The same state that they call “failed” bravely called, just a week ago, for a referendum on the very advanced Family Code. The unequivocal majority of the Cuban people supported it, and a few hours later it became law. Before, this inclusive project, conceived from popular participation, had to go through a fierce campaign of demonization based on supposed moral and religious precepts. Overtly political manipulations were not lacking either. None of this prevented the triumph of the yes, reflected in a pale and reductionist way in the hegemonic press.

Coinciding with the entry into force of the Code, a devastating hurricane hit the western region of Cuba, leaving dozens dead in the United States in its wake. It is painful and difficult for any country that suffers such a contingency to get back on its feet, alleviate the suffering of those affected, try to recover from the damage and move forward.

For Cuba – economically strangled and slandered for decades – the challenge is multiplied. Only the incontestable decision to allocate the scarce resources of the country so that no one is left abandoned and the conviction that only with the participation and support of the people is it possible to move forward, can explain why we managed to overcome it again, without stopping thinking about going far beyond.

While people and organizations from all over the world have expressed their solidarity and offered concrete support to Cuba, while sister governments have provided assistance and friends like those of The People’s Forum have called on President Biden from the pages of the New York Times to show signs of the most elementary humanitarian spirit and does not hinder the Island’s purpose of rising up with its own efforts, other voices have taken advantage of the tragedy to install the opinion matrix that our ills and the difficulties to face them are a consequence of the inability of the Cuban government.

They want to capitalize on the logical discomfort of citizens deprived of basic services in the hope that nature will finally achieve what so many desperate attempts to destroy the Revolution have not been able to do. Now they politicize demonstrations and spontaneous claims, move through the networks hysterical and aggressive hate speech, incite street violence, oppose the slightest relaxation of the blockade and follow the script of the “soft coup” to the letter.

In a few days, sixty years have passed since the October Crisis, perhaps the moment of greatest risk experienced by the revolutionary process, those days in which -as Che said in his farewell letter- Fidel shone like few statesmen in history . Once again, fate offers us the alternative of surrendering to adversity and threats or imposing ourselves on them with imagination and audacity. No “failed state” could dream of the second option; no worthy people would support him.

Today the Cuba so often defamed is recovering from the ravages caused by the hurricane. Instead of the repression attributed to the fabricated “virtual country”, in the “real” one, the authorities constantly visit the affected areas and talk directly with the citizens.

As in all difficult situations, solidarity, the basic principle of our coexistence, comes to the fore. Let our friends know that the overwhelming majority of the people recognize themselves in their leaders, participate in the recovery of the country and defend the principle that is on the threshold of the new Constitution approved in April 2019: “Cuba is a socialist State of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign”.

Havana, October 2, 2022.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects in the most categorical terms the determination made by the U.S. State Department that Cuba does not fully cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, reported May 25, 2021 in the U.S. Federal Register.

The Donald Trump administration issued this same characterization June 2, 2020, as a preliminary step leading to the inclusion of Cuba on the State Department’s list of states that allegedly sponsor international terrorism, which was made public on January 11, 2021, just days before the inauguration of President Joseph Biden, with the clear purpose of impacting the latter’s conduct toward our country.

This is a totally unfounded accusation used for political purposes, in an attempt to justify aggression against Cuba, including the inhuman economic, commercial and financial blockade our people suffer.

The Ministry also rejects the unilateral and selective U.S. practice of singling out countries on arbitrary lists with respect to terrorism, which lack legitimacy and violate international law and the United Nations Charter.

Our country has been the victim of 713 terrorist attacks, in their majority organized, financed and executed by the U.S. government or individuals and organizations that are protected and act with impunity in U.S. territory. These acts have cost the lives of 3,478 Cuban citizens and disabled 2,099. Human and economic damages caused are estimated at 181 billion dollars.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalls the various attacks on Cuban personnel and representatives abroad, among them the machine-gunning of our Embassy in Washington DC on April 30, 2020, which endangered the lives and safety of the diplomatic mission’s staff. The government of the United States has not yet publicly acknowledged the terrorist nature of that attack.

Cuba’s Constitution codifies our repudiation and condemnation of terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations. Our nation has maintained a transparent and impeccable attitude in the fight against terrorism, and has expressed its willingness to cooperate with U.S. authorities as it does with other countries. The U.S. government is well aware of this. There are concrete examples of this willingness, within the framework of existing bilateral instruments and in accordance with international law. We maintain our commitment to the peace process in Colombia, despite being the victim of repeated politically motivated acts of animosity and dishonesty.

The administration of President Joseph Biden has stated publicly that although Cuba is not a priority issue, a review process of the policy toward our country is underway.

If Cuba is not a priority and this review has not been concluded, how can the State Department explain the unfounded and fallacious singling out of our country with respect to the issue of terrorism; how can it justify maintaining the 243 unilateral coercive measures adopted by the Trump administration, which include increased financial persecution and other measures of an extraterritorial nature?

The Secretary of State should acknowledge that it has been U.S. authorities who have refused to cooperate with Cuba in confronting terrorism, a duly documented fact. The U.S. government has never returned to our country a single fugitives from Cuban justice, nor have any ever been prosecuted for the crimes and terrorist acts committed against our people and citizens of other countries.

The inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries which “do not fully cooperate” with U.S. efforts against terrorism is an irresponsible and shameful act.

Cuba will not alter its commitment to peace and will continue its efforts in the struggle against terrorism.

Havana, May 27, 2021.

They deplored the expulsion of two diplomats from the sisterly Republic of Cuba to the UN by the authorities of the State Department of the United States of America (USA) on September 19, 2019.

They denounced the imposition of new unilateral coercive measures by the US against the people of Cuba. Recently, the US has limited the sending of remittances; restricted banking transactions, banned educational group trips to Cuba and non-conventional blockade actions against fuel supplies to Cuba.

This supremacist policy of aggression has the sole objective of generating a diplomatic escalation that leads to the closure of Embassies in both countries, as well as continuing to tighten the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.

They stressed that Resolution CP / RES. 1137 (2245/19) of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved on September 11, 2019, is absolutely illegal and in violation of International Law, both in form and substance, for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has neither been part of the OAS since April 2019, nor has it been part of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance ever since it denounced such Agreement in May 2013.

They stressed that Article 08 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance is in line with the policy of harassment and economic suffocation that the US Government has been applying against the people of Venezuela in recent years especially in the economic area.

They categorically rejected the threats that the convening of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance Consultation Organ implies to the peace and territorial integrity of Venezuela, as well as the most recent actions that a small group of countries in different multilateral fora have been promoting on this Treaty.

They stated that the only international instance with authority and capacity to declare a situation as a threat to international peace and security and to take action through the use of force is the Security Council of the United Nations Organization (UN).

They reiterated the pacifist vocation of ALBA-TCP, promoting the culture of peace and the right to peace. Also, they rejected any initiative that may go against these principles or put regional peace at risk.

They stressed that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) declared Latin America and the Caribbean as a Peace Zone “in which differences among nations are meant to be resolve through dialogue and negotiation or through other forms of peaceful solution settlement, as established in international law.”

They expressed their concern regarding Climate Change and the historic commitment undertaken by the International Community through the Paris Agreement. Consequently, they rejected the US withdrawal from this agreement, for it evidenced the lack of responsibility by the US administration both with the Planet and future generations.

They stressed the need for aid and cooperation in cases of natural disasters associated with the planet’s climate crisis to be treated ethically. From the perspective of the Alliance countries, the exclusion of countries for political or ideological issues is unacceptable. They reiterated that the principle of equality of the States of the UN Charter should be respected for the convening of meetings on environmental issues that represent a global concern.

In that sense, the Cuban head of State recalled in Twitter a statement by Fidel Castro when he said that honor, the country and dignity are not negotiated, just like independence, sovereignty, history and glory are not negotiated either.

With this reflection, Díaz-Canel once again condemns the recent measures announced by the United States that intensify the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on the island for nearly 60 years.

The new escalation further reinforces the encirclement at a cost for the Cuban economy that in 2018 exceeded 134 billion dollars at current prices and the figure of 933 billion dollars, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against the value of gold in the international market.

(Granma)

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba condemns in the strongest terms the measures announced by the United States Government on 4 June 2019, further tightening the economic blockade imposed on Cuba for over 60 years, at a cost for the Cuban economy which amounted to over 134 billion dollars in 2018 at current prices, and to the figure of 933 billion dollars, taking into account the devaluation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the price of gold in the world market.

According to what has been learned, this new escalation, effective as of 5 June, further strengthens the hard restrictions already imposed on US citizens to travel to Cuba, includes an absolute ban on any vessels from the United States and immediately prohibits cruise ships from visiting our country.

The intent continues to be to extract political concessions from the Cuban nation through suffocation of the economy and hurting the population. In this particular case, these measures are also aimed at preventing the American people from knowing the Cuban reality thus bringing down the effects of the slanderous propaganda that is fabricated on a daily basis against our country.

Such actions disregard the majority view of Americans, whose interest to know Cuba and exercise their right to travel was proved by the 650 thousand US travelers who came in 2018, together with half a million Cubans residing in the United States.

Last 17 April, National Security Advisor John Bolton, at an anti-Cuban show attended by the mercenaries defeated in Bay of Pigs and family members of the henchmen of the Fulgencio Batista tyranny, announced that his government would restrict non-family travel to Cuba. This individual is known for having taken over the US foreign policy towards the Western Hemisphere, which constitutes the main threat to peace and stability of the whole region.

The United States supports the Monroe Doctrine openly, with which it tries to deny the sovereign equality and the right to self-determination of every nation of the hemisphere.
The recent attacks against Cuba are grounded on new pretexts. The best-known excuse is the defamatory accusation of Cuba’s military interference in Venezuela. This lie has been publicly and repeatedly rejected by the Cuban government.

They have even gone to the unscrupulous point of proposing Cuba to betray its convictions and the principles that have sustained the foreign policy of the Cuban Revolution, in return for promises of negotiation or relief from the draconian and criminal measures making up the economic blockade.

The solidarity of Cuba with constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros, the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution and the civic and military union of its people, is non-negotiable. The more than 20 thousand Cuban cooperation workers who, on a voluntary basis and selflessly, are providing social services in that country, most of them in the field of health, will remain there cooperating with that sister nation as long as they are welcome by the Venezuelan people.

For Cubans, betrayal is not an option. We are not naïve. It’s already been 150 years of hard struggle for our independence, having to face from the outset the hegemonistic ambitions of the US imperialism.

Cuba will not let itself be frightened or distracted from the essential and urgent tasks for the development of our economy and the construction of socialism. Closely united, we shall be able to face the most challenging adversities. They cannot suffocate us, nor can they stop us.

Havana, 5 June 2019

(Cubaminrex)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba expresses its strongest condemnation of the declared intention of the United States government to recognize the occupied Syrian Golan as Israeli territory, which constitutes a serious and flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Security Council’s relevant resolutions, in particular Resolution 497 of 1981.

This new Washington maneuver which violates the legitimate interests of the Syrian people and Arab and Islamic nations will have serious consequences for stability and security in the Middle East and further increase tensions in this volatile region.

Cuba urges the Security Council to fulfill its responsibility, established in the UN Charter, to maintain international peace and security, and to adopt the necessary decisions to stop this unilateral U.S. action by supporting Israel in its intentions to annex the Golan Heights, occupied Syrian territory.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba will continue to support the Syrian government’s demand to recover the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967, and once again demands the total and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from the Syrian Golan and all occupied Arab territories.

Havana March 23, 2019.

Given this situation, the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, sent a message to the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, expressing our condolences to the government and people of Colombia, in particular to the families of victims of the attack, and reaffirming that Cuba rejects and condemns terrorist acts, methods, and practices in all their forms and expressions. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla issued a similar message via his official Twitter account, and a press note was released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Friday, January 18, the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, publically reported his decision to end the peace talks process between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which had been taking place in Havana, Cuba, by activating orders to arrest members of this guerrilla organization’s peace delegation, which makes the holding of peace negotiations impossible.

As a consequence, faced with the rupture of the peace talks, what is indicated is the implementation of the document entitled “Established Protocol in Case of Rupture of the Colombia-ELN Peace Talks Negotiations,” which establishes, “If the peace talks are broken off, the countries and parties will have 15 days following the announcement to plan and conduct the return to Colombia of members of the delegation representing the ELN.”

In this context, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeals to the government of Colombia and the ELN to take pertinent action to allow implementation of “the procedure for the return of the ELN delegation,” in accordance with the text of said protocol.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that, in accordance with our responsibility as Alternate Site and Guarantor of this peace process, a verbal note has been sent to Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recalling the commitments assumed by the Colombian government and the ELN, and it has sent a copy of this note to other guarantor countries.

Cuba has honored the commitments it assumed as Guarantor and Alternate Site of the peace talks between the Colombian government and the ELN, at the request of both. Cuba assumed this responsibility as a gesture of good will in an effort to avoid that this process end in frustration, as established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the heads of state and government of our region.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to report that the presence of the ELN delegation in our country, as well as the holding of two cycles of the peace talks negotiating table, between the government of Colombia and the ELN, came in response to an official request on the part of both parties, under the auspices of the “Colombia Peace Talks Accord between the National Government and the National Liberation Army,” signed March 30, 2016, in Caracas, by the parties and six guarantor countries.

Said agreement establishes that, “The negotiation sessions will take place in

Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, and Cuba. These countries, along with Norway, will be guarantors.” Thus our country was awarded the category of Guarantor and Alternate Site of the peace negotiations process.

Beginning February 7, 2017, through April of 2018, the peace talks were held in Ecuador. However, on May 4, 2018, Cuba received a joint request from the Colombian government and the ELN, stating, “With the idea of resuming the dialogue immediately, we request that the Republic of Cuba become the site for what remains of this fifth cycle.” In this same communication, both parties indicate, “We are ready to travel as soon as possible. In principle, we are thinking of resuming the conversations, with the presence of guarantor countries, this coming May 8.” Cuba responded very promptly, and the talks were resumed May 10, of that same year.

Since then, the ELN peace delegation has remained on the island, with the government of President Duque, according to the press media, deciding on November 21, 2018, to maintain the hold on arrest orders for the ten who were in Cuba awaiting the resumption of negotiations, which was revoked this past January 19.

Cuban authorities expressly established, as a condition of the ELN delegation’s presence here, that its members solely and strictly keep to the exclusive purpose of their presence in Cuba: negotiating peace in Colombia. This was confirmed by Pablo Beltrán, head of the ELN peace delegation in Cuba, during interviews with press media in Havana, this past January 22.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates that Cuba has never permitted, and will never permit, that its territory be used for the organization of terrorist acts against any state, and reaffirms Cuba’s historic position against terrorism and against war, in defense of peace, with the authority of having been a victim of state terrorism for decades.

Our country has conducted itself in this process with the strictest respect for the consent and specific agreements reached between the Colombian government and the ELN, on the basis of official requests received from them. Cuba has acted in strict adherence to our condition as a Guarantor and Alternate Site, in an impartial, responsible, professional, and discreet manner, in the interest of a political solution to the conflict in Colombia, to achieve the peace its people longs for.

Cuba has acted the same way it did during the peace process undertaken with the FARC-EP, recognized internationally as a contribution to peace in Colombia, an agreement that the region and the international community hope to see fully respected.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba reiterates its profound conviction that the Colombian people deserve peace and will find the route to achieving it.

Havana, January 25, 2019

The true objectives of actions against Venezuela are to control the vast resources of this sister nation and destroy the value of its example, as an emancipatory process defending the dignity and independence of Our America.
As President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said: “The sovereignty of our peoples is expressed today in one’s attitude toward Venezuela. To support the legitimate right of the sister nation to define its own destiny is to defend the dignity of all.”

Other coup attempts should not be forgotten, such as the military coup of 2002 and the 2003 oil lockout; the aggressive U.S. Executive Order describing Venezuela as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy” of the superpower; unilateral coercive measures; the call for a military coup against the constitutional government of Venezuela; the President of the United States’ threat to use “a possible military option” and the August 4 assassination attempt against President Maduro.

The acts of a group of countries and the shameful role of the OAS constitute a new, desperate attempt to implement an unsuccessful policy of regime change, which has not been imposed due to the unwavering resistance of the Venezuelan people and their determination to defend national sovereignty.

Havana, January 23, 2019

The program had planned the inclusion of Brazilian and foreign doctors who would go to work in poor and remote areas of that country.

Cuba’s participation in this program was arranged through the Pan-American Health Organization with one distinctive feature, for it was intended to fill the vacancies left by doctors from Brazil and other foreign nations.

During these five years of work, around 20 000 Cuban cooperation workers have assisted 113 359 000 patients in more than 3 600 municipalities. They managed to provide health coverage to a universe of up to 60 million Brazilians at the moment when they accounted for 80 per cent of all the doctors who were taking part in the program. More than 700 municipalities were able to count on a doctor for the first time ever.

The work of Cuban doctors in areas of extreme poverty, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador de Bahia and the 34 Special Indigenous Districts, particularly in Amazonia, was largely recognized by the federal, state and municipal governments of that country and its population, 95 per cent of which expressed their acceptance, according to a survey carried out by the Federal University of Minas Gerais at the request of the Ministry of Health of Brazil.

On September 27, 2016, the Ministry of Public Health, in an official statement issued on a day close to the expiration date of the agreement and amidst the events associated to the legislative and judicial coup d’ etat against president Dilma Rousseff, announced that Cuba “would continue to honor its agreement with the Pan-American Health Organization for the implementation of the Program More Doctors, provided that the guarantees offered by local authorities were maintained”, something that has been so far respected.

Jair Bolsonaro, president elect of Brazil, who has made direct, contemptuous and threatening comments against the presence of our doctors, has declared and reiterated that he will modify the terms and conditions of the Program More Doctors, in full disregard of the Pan-American Health Organization and the agreement reached by this organization with Cuba, since he has questioned the qualification of our doctors and has conditioned their permanence in the program to a process of validation of their titles and established that contracts will only be signed on an individual basis.

The announced modifications impose conditions that are unacceptable and fail to ensure the guarantees that had been previously agreed upon since the beginning of the Program, which were ratified in 2016 with the re-negotiation of the Terms of Cooperation between The Pan-American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health of Brazil and the Cooperation Agreement between the Pan-American Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba. These unacceptable conditions make it impossible to maintain the presence of Cuban professionals in the Program.

Consequently, in the light of this unfortunate reality, the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba has decided to discontinue its participation in the Program More Doctors and has informed so to the Director of the Pan-American Health Organization and the political leaders of Brazil who founded and defended this initiative.

The decision to bring into question the dignity, professionalism and altruism of Cuban cooperation workers who, with the support of their families, are currently offering their services in 67 countries is unacceptable. During the last 55 years, a total of 600 000 internationalist missions have been accomplished in 164 nations, with the participation of 400 000 health workers who, in quite a few cases, have fulfilled this honorable task more than once. Their feats in the struggle against the Ebola virus in Africa, blindness in Latin America and the Caribbean and cholera in Haiti as well as the participation of 26 brigades of the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Great Epidemics “Henry Reeve” in Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Venezuela, among other countries, are worthy of praise.

In the overwhelming majority of the missions that have been accomplished, all expenses have been covered by the Cuban government.

Likewise, 35 613 health professionals from 138 countries have been trained in Cuba at absolutely no cost as an expression of our solidarity and internationalist vocation.

All Cuban cooperation workers have preserved their posts and their full salary in Cuba, together with all due labor and social benefits, just as the rest of the workers of the National Health System.

The experience of the Program More Doctors for Brazil and Cuba’s participation in it show that it is indeed possible to structure a South-South Cooperation Program under the auspices of the Pan-American Health Organization in order to promote the achievement of its goals in our region. The United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization have described it as the main example of good practices in triangular cooperation and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

The peoples from Our America and from all over the world know that they will always be able to count on the solidarity and humanistic vocation of our professionals.

The Brazilian people, who turned the Program More Doctors into a social achievement and, from the very beginning, has trusted Cuban doctors, recognized their virtues and appreciated the respect, sensitivity and professionalism with which they have assisted them, will understand who are to be held responsible for our doctors’ not being able to continue offering their fraternal contribution in that country.

Havana, November 14, 2018.

This act constitutes another serious and flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law, and a new outrage against the Palestinian people.

Cuba reiterates its rejection of the unilateral steps taken by the United States to establish its diplomatic representation in the city of Jerusalem, in utter contempt of international law and the United Nations resolutions, and further aggravating tensions in the region.

The Revolutionary Government reiterates once again its unwavering support for a comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the basis of the creation of two states, and the Palestinian people’s right to free self-determination and a sovereign state according to the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Havana, May 15, 2018