This is the truth and we knew about it, and I know that when we say we knew about something, everybody knows that we really did know.

President Bush threatened to not come, blackmailed the organizers of the Summit, and threatened to boycott the Summit, to not attend, if the Cuban delegation headed by Comrade Fidel was there. And that’s a threat to boycott and a threat of failure for an event at which financing for development would be discussed and which the United States would not attend, the principal debtor and the country called on to make the greatest effort by reason of the role it plays today, by reason of its control over international financial institutions and by reason of being the largest and most powerful economy on the planet.

So there was an explicit request, there was explicit pressure before the conference. We knew about this pressure and we knew that the Mexican organizers were being subjected to strong pressure by President Bush’s explicit threat that he would not come to the Summit if Fidel were there.

There was already an invitation from the Preparatory Committee set up by a resolution of the UN General Assembly and the two ambassadors’ letter which has just been made public and then an official invitation from President Fox was issued.

Later, Comrade Fidel was asked to not come to the Summit, as was his right as the head of state of a UN member nation, which already had an invitation from the UN Preparatory Committee to attend a conference that Cuba had played an important role in having convened. This conference was convened following strong pressure from the underdeveloped countries, because the rich and most powerful countries, led by the United States, did not want this event to be held. There would be discussion of their not having met the goal of Official Aid for Development and of the inability of the current international economic system to generate financing for the development of Third World countries.

So, Fidel was asked to not attend the Summit when he had already been invited to it, not only by the UN Preparatory Committee but also by the host country. That’s a completely unprecedented request. I do not know of an invited head of state of a UN member country, who was getting ready to attend the event, ever being asked to not come. This is the historical truth, he was asked not to attend, and he was asked —as we have already said— by a person in the Mexican government with the necessary authority to make a request of this magnitude. He was asked not to come. However, faced with Fidel’s unshakable position, that he was defending the sovereign right of Cuba to be present at this meeting, they then asked him to only come for Thursday morning and that he leave immediately after the lunch offered by the Governor of Nuevo Leon.

President Bush would be arriving in Monterrey in the afternoon to attend the conference and other bilateral engagements and comrade Fidel was asked to leave the conference immediately after lunch was over.

As I have already said, it is a completely unprecedented occurrence and it must also be said that it was a result of the strong pressure that we mentioned previously.

Comrade Fidel felt it was necessary and was his duty to explain to the delegates, who know that he always attends conferences with a constructive attitude and participates in debates according to the rules, that he never walks out of a session, that he listens to the speeches with respect, speaks when it is his turn and always takes part in the program.

This has been our experience at all the international conferences that have taken place in the last decade, in which some of us have had the pleasure of accompanying Fidel. So, he had to give an explanation, otherwise nobody would have understood. He carefully explained why, and said the true reason that prevented him from staying, but he did so discreetly and carefully. And he made a request which could have been granted and which was only logical. This was that, in the midst of this special, unheard of situation when a head of state had been asked to leave a conference, Comrade Alarcón, the president of our National Assembly, which is our country’s highest state body as per our constitution —one of our most important leaders and one of the politicians in our country with most experience in these international matters, as Fidel himself said, "a tireless combatant for the Third World’s rights"— that Alarcón, who had been given the prerogatives which the head of the delegation had held up until then, take part in the conference’s remaining functions.

There was in fact an inability to understand this reasoning, and an inability to accept a reasonable request which all of the people we have spoken to here, delegates, heads of other delegations, members of the press, have told us they thought was a reasonable request. For Alarcón was not remaining here as just another head of a delegation, Alarcón was staying as head of a delegation which was the only delegation whose head of state had been asked not to take part in the conference. And the host country has some responsibility for this and could have had the sense to understand these arguments and to allow comrade Alarcón to take part in an event at which Fidel would have been present if the Mexican government had not asked him to withdraw.

This is what really happened and this is what everyone here is talking about. Today, Randy, we have received countless demonstrations of solidarity and delegations have been coming up to us to find out the details of what happened and to express their solidarity with us. And the press has shown enormous interest, which has resulted in comrade Alarcón’s having to give more than 30 interviews to various media, because there is a lot of pressure from the press and a feeling of displeasure and incomprehension. That’s the truth.

In other words, there was prior pressure from the United States, which we knew about. There was a request that Fidel not go to the conference. In the face of his unshakable position, there was then a request that he leave the conference immediately after lunch on Thursday. Then there was this lack of understanding and the refusal to allow Alarcón —who was now the head of the delegation, since comrade Fidel had been asked not to be there— to take part in the conference’s functions, especially in what they called the retreat. This was a meeting for heads of state and government that Fidel would have attended and in which he was invited to take part by the letter the Mexican president had sent him.

Randy Alonso.- Minister, I heard Alarcón’s comments, and I thought it very interesting when the president of our National Assembly referred to the fact that there had also been gestures from other heads of states, mostly Caribbean states, who had decided not to take part in these functions after our Commander in Chief withdrew.

Felipe Pérez:- That’s what happened, and today some of them came personally to shake hands and to ask us to convey their greeting of solidarity to Fidel. We saw that today, and we received many of these demonstrations from UN staff too, and delegates from other countries who said they sincerely could not understand, and were displeased over the fact that Fidel, who yesterday made a really important contribution and an honest speech which went straight to the heart of the problem had to leave. Because the problem, Randy, is that we have come to a conference convened to discuss financing for development, where all that we have found are conditions, threats and ridiculous proposals for aid which are, as was said, meddlesome alms which solve absolutely nothing and are completely full of conditions. That’s the way it is.

In fact, there’s a feeling here that the majority of countries are not very happy, and a feeling that the foundations have not been laid for a serious commitment by the rich countries to meet their obligation to finance Third World development. So, Fidel was present, something that the enemies of our Revolution have never been able to prevent throughout all these years. At no conference have they been able to obscure his prestige and his morale that come from a life devoted to fight not only for Cuban national independence, not only for our country but also for the Third World. He has struggled for a more reasonable, better-organized world, for a world where everybody has rights and not just a minority.

Our enemies have not been able to obscure the sympathy that Fidel’s presence traditionally arouses, the authority with which he speaks for the rights of Third World countries . And now, when there is a unipolar world, the idea of hearing directly from Fidel’s mouth —and spoken with conviction— the word of the Cuban Revolution and its truth, obviously upset the empire’s representatives, and they were probably afraid to confront him. They preferred to avoid a debate, an exchange of ideas, a confrontation of opinions and so opted for back room pressure and under the table threats to prevent Cuba attending. That’s the way it is.

I have to say that there were some speeches by First World representatives, representatives from developed countries with which we agree. President Chirac today gave a speech in which he acknowledged several points that had been raised in Fidel’s speech, and agreed about the need for a greater effort. The Belgian prime minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the conference and with the goals set by the so-called Monterrey Consensus . I think Fidel found exactly the right words when he called it an "imposed consensus", a consensus they had countries accept, but which nobody sees as the document, which really expresses the needs and priorities of our times.

Now, we were not able to take part in the retreat today. Comrade Alarcón was prevented from attending. All of a sudden, a document was circulated which spoke of new commitments in the spirit of Monterrey. This document, however, which is a semi-secret document and we don’t know if it was finally adopted there, is devoid of any legitimacy because it was not discussed with all countries in attendance. I think that some forty odd heads of state and government took part in that private meeting. A number of heads of state did not go.

The United Nations has 189 member countries and there were forty odd heads of state there. They put together a final document and we don’t know what it is. It seems that it wasn’t presented to the plenary. The conference is drawing to a close with a minimum number of participants, at very low level; it is coming to an end almost unnoticed.

This is the truth, the document has not come out, and we would resolutely challenge the idea that this document which came from a meeting from which Cuba was excluded and which other countries were unable to attend, turn into a document presented as something agreed to by all participating heads of state and government. In our case, our head of state and government was arbitrarily excluded, he was asked to leave the conference and comrade Alarcón was prevented from taking part.

There has been, Randy, a reaction from the spokesperson for the Mexican foreign ministry, Mrs. Gloria Abella. She said that she ratified that there had been no pressure, influence, request or insinuation from the United States that Fidel should not attend the conference.

All right then, I have given you our information and our truth on that point. And everyone knows that we tell the truth, everyone knows that we have a history of more than four decades of telling the truth. Our people know and the public opinion knows that when we say something, it is because it is true. Lies are not part of our armory.

She also spoke about what Alarcón had said about U.S. pressure to prevent our Commander in Chief from coming. The spokesperson said that if the Cuban government had any information concerning the U.S. official who had supposedly put pressure on the Mexican government, it should make it known. So, all right then, I am making it known. The U.S. official who put pressure on the Mexican government to prevent Fidel’s being here was none other than President George Bush himself, who at this very moment is here, visiting. He was the person who exerted pressure, we know it and we are saying it openly.

She also said regarding the person with the necessary authority to whom Alarcón alluded, she said the same about that person that we should say who it was. But in this case, I’m going to abstain from doing so, it is not yet up to me to talk about that. I think, however, that today new and true information has been revealed about what had been going on in this unheard of case of a violation of the rights of a UN member state, the rights of a country, which helped with the pre-conference work, so that it could participate fully in the work of the conference.

The spokesperson also said that the Mexican Foreign Ministry was not aware of any pressure from the United States. Well, we don’t know about that, but we certainly are aware and we know that there was strong pressure and we have information about it and I very much doubt that the Mexican Foreign Ministry knows nothing about this pressure.

Randy Alonso.- Well, minister, I would like to once again offer you our thanks for your very important statements for our people and for the national and international public opinion. I think that your statements and Alarcón’s at the press conference specify what really happened in Monterrey, specify what were the reasons which forced our Commander in Chief to return home after his brilliant speech yesterday in which he expressed the truth, as you said, not only for our country but also the truth for the Third World for which Cuba has always made room in its speeches. I really thank you for your information.

Felipe Pérez:- Randy, one last thing, let me ask the round table to help me send to the Commander in Chief a message a delegate today asked us to send him, if we could. And well, through the round table I can send this message: that he had never been so much present at a conference like today, that the impact of Fidel’s speech yesterday and the dignity of his reply have made him even more present at the conference. So, I would ask the round table to please help me to get that message to him, which a delegate asked me to send him, that and the greetings and affection of our delegation which, with its head held high, is preparing to return to our homeland tomorrow.

Randy Alonso.- I am sure, minister, that this message will get to our commander in chief. As you said, it expresses the feelings of many people present in Monterrey.

Felipe Pérez.– Randy, and tell him from us that we side with him in that "we won’t go one step backwards, not even to get a run-up".

Randy Alonso.- Right, minister.

Well, I thank you, Felipe, for your comments to our round table and I am sure that you, Alarcón and the rest of the Cuban delegation over there will continue to defend the dignity, the moral high ground and the prestige of Cuba as our Commander in Chief did so brilliantly yesterday in his speech to the Monterrey conference.

We once again thank you and we wish you and our delegation every success.

Felipe Pérez.– Thanks Randy, greetings and a hug.