rifle
shots this year, with the sorrowful toll of one death: that of Ramon Lopez
Pena, a soldier, killed by two shots fired from the United States post
three and a half kilometers 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.
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 Nonaligned 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 unreserved support to the countries that are
seeking to secure the elimination of foreign bases from their territory
and calls upon all states maintaining troops and bases in other countries
to remove them immediately.
The conference
considers that the maintenance at Guantanamo (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 at Guantanamo with the United States of America on an equal footing,
the conference urges the United States government to open negotiations
with the Cuban government to evacuate their base.
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 fulfills 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 reestablish 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
goverment. Because we won that recognition with our blood in the days of
the liberation struggle. We acquired it with our blood in the defense 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 fulfill 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
defenseless 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
Gaitan.(6)
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 coupe 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 defense of free institutions. The
time will come when this assembly will acquire greater maturity and demand
of the United States government guarantees for the life 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
color 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....
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. Struggles of masses and 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 signaling with clarity that the
hour has come--the hour of their vindication. Now this anonymous mass,
this America of color, 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 500 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 endless march of hundreds of kilometers 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 labor 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 Girdn. 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 paralyze 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]
Notes
-
Cuban President
Osvaldo Dorticуs attended the October 1964 Nonaligned summit conference
in Cairo.
-
In January 1964
U.S. forces opened fire on Panamanian students demonstrating in the
U.S.-occupied Canal Zone, sparking several days of street fighting. More
than twenty Panamanians were killed and 300 were wounded.
-
Cheddi Jagan had
become prime minister of British Guiana after the People's Progressive
Party won the 1953 elections; shortly thereafter Britain suspended the
constitution. Jagan was reelected in 1957 and 1961. In 1964 he was
defeated in an election by Forbes Burnham. In 1966 Guyana won its
independence.
-
In mid-1964, a
revolt broke out in the Congo led by followers of murdered Prime
Minister Patrice Lumumba. In an effort to crush the uprising, during
November U.S. planes ferried Belgian troops and mercenaries to
rebel-held territory. These forces carried out a massacre of thousands
of Congolese.
-
An OAS conference
in July 1964 called on all its members to break diplomatic relations and
suspend trade with Cuba. The meeting charged Cuba with following a
"policy of aggression" for allegedly smuggling arms to Venezuelan
guerrillas. The Rio Treaty, invoked as justification for this action,
was the OAS Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, signed
September 2, 1947, in Rio de Janeiro. It declared that aggression
against any treaty member state would be considered an attack on all of
them.
-
Dominican
dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961. In November
1961, in the context of a growing rebellion by the Dominican people
triggered by the return to Santo Domingo of halo of Trujillo's brothers,
Washington sent warships off the Dominican coast.
