Video clip - Che Guevara speaks
before the UN. (Spanish) See below for the English
translation text transcript.
It follows the English translation of the full text transcript of Che Guevara's Homeland or Death speech, delivered
before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City
- December 11, 1964.
Mr. President,
Distinguished
Delegates,
The delegation of Cuba to this assembly, first
of all, is pleased to fulfill 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 Nonaligned countries that struggle
against imperialism, colonialism, and
neocolonialism.
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, 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, 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. 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. 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, 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. 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.
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
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,
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 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 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 Marxist-Leninists, 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
small caliber 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
seventy-eight 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 government. 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.
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 coup
d'état, 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 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 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.
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 BC -
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
is more:
