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STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. RICARDO ALARCON DE QUESADA, SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE'S POWER OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, IN EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO REPLY ON AGENDA ITEM 30: NECESSITY OF ENDING THE ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL EMBARGO IMPOSED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AGAINST CUBA, AT THE PLENARY MEETING OF THE 52ND UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY. WEDNESDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 1997.

Mr. President.

We are witnessing The latest manifestation of Washington-style democracy.

The Representative of the United States has announced what all of us already knew: that his Government is not going to respect the sixth Resolution which, by an overwhelming majority of the vote, has called for an end to the embargo on Cuba 

Once again, it tells us that will continue to pursue a policy rejected by the General Assembly because it violates International Law and the sovereignty of the other States and runs counter to the legitimate interests and prerogatives of other States and their citizens.

Inevitably, one who challenges the whole world that way, must also offend human intelligence. His language, as Ecclesiastes had already indicated, must move between nonsense and madness.

In the same speech where he makes reference to the San Francisco Charter, he tells us that arbitrariness will continue and so will the extraterritorial measures and illegal actions that contradict that same Charter. 

The Government that speaks of human rights while denying 11 million Cubans their right to live and is so cynical as to mention a false, nonexistent, "humanitarian assistance" is the same Government that keeps medicines and indispensable medical equipment from reaching Cuba, its children, its elderly, its women, its ill.

This crime against a whole people is committed, moreover, in the name of "democracy."

As they assume they can rule the planet, they try to force the others to copy their political system and to establish it as a universal dogma.

Imposed democracy -forced through embargoes, threats and pressures- seems to be the latest device created by a consumer society

Amazingly enough, those who pressure the rest of the world to copy their model, are finding it increasingly hard to "sell" its virtues to their citizens, who are joining in the ever greater ranks of the non-believers, the non-voters, of those who will not participate in a system increasingly characterized by the commercialization of politics and by the corruption of politicians. The notion of a government by the people and for the people is still a dream buried beneath an unfathomable layer of dollars in Lincoln's bedroom.

Cuba's political system is exclusively ours and exists by the Cubans and for the Cubans. In it, people themselves select their candidates and, from among them, choose their representatives, control their work and repeal them it necessary. In my country, politicians are not for auction; we do not know what the buying and selling of votes is all about, or the bribery and corruption exhaled all over by the U.S. system, the same system they want to expand to Cuba after doing away with the people and annihilating the nation.

Cuban democracy is not limited to the citizenry's genuine participation in the electoral process. People are the leading actors in managing and controlling the society. Not a single decision of national importance has been made without prior discussion and approval by the people as a whole, such as happens every day in factories, farms, educational centers or communities, with problems and issues they care about.

We do not want to be seen as a model. ~ We respect the right of others to develop their own system just as strongly as we demand that ours be respected. Those who sincerely believe in democracy cat not take a different stance and must fight for the democratization of international relations, for the elimination of every manifestation of hegemonism and arrogance, and for full respect for national independence, equal sovereignty of States and non-interference in their internal affairs.

Relations between States must be based on strict respect for those principles. Any hesitation, any inconsistency will end up damaging everyone of them.

The economic war unleashed by the United States against Cuba since the early 1960s led it to setting regulations of an extraterritorial nature and to undertaking openly intrusive actions which have since been opposed by its main allies and trading partners. Nevertheless, five years ago, Washington reinforced and adopted a text significantly called "Cuban Democracy Act," whose main content it was to bar companies legally incorporated outside the United States from trading with Cuba in any manner; and the implementation of this prohibition has damaged us but has also harmed the sovereignty of its main allies. Now, spoiling again the name of democracy through the Helms-Burton Act, it seeks to strangle Cuba but, in so doing, it reserves the right to forbid other countries' investments, imposes its high-handed rules and, in addition, in an absurd and illegal manner, penalizes its companies along with their executives and families.

It would be a serious mistake to consider, in the case of Cuba, the possibility of striking a deal with the United States by sacrificing its principles. Experience indicates otherwise. Only a consistent and firm stance can bring Washington to reason. In the last three years, in tightening its embargo on Cuba, the United States has also multiplied its unilateral sanctions against other countries, using in that period of time the same amount as all those it had used since World War II. This irrational behavior damages the United States itself.

A recent study made among major U.S. and European transnationals indicates that as a result of that policy, 94% of the former were harmed in their global operations, and 83% found their domestic activities affected. As to the latter, 70% pointed out that they would be forced to reduce their investments in the United States, and 65% said that they would have to slash jobs in this country. 

Extraterritoriality has become a new form of external aggression: its weapons are laws, regulations and practices dictated by insolence and stupidity. It would certainly not be stopped by the spirit of Munich, should it revive.

International Law is to govern everyone and be universally applied or it will wind up governing no one, should one single country is allow to capriciously trample on it Sovereignty is an irrenounceable and intangible condition of States. You exercise it fully, without accepting any illegal intrusions, or you run the risk of losing it altogether.

Only on peoples subjected to colonialism can mother countries impose their institutions and values. Colonialist mentality and hegemonism have nothing to do with democracy; these are essentially antidemocratic, just as is the tendency to condition relations with the countries of the South on their willingness to copy the institutional forms of those who, most immodestly and with apparent inaccuracy, think they have in hand the absolute truth.

Cuba is and will continue to be a fully sovereign and independent country Just because it is, it is subjected to the longest and most inexorable economic war ever. But that war will fail, because nothing will ever manage to destroy an emancipated people, the real masters of their country and destiny, the real heroes of their socialism, of their democracy.

STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. RICARDO ALARCON DE QUESADA,

SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE'S POWER OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, IN EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO REPLY ON AGENDA ITEM 30: NECESSITY OF ENDING THE ECONOMIC,COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL EMBARGO IMPOSED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AGAINST CUBA, AT THE PLENARY MEETING OF THE 52ND UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

WEDNESDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 1997.

ADDRESS BY RICARDO ALARCON, SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE'S POWER,

TO THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

NOVEMBER 5, 1997.

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