United Nations_ In statements offered to the press, the Cuban Foreign Minister referred to what will happen today when the annual vote against the blockade in the UN takes place. Following is the full text of the summary published by the Granma newspaper.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said today in a press conference that the United States Government, in its desire to create greater tensions and increase hostility, poses obstacles to the forthcoming vote in the UN against the blockade.
He said that Washington, in its attempts to increase hostility against Cuba, has not had any limits in creating difficulties for the General Assembly, which is an international, universal and democratic body of the United Nations.
In this regard, he explained that the US State Department originally presented a text of eight paragraphs of amendments to the draft resolution "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba." But then they hastily divided that document into eight separate amendments to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly for analysis tomorrow, he added.
All this pursues the obvious purpose of creating a pretext to harden the blockade and try to present the illusion that there is international support for that policy, Rodriguez said. In this way, he added, the US delegation seeks to disturb, consume time, create confusion and hinder the adoption of the resolution calling for the end of the blockade against Cuba.
The amendments presented by the United States have the objective of changing the nature of the resolution that opposes the blockade, with emphasis on the extraterritorial application of the same, he explained. Instead, he said, the United States wants to turn it into a resolution that contains attacks against Cuba in the field of human rights, which is totally unjustified.
Cuba has presented this draft resolution in the last 26 years and, this time, the United States seeks to obstruct the adoption of the resolution, and thus disguise "the flagrant and systematic massive violation suffered by the Cuban people, which is precisely the application of the blockade », the Minister considered.
The northern delegation forces the UN General Assembly to pronounce on eight documents of amendments, all aggressive against Cuba, all manipulators of the cause of human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals, the foreign minister denounced. As he explained, there are other bodies and other instances of the UN where it would be appropriate to have a conversation on human rights issues.
"It is a policy that violates international law, transgresses the internationally recognized rules of commerce, which transgresses the freedom of navigation, which constitutes an act of aggression and economic warfare.
"Powerless, the government of the United States has not found another way this year to try to hinder the adoption of the resolution, or to modify the content in an opportunistic, disguised manner.
"So, my impression is that the government of the United States, in its desire to increase tensions, increase hostility against Cuba, has not had limits in this case, in creating difficulties for the General Assembly, which is an international, universal and democratic United Nations.
"We are confident that the amendments will be rejected and that the resolution will receive overwhelming majority support, as has happened in the past."
Which are the eight amendments that the United States viciously proposes against Cuba and what is the response of our country?
The Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations circulated a set of eight amendments to the Resolution condemning the blockade, which basically cover aspects related to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and elements of human rights.
According to the statements of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, on October 25, the underlying reason for these proposed amendments is to bring about changes in the human rights situation in Cuba, which is totally unacceptable.
It is a diplomatic maneuver of the Government of the United States that is aimed at justifying the blockade that punishes the entire Cuban nation, uses false pretexts supposedly in the matter of human rights; it is a maneuver totally for propaganda, mendacious purposes, destined to manipulate the international public opinion and the opinion of the Americans.
The underlying reason for the proposed amendments is to bring about changes in the human rights situation in Cuba, which is totally unacceptable.
This document points out that the United States has always been in solidarity with the Cuban people and with their right to determine their own democratic future. It is truly regrettable that the US Government, when it attacks Cuba, assumes a pose of solidarity with the people it blocks and harms, and that supposedly seeks to recognize their right to self-determination that constantly violates.
The Cuban Foreign Minister stressed that if the United States wants to have a serious discussion on the subject of the Sustainable Development Goals, it proposes any bilateral or multilateral format, and also discuss the Sustainable Development Goal No. 3, "Guarantee a healthy life and promote welfare for all in all ages ».
They could also talk about Goal 5: "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" and quoted: "Expressing serious concern also about the fact that in Cuba the absence of women in the most powerful decision-making bodies" - says the person who wrote the document-, "including the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers and the military high command, severely undermines the collective efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goal 5, aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, fighting discrimination based on gender, which is deeply rooted, as a result of patriarchal attitudes and social norms that derive from them.
On Goal 10: «Reduce inequality in and between countries». It invites the United States to discuss specifically on goal 7, related to "A safe, orderly and regular migration, through the application of planned and well-managed migratory policies".
It also suggests talking about Goal 13: "Take urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects" and Goal 17: "Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development".
There is an evident effort, since the announcements of supposedly a new policy, which in reality is the readoption of the old, practiced by more than a dozen US governments against Cuba and proper to the years of the Cold War, to harden it, by reversing some of the progress achieved, as the enforcement of the blockade intensifies, causes a regrettable setback in the bilateral relationship. This is a maneuver totally for propaganda purposes, mendacious, designed to manipulate international public opinion and the opinion of Americans.
If the United States Government wants to bring to the United Nations or other areas of discussion, the topic of the application of human rights in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals, we are fully prepared to do so: say where, when, in what context he wants it.
The Government of the United States proposes, with these actions, to attack the foundations of the constitutional order that our people have given themselves in an act of absolute sovereignty and unrestricted self-determination.
Climbing rhetoric and practical facts against Cuba
1- On September 29, 2017, the then Secretary of State, Mr. Tillerson, ordered the withdrawal of Cuban diplomatic personnel in an operation of a totally political nature.
2- On October 3, he ordered the expulsion of 15 Cuban diplomats accredited in Washington.
3- On October 5, the Embassy of the United States in Havana issued a statement to inform Cuban citizens who require visas from travelers or immigrants, that their services could not be guaranteed.
4- On November 8, various agencies in the United States announced provisions and regulations to restrict trips "people to people", that is, under that General License, because you know that a young American or a girl from any of its cities , to visit Cuba, requires a permit from the government of the United States called General License, which in the case of travel "for educational exchanges from people to people" allowed to do it more easily. However, on November 8, travel of this nature was severely restricted and transactions were banned with more than a hundred Cuban companies or companies.
5- On April 15, 2018, Vice President Pence referred to Cuba in a disrespectful and aggressive manner at the Summit of the Americas, in Lima.
6- On June 2, the new ambassador of the United States to the OAS declared that "Cuba is the mother of all evil", a ridiculous phrase in the mouth of a stateless person.
7- On June 4, again, Mr. Pence referred to Cuba in a hostile manner at the OAS.
8- On June 5, the Secretary of State announced the creation of a Task Force to respond to the supposed health incidents of its diplomats. Curiously, he created a Task Force, but at the same time said: "... the nature of the damage suffered by the personnel affected has not been established."
9- On June 14, Vice President Pence again attacked Cuba at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference in the United States.
10- On July 18, the Permanent Representative of the United States at the United Nations, at the Heritage Foundation, very well known, made a presentation, in which she described Cuba as "a tyrannical regime".
11- On September 19, the same US Ambassador to the OAS stated that "we should be tough with Cuba, because they are all equal”, alluding to other sister countries of our region.
12- On October 1st, the US government failed to comply with its commitment to issue at least 20,000 travel documents or visas in the fiscal year ending, which contravenes the migratory agreements described, affects family reunification, in the same way that other actions seriously affect the right of Cubans to travel anywhere in the world, in this case to the United States, without going through expensive procedures in third countries.
13- On October 8, the Secretary of Defense of the United States declared at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, and I quote: "The world recognizes that the Cuban model does not work for anyone even for Cuba." He qualified, within the exceptions of a supposedly shared vision, of a supposedly collaborative, prosperous and safe regional order for the benefit of the nations to the - and I quote - "sad and obstinate leadership of Cuba," at the same time that it also attacked other sovereigns nations of Latin America.
14- On October 16, the United States Mission to the UN held an event in the room of the Economic Social Council (Ecosoc), to launch a slanderous campaign against Cuba, using the United Nations as if it were its own private fiefdom. In this defamatory action, which violates the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which is absolutely irrelevant to the purposes of the organization, which violates the text of a resolution on the matter adopted by the General Assembly and which ignores the provisions regulations of the General Secretariat of the United Nations, received an appropriate response from the international and hemispheric community: not a single representative of any country in the hemisphere attended, other than those designated by the United States Mission and the Department of State; except those who went to show solidarity with Cuba.
There were no member states or representatives of organizations, not even civil society, beyond the puppets that served as panelists, and obviously not counting the pathetic Secretary General of the OAS. This defamatory action, which sought to ignore the request for a word from the permanent representative, Ambassador of Cuba to the United Nations, Anayancy Rodríguez, had to be answered with the clamor of the participants.
15- On October 23, the Secretary of State declared in a press conference that -and I quote- "a delegation of Cuban diplomats launched a child tantrum at a meeting sponsored by the United States at the UN." So, I reiterate, the Cuban Mission in the United Nations will assume its right to always participate in any event that intends to refer to Cuba in the headquarters of that international organization and will act accordingly.
16- On November 7, 2006, the United States also intended to amend the Resolution against the blockade of Cuba that the General Assembly adopted that year. However, a Motion for Non-Adoption of a Decision on the amendment presented indirectly by the United States received strong support, that is, a motion against the amendment: 126 Member States, more than two-thirds, supported that amendment; only 51 voted against. Interestingly, a few minutes later, when the General Assembly voted on the text itself, on the substance of the Resolution, 183 Member States supported it without any amendment, only four voted against, one on abstention and, interestingly, the author of the amendment also voted in favor of the Resolution without it.
17- On April 14, 2005, at the Human Rights Commission - you remember the old and discredited Human Rights Commission - where a resolution that condemned, singled out Cuba, was deeply defamatory in the field of human rights for two decades. human rights, which had been approved precisely that day - April 14 -, generated an unbearable contrast with a resolution presented by Cuba a week later, on April 21, 2005. It was a moderate and prudent resolution, in the circumstances that you remember, when the terrible photos of the acts of torture in the prison of the Naval Base of Guantánamo and in the prison of Abu Ghraib began to come out, and the news about the dozens of secret prisons of the CIA, where abducted persons, secret prisons placed in third countries, had been conducted, and there was an initial concern in the international community, which later he vehemently opposed such acts, as well as within the United States itself.
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