Che Guevara
At the United Nations
1964-12-11
Mr. President;
Distinguished delegates:
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 19 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 peaceful coexistence among nations does not encompass
coexistence between the exploiters and the exploited, between the oppressors
and the oppressed. Furthermore, the right to full independence from all forms
of colonial oppression is a fundamental principle of this organization. That is
why we express our solidarity with the colonial peoples of so-called Portuguese
Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, who have been massacred for the crime of
demanding their freedom. And we are prepared to help them to the extent of our
ability in accordance with the Cairo declaration.
We express our
solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and their great leader, Pedro Albizu
Campos, who, in another act of hypocrisy, has been set free at the age of 72,
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.[15]
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 official policy, and that in the name of this
racial superiority murder is committed with impunity. Can the United Nations do
nothing to stop this?
I would like to
refer specifically to the painful case of the Congo, unique in the history of
the modern world, which shows how, with absolute impunity, with the most insolent
cynicism, the rights of peoples can be flouted. The direct reason for all this
is the enormous wealth of the Congo, which the imperialist countries want to
keep under their control. In the speech he made during his first visit to the
United Nations, compañero Fidel Castro observed that the whole
problem of coexistence among peoples boils down to the wrongful appropriation
of other peoples' wealth. He made the following statement: “End the philosophy
of plunder and the philosophy of war will be ended as well.”
But the philosophy
of plunder has not only not been ended, it is stronger than ever. And that is
why those who used the name of the United Nations to commit the murder of
Lumumba are today, in the name of the 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 UN
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?[16]
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 crime.
And as if this
were not enough, we now have flung in our faces these latest acts that have
filled the world with indignation. Who are the perpetrators? Belgian
paratroopers, carried by U.S. 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 sub-humans 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.[17] 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 aswell, in the
Panama Canal Zone, on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico, in Florida and possibly in
other parts of U.S. 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 U.S. Government moves its pawns.
The sharp foreign
ministers of the OAS had eyes to see Cuban emblems and to find “irrefutable”
proof in the weapons that the Yankees exhibited in Venezuela, but they do not
see the preparations for aggression in the United States, just as they did not
hear the voice of President Kennedy, who explicitly declared himself the
aggressor against Cuba at Playa Girón [Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961]. 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 Girón 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 U.S.
Navy against our sentry posts in the zone of Guantánamo, the buzzing by
aircraft of our ships or the ships of other nationalities in international
waters, the pirate attacks against ships sailing under different flags, and the
infiltration of spies, saboteurs and weapons onto our island.
We want to build
socialism. We have declared that we are supporters of those who strive for
peace. We have declared ourselves to be within the group of 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:
1. A halt to the economic
blockade and all economic and trade pressures by the United States, in all
parts of the world, against our country.
2. A halt to all subversive
activities, launching and landing of weap- ons and explosives by air and sea,
organization of mercenary invasions, infiltration of spies and saboteurs, acts
all carried out from the territory of the United States and some accomplice
countries.
3. A halt to pirate attacks
carried out from existing bases in the United States and Puerto Rico.
4. A halt to all the
violations of our airspace and our territorial waters by U.S. aircraft and
warships.
5. Withdrawal from the
Guantánamo naval base and return of the Cuban territory occupied by the United
States.”
None of these
elementary demands has been met, and our forces are still being provoked from
the naval base at Guantánamo. That base has become a nest of thieves and a
launching pad for them into our territory. We would tire this Assembly were we
to give a detailed account of the large number of provocations of all kinds.
Suffice it to say that including the first days of December, the number amounts
to 1,323 in 1964 alone. The list covers minor provocations such as violation of
the boundary line, launching of objects from the territory controlled by the
United States, the commission of acts of sexual exhibitionism by U.S. personnel
of both sexes, and verbal insults. It includes others that are more serious,
such as shooting off small 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 78 rifle shots this year,
with the sorrowful toll of one death: that of Ramón López Peña, a soldier,
killed by two shots fired from the U.S. 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 Guantánamo (Cuba) of a military
base of the United States of America, in defiance of the will of the government
and people of Cuba and in defiance of the provisions embodied in the
declaration of the Belgrade conference, constitutes a violation of Cuba's
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Noting that the Cuban
Government expresses its readiness to settle its dispute over the base at
Guantánamo with the United States of America on an equal footing, the
conference urges the U.S. 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 U.S. 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. 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 UN 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 Gaitán.[18] Covert interventions are
carried out through military missions that participate in internal repression,
organizing forces designed for that purpose in many countries, and also in
coups d'état, which have been repeated so frequently on the Latin American continent
during recent years. Concretely, U.S. 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
U.S. 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 perpetrator 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.
That cry is: Patria
o muerte! [Homeland or death]
Footnotes
[15] At the time this article
was written, the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) was in the
process of being formed. In March 1962, its predecessor, the Integrated
Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) — formed through the fusion of the July 26
Movement, the Popular Socialist Party and the Revolutionary Directorate — had begun
to undergo a process of reorganization leading, by the latter half of 1963, to
the consolidation of the new party. At the heart of this reorganization were
assemblies held in thousands of workplaces throughout Cuba. Each meeting
discussed and selected who from that workplace should be considered an
exemplary worker. Those selected were in turn considered for party membership.
[17] On April 17, 1961, 1,500
Cuban-born mercenaries invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast in
Las Villas Province. The action, organized directly by Washington, aimed to
establish a “provisional government” to appeal for direct U.S. intervention.
The invaders were defeated within 72 hours by the militia and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces. On April 19, the last invaders surrendered at Playa Girón (Girón
Beach), which has come to be the name Cubans use to designate the battle.
[18] From late 1960 through
1961, the revolutionary government undertook a literacy campaign to teach one
million Cubans to read and write. Central to this effort was the mobilization
of 100,000 young people to go to the countryside, where they lived with
peasants whom they were teaching. As a result of this drive, Cuba virtually
eliminated illiteracy.
December 11, 1964, 19th
General Assembly of the United Nations in New York
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