No Change Whatsoever in the Implementation of the the Blockade Against Cuba

[XXPANTHAXX]

Since the election of President Obama, there has been no change
whatsoever in the implementation of the blockade

SPEECH BY FOREIGN MINISTER BRUNO RODRÍGUEZ PARRILLA AT THE UNITED
NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY UNDER THE ITEM "NECESSITY OF ENDING THE
ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL EMBARGO IMPOSED BY THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA AGAINST CUBA".
(NEW YORK, OCTOBER 28, 2009)

Mr. President,

Permanent Representatives and Delegates,

MINISTER BRUNO RODRÍGUEZ PARRILLAAlexis García Iribar was born in Cuba,
in the province of Guantánamo. He suffered from a congenital cardiopathy
known as persistent arterial duct. At the age of 6 and after successive
deferrals and hemodynamic complications, he had to be submitted to an
open-heart surgery on March 9, 2009, because the government of the
United States prevents the US companies NUMED, AGA and Boston Scientific
from selling to Cuba the ‘amplatzer’ and ‘embolization coil’ devices
required to perform a catheterization that will spare children from this
type of surgery. I could mention another 12 cases of children between
the ages of 5 months and 13 years who have had to undergo a similar
procedure in the course of the last one and a half years –two of them
underwent surgery after last January 20.

Cuban children suffering from lymphoblastic leukemia whose bodies reject
traditional medicines can not be treated with the American product
"Elspar" (Erwinia L-asparaginase), created specially to treat
intolerance. Consequently, the life expectancy of these children is
reduced and their suffering increases. The U.S. government forbids Merck
& Co. to supply this medication to Cuba.

Cuba has not been able to acquire Gene Analyzer Equipment -indispensable
to study the origin of breast, colon, and prostate cancer- which is
manufactured by the company Applied Biosystem (ABI).

Lactalis USA, a supplier of dairy products, was fined $20,000 by the US
government.

Since the election of President Obama, there has been no change
whatsoever in the implementation of the economic, commercial, and
financial blockade against Cuba. The blockade remains intact.

It continues to be an absurd policy that causes scarcities and
sufferings. It is a mass, flagrant and systematic violation of human
rights. In the Geneva Convention of 1948, it was classified as an act of
genocide. It is ethically unacceptable.

The blockade is an uncultured act of arrogance. Recently, the US
government prevented the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from performing
in Cuba. Cuban artists can not receive any compensation for their
performances before American audiences. How can artistic creation be
considered a crime?

Microsoft blocked Cuba’s access to Windows Live because, as can be read
after click-opening that tool, that is the way it goes for "users from
countries submitted to the US embargo". The same thing happens with the
web pages ‘Cisco System’, ‘SolidWorks’ and ‘Symantec’.

The blockade imposes restrictions on Cuba’s bandwidth and connectivity.
Cuba is not allowed to connect to the fiber optics submarine cables that
cross nearby our coasts.

Why does the US government hinder free flow of information and access to
the new technologies?

These inhumane prohibitions, improper in this day and age, are applied
not only to Cuba, but also against the countries that you represent.

Philips Medical failed to comply with the contract to supply spare parts
for medical equipment bought at a total cost of $72.7 million, which
were installed in Cuba and in Venezuela. Besides, that company was fined
$200,000 dollars. This is a company from the Netherlands against which
the US applied the extraterritorial precepts of the blockade.

Hitachi stated that it can not sell to Cuba an Electronic Transmission
Microscope, which is indispensable for pathological anatomy studies; and
Toshiba said the same about a Gamma Chamber and other magnetic resonance
and high precision ultra-sound equipment. These are Japanese companies
against which the US also applies the blockade.

The US government forbade the food company Sensient Flavors, a
subsidiary registered and based in Canada, to export to Cuba.

Siemens, a German company, refused to sell to Cuba one 125 Mw
transformer because of its "obligation to follow certain U.S. rules".
One of its subsidiaries based in Denmark could not supply equipment for
a cement factory in Cuba because of the ban imposed by the U.S.

The Australia & New Zealand Bank Group (ANZ), based in Australia, was
imposed a million dollar fine for carrying out operations with Cuba.

One thousand, nine hundred and forty one vessels that had entered Cuban
ports between July of 2008 and 2009 were banned from entering any U.S.
port for a period of 180 days.

The UN secretary general’s report, which also includes the report
submitted by Cuba, contains many other examples.

The U.S. representatives lie when they assert that the blockade is a
bilateral issue. The extraterritorial application of the blockade laws,
such as the Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts, against the states
represented here, is a serious violation of international law, the UN
Charter, and the freedom of trade and navigation. In recent months, the
blockade laws have been applied to at least against 56 countries. It is
then up to the General Assembly to discuss this issue. According to
recent polls conducted by institutions of this country, 76 per cent of
American citizens oppose the blockade. Disregarding the wishes for
change and maintaining the blockade is antidemocratic.

In times characterized by unemployment and economic crisis, the Cuban
market is out of bounds for American business people. They are not
allowed to invest in Cuba. International companies face no American
competition in Cuba because the U.S. government prohibits it.

What is wrong with allowing American citizens to have access to Cuban
products? Who could be affected by the creation of new jobs in US ports
as a result of the development of normal commercial relations between
both countries? Why can’t American citizens have access to Cuban
state-of-the-art medicine against cancer or diabetes, or the
technologies required to manufacture them, which are only available in
Cuba? Why is Bacardi, which paid for the lobby that imposed the
Helms-Burton Act, evading competition and forcing American citizens to
pay a higher price for a poor imitation of Cuban rum? Why should a Cuban
cigar be something inaccessible and exotic in this country?

Last September 11, the U.S. President seemed to be stuck in the past
when he decided to extend the implementation of the blockade for another
year, claiming it was "in the national interest of the U.S." and based
on the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, applicable only to war
situations and only enforced against Cuba.

No serious person could assert that Cuba is a threat to the national
security of the world’s only super-power. Our strength is that of law,
truth and reason. The inclusion of Cuba in the spurious lists of alleged
states sponsoring terrorism, which is the reason that justifies some
blockade measures, should cease. Our five anti-terrorist heroes, who
have been unjustly imprisoned in this country, should be freed now.

On September 11, 2001, Cuba opened up its skies and airports so that any
American plane could have somewhere to land; it offered plasma and
healthcare personnel. Later on it offered antibiotics and equipment
against anthrax and made a generous offer to send Cuban doctors when
Hurricane Katrina lashed New Orleans.

Cuba is the hospitable nation that invites American citizens to visit;
it also invites American scholars and scientists to engage in
cooperation and join an enlightening debate. It invites American artists
to build bridges. It invites American companies to trade and invest.

Mr. President,

A few days ago, we all applauded President Obama when he said from this
rostrum: "International law is not an empty promise (…) No nation should
try to dominate another nation."

The international community can not accept –nor it could accept- that
those who govern in Washington feel they have the authority to implement
coercive economic measures and extraterritorial laws against sovereign
states.

President Obama has a historical opportunity to lead a change of policy
towards Cuba and lift the blockade. He is even invested with the
executive powers that would allow him, right now and all by himself, to
substantially modify the implementation of the blockade measures by
granting "special licenses" or waivers, making humanitarian exceptions
or doing so for the sake of U.S. national interest, even without
modifying the laws that enforce such prohibitions.

Any person who feels aggrieved and righteously defies the egoism and
lack of sensitivity of the conservative right, as President Obama did in
Congress, because "…a man of Illinois had lost his health insurance
coverage in the middle of his chemotherapy…and died as a result of that
(...) And another woman from Texas lost her health insurance when she
was about to submit to a double mastectomy", could not , without lacking
basic ethics, prevent Cuban children who suffer from cancer or a heart
condition from receiving medicines and medical equipment.

Using the same words expressed by Senator Kennedy when he referred to
the health reforms, the blockade against Cuba is also "a moral issue"
that puts to the test "the character" of the United States of America.

Mr. President,

It is true that Cuba purchases significant amounts of agricultural
products from the United States. However, the U.S. representatives lie
when they say that the United States is one of Cuba’s trading partners
and keep silent about the fact that such operations are carried out in
violation of the standards established by the international trade
system. Cuba’s payments are to be made in cash and in advance, without
any access to private credits. Cuban vessels are not allowed to
transport any cargo. Cuba is submitted to onerous and discriminatory
procedures and has to put up with continued maneuvers aimed at
confiscating shipments. We can not call "trade" certain operations that
lack a minimum reciprocity whereby Cuba would be allowed to export its
products to the United States. A country that blockades another country
can not be the latter’s trade partner.

It is shameful to see how the representatives of the U.S. government lie
when they assert that the United States is the main donor of
humanitarian assistance to Cuba. The data they use is false. They
combine, through fictitious and ill-intended figures, the value of
alleged licenses for operations that turn out to be unviable with the
amount of assistance sent by Cuban immigrants residing in the U.S.,
through their own efforts, to their relatives. Successive U.S.
administrations have persecuted and harassed the non-governmental
organizations that send humanitarian assistance to Cuba and, as a result
of that, half of them have stopped doing so.

One year ago, when Cuba was devastated by three hurricanes which caused
losses that accounted for 20 per cent of our GDP, the Bush
administration did not even respond to our request for American
companies to be allowed to sell us, as a one-off exception, construction
material, covers to replace broken roofs and grant private credits.

Mr. President,

At several meetings, the U.S. delegates have referred to the steps that
their government has taken to dismantle the most brutal restrictions
imposed by George W. Bush on travel by Cuban émigrés and the sending of
remittances to their relatives, as well as the resumption of talks on
bilateral migration and the re-establishment of direct postal services.

These actions are positive but they are extremely limited and
insufficient. The truth is that we have not even gone back to the
situation that had prevailed up until the early days of 2004, when the
United States allowed a certain number of academic, cultural, scientific
and sport exchanges with Cuban counterparts, which continue to be
prohibited today.

Some vague proposals in the area of telecommunications would be simply
impractical as long as other restrictions still in force are not
eliminated and the practice of stealing Cuban funds - which remained
frozen in American banks- resulting from these operations by virtue of
certain decisions adopted by venal judges in violation of their own
laws, is not discontinued.

After re-establishing the right of all U.S. residents of Cuban origin to
travel to the island, the irrationality of preventing American citizens
from traveling to Cuba -the only place forbidden to them in the whole
planet- will become much more evident. American citizens, who pay taxes,
are not free to travel to Cuba, despite the fact that the constitution
in this country allegedly guarantees that. American citizens are not
allowed to receive first-hand information about Cuba.

The U.S. representatives have also referred to a declared new spirit in
their relations with our country.

Cuba’s response is fully consistent with its historical readiness to
talk directly with the United States. As was done in the past by
Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President Raul Castro Ruz has
reiterated his willingness to establish a dialogue on any aspect and
negotiate all bilateral problems on the basis of respect, sovereign
equality, and without detriment to our national independence and self
determination. We have clearly stated that we will not negotiate our
internal affairs or our constitutional order. We are still awaiting a
response from the U.S. government about the proposed agenda submitted by
Cuba last July to start a bilateral dialogue, which I publicly announced
in this same conference hall on September 28.

Mr. President,

The economic blockade has not met, nor will it, its purpose of crushing
the patriotic determination of the Cuban people. But it generates
shortages; it restricts our development potential and seriously affects
our economy. It is, without doubt, the fundamental obstacle that hinders
the economic development of our country.

It is very difficult to estimate the cost it has had for Cuba. A
rigorous and conservative record of the economic damages it has caused
amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars, based on the current and
decreasing value of that currency.

The U.S. representatives have said that our shortages result from the
failure of our system. But they lie, perhaps rather by ignorance than
out of bad faith. Thanks to our system, we have been able to resist for
50 years; and we have developed despite the blockade. If they are
convinced that our system does not work, what do they need the blockade
for?

Faced with veritable economic warfare and a vicious manipulation of the
media, beneath the effects of climate change and the global economic
crisis, Cuba is engaged in a deeply human and fraternal social and
cultural work.

Our people are determined to move ahead, in sovereignty, in order to
solve our problems and perfect our political, economic and social system
within socialism. We Cubans have every right to do that, without
blockades or foreign pressures; without the funds worth millions with
which the U.S. government finances subversion; without any foreign
interference in the decisions that only we are entitled to make.

That is the purpose of the resolution that we intend to adopt and I am
honored to present. To support this resolution would be an act against
aggression and the use of force. It would be an act in favor of peace,
people’s rights and hopes. It would be an act of justice towards the
people of Cuba who today are paying tribute to the memory of Camilo
Cienfuegos, who was a young and optimistic Commander in the Sierra
Maestra mountain range, from whom we learned that loyalty to our sacred
achievements and our profound convictions is the only way to victory

Thank you very much.