Previously, a broad popular consultation process was developed, where 6,481,200 voters participated with 336,595 interventions in more than 79,000 meetings, which led to changes to 49.15% of the content of the project.

In general, the Family Code:

It seeks to recognize and protect vulnerable sectors of society.
There is an intentional treatment against discrimination and violence in the family space.
Recognizes the rights of older adults.
It incorporates the possibility of solidary gestation.
Transformation of a system of authority to one of responsibility in the relationship between mothers and fathers with their children.
It develops the right of all people to found a family and marry.
Family caregivers are named and recognized.

The new proposal of the family substantive text has as background Law No. 1289 of February 14, 1975, Family Code, modified in several of its precepts, essentially by Law No. 51, of July 15, 1985, of the Registry of Civil Status and Decree-Law No. 76 of January 20, 1984.

The project seeks to guarantee the rights of all people, regardless of the structure or form of organization they have opted for when forming a family, so that values ​​such as mutual respect, loyalty, solidarity, assistance reciprocal, as well as the affection between its members so that the family does not cease to be a moral entity, of a plural nature that has a single objective: to make those who compose it happy. It is about designing a normative body tailored to the Cuban society of these times.

At the end of the process, he told the press that it is going to be an intense day, which we arrived at as a result of a process that had to do with the construction of a fair, necessary, up-to-date, modern regulation that gives rights and guarantees to all people and diversities of families and creeds.

The president said that the Family Code has gone through a broad popular discussion process that has allowed a group of modifications. He recalled that they have worked with more than 25 versions of this legal norm.

“This Code started from popular debate, from a social need. In recent years our society has become more heterogeneous, Cuban families have changed and new types of relationships have appeared. There were debts with the treatment from legal norms to certain issues of inheritance and affection, and I think it was fair that they were taken into account at a time like this.

Díaz-Canel said that the regulations were also based on the study of situations and court cases, of the daily experiences of different types of families, of events that have occurred at a certain time, personal experiences. From these experiences —said the president— it is better understood why a Code was needed.

“The expectation is not that it will be a unanimous vote, but I do believe that it will be majority by our people,” said the president.

Likewise, he recognized that the Family Code includes issues that the people of Cuba still cannot understand.

“I think that in 62 years we have not overcome a criterion of patriarchy in some families, nor the understanding of diversity.”

We have respected the law and the opinion of all —said the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba—, but there are people who have not understood that the Code does not deny the family they defend, but rather gives guarantees to that type and to others.

In his words to the press, Díaz-Canel said that there is a whole platform against the Code that starts from the demonization and discredit of the Cuban Revolution.

“There are people who demonstrate against the Code, especially on social media, using vulgar and hateful language. If the Code said the opposite of what it says, those haters would be criticizing it too. It is not a problem of convictions, reasoning, rationality or feelings, there are simply people who adopt that position because they consider that if it is a Code within the Revolution, then it should not be valid”.

The president considered that the expressions towards the Code have to do with the understandings that people have in their own family or creed conditions.

“I believe that we have also assumed a position of courage by calling a referendum in the conditions that the country is going through: shortages, blackouts, shortages, with an important part of the economy paralyzed due to the intensification of the measures applied by President Trump in his mandate and maintained by the current administration of the United States.”

The first secretary of the PCC said that it has already been won, because regardless of whether the vote is yes or no, “we were all less selfish and looked more towards families and society.”

In this sense he added: “We all learned more about what our family and social realities were. Only the popular debate that has been generated and the way in which people have stopped to think about issues that at a given moment were not in their interest has already contributed to our society in terms of spirituality and feelings in relation to the family” .

Due to the depth and scope of the Family Code and the diversity of topics, the president considered that this is a monumental work. It has been subjected to two citizen participation processes, the Popular Consultation and the Referendum.

“That tells us that the country is on the way to continue expanding its military.

“That tells us that the country is on the way to continue expanding its democratic and participatory exercise, within the socialist Constitution. Each time the legal norms approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power are reached with more participation, seeking more criteria from the population”, commented the president.

In this regard, he stressed that all these laws and decree laws that are being prepared and approved, as well as public and government policies, are advised by groups of experts, so that all these regulations emerge from the outset with legal robustness, with a humanistic approach, towards socialism and from the treatment of integrality.

Miguel Díaz Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, Photo: Abel Padrón Padilla/ Cubadebate.

“My expectation is that the majority of the population will vote yes. We have to get used to the fact that on such complex issues, where there is a diversity of criteria, there are people who can give a vote of punishment, because even if they have nothing against the Code, they assume a position determined by disgust because of the complex situation they are going through. . That is also legitimate,” said the head of state.

Likewise, he said that we cannot solve the economic problems that we have and then build a legal norm like this. “If a majority vote is yes, then it takes a tremendous effort because there is a group of constructions that support everything that the Code recognizes in terms of guarantees and rights.”

Most people understand that we are growing, assured Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“When we overcome the complex situations we are going to have a Code at the society level that helps and gives guarantees. I strongly believe in the participation and wisdom of our people. In addition, we have worked with transparency and loyalty. There was a constitutional mandate and we have fulfilled it in the times agreed by the National Assembly, regardless of the complex situation in the country.”

“The Code must be read, interpreted and assumed from and with the heart, always putting oneself in the place of others. The Code breaks taboos and prejudices. The most important thing is that we have grown as a society”, concluded the Cuban president.

(By: Thalía Fuentes Puebla y Abel Padrón Padilla/Cubadebate)

Today the Revolution continues to be, as Fidel said on April 16, 1961, on the eve of the Playa Girón invasion (on the Bay of Pigs), “the socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble.” This is its indisputable essence.

With the awarding of land to campesinos, with tens of thousands of scholarships granted to their children and the extension of education to all corners of the country, with the creation of a universal and free health care system that has achieved statistics similar and some even better than those of the developed world, with the massive training of professionals in all branches of knowledge, it can be said that few countries in the world have done as much as the attacked and slandered Cuba for those Martí called “the poor of the earth.”

At the same time, in the midst of the reinforced blockade and such complex processes as the updating of our economic and social model, every measure adopted has been carefully studied to evaluate and foresee its possible effects on the vulnerable population. As Raúl has repeatedly stated, “No one will be left unprotected.” Nothing could be more alien to the Cuban Revolution than the usual “neoliberal packages” with their tragic consequences.

Cuba’s response to the pandemic has made evident the constant concern of the Party and the government, at all levels, for the health and life of each and every one of our citizens, with no distinction whatsoever. This visibly differentiates us from other rich and powerful countries, including the United States, where COVID-19 has disproportionately hurt the marginalized, Afro-descendants, Latinos, indigenous peoples, immigrants and persons living on the street.

The practice of solidarity toward those who need it most has not been limited to our borders. Africa, a brutally plundered continent, victim of racism in its most monstrous form, attacked for centuries by slave traders, colonialists and imperialists, received from the first years of the triumphant Revolution the fraternal help of Cuban doctors, teachers and soldiers.

Nelson Mandela, during his visit to our country on July 26, 1991, stated these unforgettable words:

“Africa owes a great debt to Cuba…What other country has shown a history of greater disinterest than Cuba has exhibited in its relations with Africa? …We in Africa are accustomed to being victims of other countries that want to splinter our territory and undermine our sovereignty. In the history of Africa there is no other case of a people that has risen up in our defense.”

With what moral authority does the United States presume to accuse the Revolution of racism? How can Cuba be judged under this pretext by the government of a country where hatred and racist crimes are common, where systemic racism exists?

They seek to compare racial prejudice, which we continue to debate in Cuba, with the violence of such phenomena in the United States and Europe, aggravated today by the growth of neo-fascist tendencies.

Aware that every vestige of this evil must be eradicated from our society, and inspired by discussions held in the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (Uneac) and, especially, its Aponte Commission, in November 2019, the Council of Ministers approved the National Program against racism and racial discrimination, to periodically analyze these issues, with the participation of ministries and civil society organizations, in an effort to perfect our socialism and make it more democratic and inclusive.

Another topic raised in anti-Cuban campaigns is associated with freedom of creation in the field of culture.

The cultural work of the Revolution is a source of pride for our entire people. Fidel held the conviction, like Martí, that “without culture there is no possible freedom,” and that art and literature better the people’s quality of life.

In 1961, the first schools for art instructors were established and the foundations laid for our system of artistic education. The children of campesinos, of workers, of those who cut cane only three or four months of the year, of those who barely earned enough to survive in miserable conditions, were also granted scholarships to study art. Many of the principal creators who have emerged from these programs came from the poorest social classes and the most remote regions of Cuban territory.

Cultural institutions, guided by Advisory Councils which include members of the country’s intellectual and artistic vanguard, representatives of Uneac and the Hermanos Saíz Association of young creators, implement a cultural policy free of dogmas and sectarianism. The caricature of the “dissident artist” confronting bureaucratic entities conceived for censorship is a crude propagandistic fabrication.

There is no mention, of course, of market censorship of creators around the world. The pandemic itself has left unprotected many artists who depended on their performances for a livelihood. It has exposed the impact of ignoring the need for public policies to preserve valuable artistic expressions, unable to survive where art is treated as mere merchandise. Neoliberalism is anti-cultural by definition.

Nor does the United States – the largest producer of junk culture on the planet – have the moral authority to judge Cuba in this field.

Culture in Cuba has always been linked to the Revolution, to the ideals of humanism and emancipation. Céspedes and many other pro-independence leaders who led the heroic insurrection that began October 10, 1868 were intellectuals. Martínez Villena, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Raúl Roa, Marinello, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, among many others, are part of a long tradition that inseparably fuses creative thought and revolutionary practice. Martí and Fidel are crowning examples of this history.

Our authentic intellectuals and artists reject the manipulations of the subversive apparatus financed by imperialism and the shameful actions of mercenaries who attempt to sully the transparent, productive relationships shared by institutions and creators in Cuba.

Human rights, freedom, democracy, culture, dignity, are concepts that belong to us. Our enemies have always attempted to appropriate them to use them against Cuba. It is disgraceful that the principal violators of these principles presume to judge us on the basis of a torrent of lies.

But the truth and the example of Cuba will prevail, as has been the case with the admirable work of our internationalist doctors, in spite of the slanderous media campaign unleashed against them.

As Fidel emphasized at the closing of the University Student Federation’s Fifth Congress, March 25, 1995:

“…There has never been a more humane revolution, or a more pure revolution than the Cuban Revolution. Our enemies have not been able to destroy this truth, in spite of their colossal, enormous publicity apparatus.”

And three years later, on August 1, 1998, at the inauguration of the Monument to the victims of Barbados, he would insist:

“What those who, intoxicated by their impunity and ephemeral power, commit great crimes against peoples can never imagine is that the truth, sooner or later, always prevails.”

(Taken from Granma)

(Transcript – Presidency of the Republic)

(Exclamations of: “Diaz-Canel, for sure, give it to the Yankees!” And “Thank you, Cuba, guarantor of peace!”)

Thanks to all of you.

I think we all agree that there is no better speech than that of the poets. (Laughter), but, well, we have to conduct the closing.

Dear compañero Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee;

Compañero, brother, President Nicolás Maduro Moros of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela;

Dear revolutionary leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean;

Brothers and sisters, friends, colleagues:

A special greeting to all who resist and have come to the Cuban capital, which has always been, and will be, a meeting point for those who defend peace and solidarity among peoples.

With the support, enthusiasm, solidarity that you express, feel, and promise, and with Raúl and Maduro, we are giving it to the Yankees. (Applause)

We have just returned from a long, intense journey through European countries, including a visit to Azerbaijan to attend the 18th Non-Aligned Movement Summit.

The Non-Aligned Movement, which was weakened at the end of the Cold War, has retaken the spirit of Bandung, the group’s founding statement. These countries are mobilized by the dramatic course of events and the crisis of multilateralism that today is putting the United Nations system in danger.

There, Cuba strongly condemned this crisis that threatens everyone, but especially the less developed.

We denounced those responsible for this situation and stated: “More lies than ever before are being told, with greater disdain and a more terrible cost to the vast majority of humanity, in the interest of a minority that has taken its luxuries to mind-boggling excesses.

“Well into the 21st century, threats and aggressions of varying degrees are launched against all sovereign governments that refuse to serve the hegemonic power as sites for military bases, hand over resources, or yield to their mandates.”

But we were not the only ones to identify the culprit by name. Several leaders expressed alarm given the return of U.S. hegemonism that threatens and takes brutal action against governments that it considers enemies, because they do not share their policies, and fiercely attacks socialism as if it were an unacceptable social system.

On a global level, there is a great concern given setbacks in important areas such as peace, self-determination, and the sovereignty of nations, the environment, a response to climate change, human rights, social justice, and the search for economic equity.

In our geographical area, in particular, concern is no less widespread. Latin America and the Caribbean suffer the return of the Monroe Doctrine and the worst practices of McCarthyism. The uncontrolled series of interventionist actions that the current U.S. administration has unleashed, since coming to power, is based on these two imperialist postulates.

The President of the United States and his court of hawks attack the Cuban Revolution, the Bolivarian Revolution, the Sandinista Revolution, the Sao Paulo Forum, the political leadership of the Brazilian, Bolivian, Argentine left, and social, popular, progressive movements throughout the region, which they consider their backyard.

The inter-American system has reactivated mechanisms of such odious memory for the region as the Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR) and the demoralized OAS, which has been consolidated as an instrument of political pressure for the United States and oligarchies that defend neoliberalism.

How can I not laugh at the OAS, if it is such an ugly, ugly thing that makes you laugh (Applause) that is how our parents sang in the years when the group expelled Cuba for not submitting to Washington’s demands. What do we sing to it now, when it could not force Venezuela to its knees, and wants to get rid of a thorn, inspecting Bolivia?

They ran over there, worried about election results in a Latin American nation with the greatest growth and improvement in the last decade, after having been the poorest and most backward in the Southern Cone for centuries.

Yes, the OAS is a very ugly thing. And very cynical. Their “worries” do not touch the depths of anger felt by the people rising up against neoliberalism, faced with pellet guns, gases, and lead bullets for protesting peacefully.

Compañeros:

It is very important to note the media component of this war we are being subjected to. At the forefront of imperial policies, the tanks of the cultural and symbolic offensive are always advancing, intent upon legitimizing the injustices of the capitalist system, discrediting the left’s political alternatives, and destroying the cultural identity of our nations, as a previous step to their destabilization plans.

Just recently, in Azerbaijan, the falsehoods that Washington has sought to impose as pretexts against the legitimate Venezuelan government were debunked.

When Nicolás Maduro Moros, in his capacity as the previous president pro tempore of the Movement, led the first part of the assembly and then presented the responsibility to Azerbaijan, practically all the delegations participating – some 120 at different levels of representation – recognized and congratulated the performance of the Bolivarian Republic at the head of the Non-Aligned Movement. (Applause)

Where was the supposed rejection of Venezuela by the international community? Why was there not a single expression of condemnation or criticism of the Bolivarian government by the governments that represent the absolute majority of the United Nations? Nonetheless, as part of the war of symbols, the media lynching launched against Maduro, the media have reported ad nauseum, in half the planet, that he has no international support.

Internally, they don’t treat any better political leaders who seriously believe a change within the United States is necessary. The discourse is aggressive and dismissive of all those who do not share the approach of the President, who announces decisions that affect millions on Twitter and behaves abhorrently everywhere.

He talks about socialism without the slightest idea of ​​what it means. And orders the end of any process or political program that intends to overcome prevailing injustice, as if he held the course of history in his hands.

He is not the first emperor to try this. And surely he will not be the last to fail. Because history can only be changed by peoples. (Applause)

Fidel said many times that the lie was the main adversary to defeat in politics and that telling the truth is the first duty of every revolutionary. This is one of our fundamental missions as practitioners of revolutionary politics. The first enemy to cut down is the lie and even more so, the imperialist lie. (Applause)

Cuba has been held under siege by lies and for years separated from its natural environment. With lies they have invaded nations, torn apart peoples, set back entire regions on their path to development.

With lies they attacked Iraq and Libya and plunged them into instability. With lies they have turned Syria into a weapons-testing facility and a theater for terrorist operations, which they have financed under the false banners of democracy and freedom.

With colossal, ridiculous lies they accuse Cuba, Venezuela, and the Sao Paulo Forum of promoting popular uprisings in all corners of the planet, while covering their eyes, ears, and mouths, to not see, not hear, not recognize what the people in the streets are shouting: neoliberalism is an economic failure and a social disaster. (Applause)

This technique is used perversely in the desperate attempt to overthrow the Bolivarian government of Venezuela and at the same time hurt Cuba. Although these attacks began in the years of brilliant, successful integration in which Chávez and Fidel created ALBA, in recent months the United States has launched a strong campaign against any type of relationship between our two countries.

We are accused of sustaining the Bolivarian Revolution, in an irrational version of the satellite theory that was wielded against the former Soviet Union, in its time. They resort to this pretext to justify the blockade.

Cuban medical cooperation is a target of continuous attack, intent upon discrediting a noble, solidary effort that the whole world recognizes and that, along with the Latin American School of Medicine and the Henry Reeve Brigade, to respond to natural disasters, constitute the most genuine and successful expressions of cooperation between developing countries. (Applause)

These three projects, works of unquestionable human value, emerged from Fidel’s ideas to honor international solidarity.

There are already more than 400,000 health professionals in Cuba who have provided services in 164 countries. At this moment, more than 29,000 are serving vulnerable populations in 65 nations.

Nothing says so much about the humanist essence of the Cuban Revolution as this cooperation. That is why the effort to disparage and destroy it is not surprising. Solidarity is alien to capitalism.

It was against them and in spite of them, that colonialism and apartheid were defeated in Africa, where the best children of the Cuban Revolution shared sacrifices and their own blood with fighters in Angola, Namibia, and other nations. We brought home from those lands, where empires always traveled to plunder, only our dead (Applause) and the conviction that we had fulfilled “the most sacred of our duties: fighting imperialism wherever it may be,” as Che Guevara taught us.

Defense, education, health, science … Cuban cooperation, the product of solidarity as a principle, was, is, and will be present in any area of ​​noble human activity, where we can contribute. Offering solidarity is re-paying our own debt to humanity. (Applause)

For showing solidarity, and being consistent with our history of struggle and sacrifice, for being a sister and companion of peoples who resist, Cuba is condemned and sanctioned beyond limit.

Our country today suffers a criminal tightening of the blockade, the reinforcement of an immoral, illegal policy that for more than 30 years the United Nations General Assembly has condemned virtually unanimously, without the United States reacting to the worldwide demand.

This is more evidence of disrespect for the norms of international law, which has worsened, especially with an illegal law such as the Helms Burton, which persecutes and sanctions third countries, internationalizing the blockade.

Given that these plots are not enough to defeat a people who have been fighting for independence for 151 years and will never give up, the empire now resorts to harassment, persecution, and sanctions on countries, companies, and ships that participate in transporting fuel to Cuba.

How can someone decree such an action, and then declare that the intention is to isolate the Cuban government and help its people?

Since the time of the famous Mallory Memorandum, Cuba has understood very well, through the words of its very creators, the first and ultimate goal of the blockade.

The U.S. functionary (Lester Mallory) stated: “Most Cubans support Castro…There is no effective political opposition … The only possible way to make the government lose domestic support is by provoking disappointment and discouragement through economic dissatisfaction and hardships …Every possible means should be immediately used to weaken the economic life … denying Cuba funds and supplies to reduce nominal and real salaries with the objective of provoking hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.” What maliciousness!

We will never tire of reiterating this, so no one is deceived. The United States policy toward Cuba was made very explicit in that document, dated April 6, 1960.

But before the Mallory Memorandum there are other documents and policies that reveal the historical character of imperial designs regarding Cuba and the rest of Our America. From the theory of “ripe fruit” to the Monroe Doctrine, now reactivated.

Martí saw it more clearly than others and left a warning in his political testament, his unfinished letter of May 18, 1895, in which he reveals the ultimate goal of his struggle to change the island’s fate.

“… I am in danger every day of giving my life for my country and my duty – as I understand it and I have the courage to do so – to prevent in time – with the independence of Cuba – that the United States spreads across the West Indies and falls, with greater force, upon the lands of our America. All I have done thus far, and will do, is for this…”

Through sacrifice, resistance, and thanks to solidarity, our people have maintained their Revolution over all these years. The strength of the process cannot be explained without this popular will. Nor would this will exist without the high level of participation of the people in their destiny.

Thus, it must be stated clearly, the only thing in the aforementioned Mallory document that has not been accomplished is the overthrow of the Cuban government. The punishment imagined by the empire, in the epitome of cruelty, is being applied right now, as if it were a law.

As for solidarity, we have a great deal for which to thank you all, in articulating material support for us and offering the tenderness of your peoples.

And we said today, when Cuba needs the redoubling and multiplication of support for its cause, which is the cause of sovereignty and freedom for the peoples of Our America and the world:

“Truth and tenderness are not useless,” as Martí said. And although sometimes it may appear that things cannot be changed, that policies cannot be defeated, or empires shaken, the history of humanity and the history of the Cuban Revolution are here to prove that it can be done. (Applause)

Cuba is the best demonstration of how much the solidarity of peoples can do. When imperialism pushed us away from Our America, expelling us – for our honor and good fortune – from the discredited OAS, when we were alone in the middle of the hemisphere, upholding the revolutionary banner of a continent in tenacious rebellion, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples was founded here. (Applause)

It was Fidel’s idea. We were not interested in relationship with governments submissive to the empire, in their ministry of colonies. We were interested and are interested, first of all, in the friendship of the peoples. (Applause)

The friendship of the peoples of America and the world pushed governments. Today Cuba has diplomatic relations with more than 160 countries, and our solidarity has also reached more than half of them.

Many of the political and social leaders gathered here will remember the hemispheric meetings of struggle against the FTAA, promoted by the Comandante en jefe, because they participated in them.

Thus was born the Continental Campaign against the FTAA, which mobilized millions and raised awareness about the need to overcome secondary differences to achieve the unity of all forces and confront that imperialist re-colonization project. And what happened? We defeated it. (Applause)

The defeat of the FTAA, like the historical defense of the Cuban Revolution, are examples of successful struggles that leave us with a great lesson: we cannot succeed split or divided. Working on the basis of all that unites us, we can build common projects to confront imperialist aggression and its oligarchic allies.

Against the blockade we will continue fighting in all arenas. Here, first of all, working, creating, and resisting without giving up on development.

Cuba’s most valuable resource is its people: imaginative, cheerful, enterprising, brave, and creative.

A people who are, first and foremost, the architects of the revolutionary project, under the most adverse conditions.

If we have together chosen the path of socialism, even after the empire imposed the ridiculous theory of the end of history, it is because only with socialism can we achieve social justice and equal rights for all.

Unity around this anti-imperialist and emanicipatory, socialist and solidarity project is the consequence of centuries of struggle for a uniting ideal and confirmation that we owe everything to unity. That’s why they insist on breaking it. That is why millions are allocated for political subversion and the financing of cultural re-colonization projects.

They want to sell us, wrapped in sophisticated silk and tinsel paper, a world that is exploding in a thousand pieces a few steps from our borders, in Our America, where resources have been immorally transferred to transnationals in the era of neoliberalism, the consequences of which we now face.

The formula for its implementation includes convincing the masses that it is the fastest and most effective way to reach prosperity. The blind but omnipotent market, they say, will ensure that those below enjoy the benefits that will spontaneously fall from the horns of plenty in the hands of the elites. What a cruel mockery!

This is how grating inequality was produced, making possible that 1% of society owns more than the remaining 99%.

The extremely powerful advertising and entertainment industry, which moves almost as much money as the weapons or drug businesses, has constructed the myth of access for all to a world of dreams, that one day become nightmares and explode in popular anger.

Then the political vacuum appears. Many parties, competing with marketing techniques for the limited power that the market grants them to manage the leftovers of plunder, reveal the fallacy of democracy that they attempt to impose as a model of freedom. The majority takes government office without real programs of economic and social transformation.

And when movements arise to change the status quo, campaigns to discredit, soft coups, politically motivated court harassment are launched.

All Latin American leaders of the last two decades, who, to some degree, overcame the worst effects of neoliberalism through social and inclusive policies, have been or are being subjected to persecution, accusations, and even unjust imprisonment, such as the undisputed leader of Brazil Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva suffered 19 months ago. Freedom for Lula! We demand from this platform (Applause and exclamations of: “Free Lula!”) Freedom for Lula, now! (Applause)

We live in the communications era. Let us build together, emancipatory platforms to oppose the colonizers with our greatest efforts and energy in pursuit of a better, possible world.

The era of confusion has passed. Our people have paid dearly for the price of economic and political experiments that have only brought wellbeing to elites, in the style of the thug in command of the empire, who believes that the world can be bought and sold on the stock market.

Recent victories of the left in Bolivia and Argentina, the heroic resistance of Venezuela and Cuba to total economic siege, the anti-colonial protests that have put a brake on market formulas show that we cannot be demobilized again.

The left must learn and finally assume the hard lessons of these years of struggle in which splits and lack of unity weakened our forces, and the right unleashed a re-conquest to destroy what had been accomplished.

I note the significant representation of young people in this auditorium and in the streets of Our America, where protest against the abuses of neoliberalism have occurred.

Seeing youth rebelling and fighting for their rights, and for a better fate for their countries, is encouraging and challenging at the same time. (Applause) Because, as Fidel taught us, the struggle of this era is expressed above all in the field of ideas.

We will always defend Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, proclaimed in Havana in 2014 during the hopeful days of a complete Celac, (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) in decline today.

The mobilizations and peaceful protests with which our peoples are demanding their rights are exemplary. And these rights are being won.

Friends, brothers, compañeros, compañeras:

In your beautiful Declaration of Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, you have written: “The peoples of the world need the example of Cuba”, and recalled Marti’s statement that maintains its relevance: “Whoever rises today with Cuba rises for all time.” Thanks for saying it and doing it! (Applause and exclamations of: “Cuba yes, blockade no!”)

I express profound gratitude to all those who have come, from near or far, assuming their expenses, to respond to a convocation you yourselves made, to condemn the blockade and articulate efforts that contribute to its definitive defeat.

I especially thank Latin American leaders who have suffered and suffer persecution and punishment for attempting to exchange a history of abuse for the history of our peoples’ liberation.

Today we want to reiterate our strongest support and solidarity with the legitimate president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, (Applause), and the civic-military union of his people, and with Commandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra and the Sandinista National Liberation Front of Nicaragua, also under attack (Applause and exclamations of: Long live Sandino!)

The persistent destabilization attempts that their governments face, are beginning to spread, and we see this today in right-wing efforts to steal the victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia, promoting violence and ignoring the results, in what clearly appears to be the preparation of a coup, which must be denounced (Applause and exclamations of: “They will not pass!)

Thus, we reiterate here our congratulations to Evo for his convincing electoral victory, and to Alberto and Cristina Fernández, who have raised new hope in Argentina. (Applause)

Our solidarity, effective and invariable, with all just causes that are being waged in the region and in the world: with the independence of Puerto Rico (Applause and exclamations of: “Independence for Puerto Rico!”), whose people have managed to keep alive their identity, flag, and hopes for independence, for more than a hundred years of colonialism, an extraordinary symbol of the powerful cultural resistance of Latin America and the Caribbean. Long live free Puerto Rico! (Applause and exclamations of: “Viva!”)

We also support Argentina’s historical demand to recover sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands. (Applause)

We condemn the imperialist intervention against Syria, and with you demand respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity. (Applause)

We also reaffirm solidarity with the struggles of the Palestinian and Saharawi peoples for the right to self-determination (Applause); with the process of rapprochement and inter-Korean dialogue and for the end of sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; and with the peace process in Colombia. (Applause)

No just cause is alien to us, and as a nation that owes part of its existence to solidarity, we will never renounce its practice, as a principle. (Applause)

Brothers Sisters:

You have called today for unity among political forces and the social and popular movements of the left, to continue to raise consciousness, generate ideas, and organize for the struggle.

We see this struggle in the battle for the truth. We must defeat the lies on which wars of all kinds against our peoples are launched: informing, persuading, mobilizing, marching with the poor of the earth, who have grown tired of lies and abuse. Proposing and creating programs that respond to the most pressing demands of workers, students, farmers, intellectuals, and artists.

The approved Action Plan confirms that progressive sectors are aware of the urgent need for unity, if we really want to build together an anti-imperialist, emancipatory project, committed to genuine and long delayed integration.

On behalf of Cuba, we would like to reaffirm that the new generation of Cuban leaders, trained and educated by the historical generation of Fidel and Raúl, are revolutionaries, socialists, faithful to Fidel and Martí (Applause), and that we will not yield a millimeter in our positions in favor of independence, sovereignty, and social justice. And joined with the peoples who struggle and resist, we will always uphold solidarity as a fundamental principle, to which we owe so much.

This is why we make our own the words of Fidel, when, more than 50 years ago, referring to the early solidarity that the Revolution found with its cause, he said: “The world has shown solidarity with Cuba and that is why Cuba feels more and more solidarity every day with all the peoples of the world.”

In memory of Fidel and Chávez, two of the greats of Our America, whom we were fortunate to meet, listen to, and follow in the most altruistic practice of solidarity, we look to their work as a guide for the new, challenging times that await us.

I believe we all feel that great avenues are opening up, where free men now walk to build a better society. (Applause and exclamations)

A better world is possible, and urgently necessary! Let us fight for it!

Ever onward to victory!

- The more than 1,200 participants from around the world approved a final declaration calling for an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba, and affirming the commitment to carry out a variety of activities in their countries to denounce increased hostility and sanctions by the imperialist power on both Cuba and Venezuela.

- President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez addressed the closing session, and began his remarks stating, “A special greeting to all who resist and have come to the Cuban capital, which has always been, and will be, a meeting point for those who defend peace and solidarity among peoples.”

- He reiterated, “The new generation of Cuban leaders, trained and educated by the historical generation of Fidel and Raúl, are revolutionaries, socialists, faithful to Fidel and MartÍ (Applause), and that we will not yield a millimeter in our positions in favor of independence, sovereignty and social justice. And as a link with the peoples who struggle and resist, we will always uphold solidarity as a fundamental principle, to which we owe so much.”

(Granma)

Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77 plus China in their periodic Ministerial Declaration once again denounced the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

• October 15, 2018

Sandinista deputies in the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament issued a statement condemning the blockade.

• November 1, 2018

The United Nations General Assembly, for the 27th time, approved the resolution entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” with 189 member states in favor.

• November 8, 2018

The National Parliament of South Africa, led by its president Baleka Mbete, passed a motion condemning the blockade of Cuba.

• February 11, 2019

Within the framework of the 32nd Session of the African Union Assembly, a resolution was approved calling for an end to the inhuman policy.

• March 29, 2019

At the VIII Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), held in Nicaragua, the Declaration of Managua was approved, in which the region’s opposition to unilateral coercive measures was reiterated.

(Granma)

OVERVIEW

- Losses April 2018-March 2019: 4,343,600,000 dollars

- Damages accumulated over six decades of this policy, at current prices:

138,843,400, 000 dollars

- Total quantifiable harm caused by the blockade has reached more than:

922,630,000,000 dollars (depreciated as compared to the price of gold)

- Damages caused by exclusion from to U.S. market: 163,108 659

- Damages caused by use of intermediaries in purchases and higher prices in distant markets: 173,210,916

Damages due to increased costs for shipping & insurance: 72,160,602

Potential export income lost: 2,343,135,842

Higher financing costs due to national risk rating: 47,290,204

Prohibitions on use of the U.S. dollar: 85,139,436

Other: 12,535,892

Total: 2,896,581,555

HEALTHThe damage caused by sanctions on Cuba in the field of health is unquestionable. This hostile policy obstructs the acquisition of technology, raw materials, reagents, diagnostic tools, equipment and spare parts, as well as medicines for the treatment of serious diseases like cancer- Between April 2018 and March 2019, damages in this sector amounted to $104,148,178, a figure that far exceeds last year’s estimate of $6,123,498.- Relatives of patient JCHC, with medical history number 68100309926 at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical-Surgical Hospital, who died on June 15, 2018 due to spongiform cardiomyopathy with terminal heart failure, can never forget that if circulatory support had been available from an Impella device, produced by the U.S. company Abiomed, the life of JCHC could have been saved.- The import-export company Medicuba S.A. made requests to 57 U.S. providers to acquire supplies necessary for health. To date, 50 of these have not responded.- Several U.S. companies were contacted for the purchase of novel cancer drugs. Thus far none has responded.- The U.S. corporation Bruker was unsuccessfully contacted for the purchase of spectrophotometers, devices used in laboratories for the analysis of substances and microorganisms.

BIOPHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY-

The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) reports revenues not received from potential exports to the U.S. of Heberprot-p, the only medication of its kind for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. Projecting that if only 5% of U.S. patients with this condition used Heberprot-p annually, income from its export would have reached a value of $103 million in 2018.- The Import-Export Company Farmacuba experienced difficulties in acquiring raw materials for the production of medicines.- The Oriente Pharmaceutical Laboratory Company, affiliated with BioCubaFarma, reported shortages of Vitamin A for its Nutriforte multivitamin, as a result of the blockade, thus limiting production by 78,694,200 tablets.- The delivery of printed aluminum foil for Nicotinamide in the month of March 2019 was affected, and it is possible that production of Dipirona and Alprazolam will be limited in September and October for this reason.

TRANSPORTATION-

Total damages in this arena during the analyzed period exceeded 170 million dollars, an increase of more than 69 million with respect to the previous report.- The Caterpillar supplier in the Netherlands prohibited the Dutch company Damen – main supplier of Caterpillar and Cummings spare parts for the Damex shipyards in Santiago de Cuba – from selling its products to Cuba, necessary for the repair and maintenance of pilot boats and tugs.- Cubana de Aviación is unable to use the services of the company ATCO, which is responsible for publishing the air fares of more than 500 airlines.- The Spanish airline Air Europa (UX) refrained from specifying the “Shared Code Agreement” and fulfilling its commitment to Cubana Airlines.

INDUSTRY

- The blockade’s impact on Cuban industry caused losses of 49 million dollars, which could have been used to acquire necessary raw materials.- The construction sector continues to face serious difficulties in acquiring more efficient, lightweight technologies that require less energy and materials.- The chemical industry state enterprise group, GEIQ, was unable to acquire spare parts or replace machinery.Communications, Information Technology & Telecommunications- The economic damages caused to the communications system are estimated at more than 55 million dollars. Cuba’s telecommunications company Etecsa continues to feel the greatest impact.- The blockade policy limits the Cuban people’s access to content available on the Internet.- Cuba is denied access to official information from top-of-the-line technology sites, making professional development and distance training difficult.- The blockade obstructs access to high-performance brands and equipment from leaders in the telecommunications industry.

ENERGY AND MINES-

Damages in this area amount to 78,336,424 dollars, an increase of more than 18 million over the last period analyzed.- Cuba’s national electrical company continues to face very limited access to spare parts for Bazan engines, manufactured by the Spanish company Navantia.- The British Compair Consortium, upon becoming part of a U.S. group, cut all relations with projects using its technology in Cuba for the centralized management of compressed air.- In September and November of 2018, two contracts were signed with General Electric International for the additional supplies of turbines at the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant and for modernization of the Pico Santa Martha Power Plant. However, on February 5, 2019, a notification was received from the U.S. Centennial Bank, stating that, given the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, financing for these two contracts would not be granted.

FOREIGN TRADE-

Total damages caused by the U.S. blockade in the area of foreign trade were valued at 2,896,581,555 dollars, given an increase in incidents that hinder the conducting of international commercial activity.- The greatest effect was evident in lost income from exports of goods and services, reaching 2,343,135,842 dollars. The decreased number of U.S. travelers visiting the island during this period had a significant impact.- Damages caused by the geographical relocation of commerce are estimated at over 1.020 billion dollars, which represents a growth of 18% with respect to the previous period.- The effects of Cuba’s inability to access the U.S. market were valued at 163,108,659 dollars.- The negative impact of being obliged to use commercial intermediaries and the consequent increase in prices was estimated at 173,210,916 dollars, reflecting an increase of 189% as compared to the last period analyzed.

(Granma)

Local authorities presented an overview of the main organizational steps taken in key areas, including transportation, food production and distribution, community hygiene, water supply, education, health care, and electrical service.

Alternatives are being implemented to address food distribution and milk collection; increased fish catches in the Zaza reservoir, currently with a very low water level; activation of firewood ovens; the readjustment of service provider schedules; and guarantees for prioritized health care services.The meeting was attended by provincial political and governmental cadres, including Deivy Pérez Martín, first secretary of the Party in Sancti Spíritus, and Teresita Romero Rodríguez, president of the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power.This Tuesday, the 24th, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on ships and shipping companies for the “crime” of transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850. “The United States continues to take strong action against the former illegitimate Maduro regime and the malign foreign actors who support it. Maduro’s Cuban benefactors provide a lifeline to the regime and enable its repressive security and intelligence apparatus,” stated Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a press release.

(Granma)

Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, member of the Communist Party of Cuba Political Bureau and secretary general of the Federation of Cuban workers, described the event as a broad, massive mobilization of the regional and world left to support our Revolution.

“Cuba is again a meeting place for those who defend peace, solidarity among peoples, justice, and democracy based on the true power of the progressive masses,” the Cuban leader stated, emphasizing that the event will propitiate debate and interaction around a program of concrete action to condemn the brutal economic, commercial, financial blockade imposed unilaterally by the U.S. government.

He said it will be an opportunity to build and reinforce unity among these forces, to continue the struggle for systematic change in the face of a capitalist offensive to impose neocolonialism, racism, and other forms of discrimination.

To be considered is the media war launched by imperialism, along with our own creative communicational strategies to provide accurate information.

Five work groups will meet during the event to gather opinions and initiatives to oppose belligerent U.S. foreign policies, that has led to armed conflicts is all parts of the planet. An open tribunal will be held in a Havana neighborhood, and one group will meet at the Latin American School of Medicine to learn about Cuba’s solidarity in the academic training of youth from around the world.

Some 1,000 delegates are expected, from all continents, along with representatives from the Cuban Social Movement Coalition, which includes the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Workers, the National Association of Small Farmers, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Cuban Peace Movement, and the Martin Luther King Center, among others.

(Granma)

These questions and many more were raised during a dialogue with Orisell Richards Martínez, PhD., professor at the Law School of the University of Havana. Knowledgeable beyond her 33 years, she insists on speaking of the engagement of all citizens in this process because that is the right path to an Electoral Law – to any law.

“The new Constitution is impregnated, from its first article on, with this spirit of participation and takes to a new dimension Marti’s maxim ‘with all and for the good of all’,” she says.

- Why is a new Electoral Law needed?

First, the current Constitution establishes in its First Temporary Provision that, within the six months after the approval of the new Constitution, the National Assembly of People’s Power must approve a new Electoral Law, which is a binding mandate, considering the supremacy of the Constitution itself, as established in Article 7.

This temporary provision refers to the election of representatives to the National Assembly of People’s Power, its president, vice-president and secretary; the National Electoral Commission, provincial governors and deputy governors, representatives to the municipal assemblies of the People’s Powers, their presidents and vice-presidents.

Furthermore, the new structure of the state as defined in the Constitution, requires an Electoral Law that establishes the mechanisms for the organization and guarantees of this process.

Likewise, there are positive experiences of previous electoral processes that need to be reflected in the law. Other processes must be overhauled, expanded or simplified, so the final law reflects our reality in the most coherent way possible, without ignoring the complexity of electoral processes.

- Given Cuban electoral history, what do you think should remain unchanged in this law?

The law must maintain, in the first place, what the Constitution establishes in Article 204, where it expresses that all citizens with the legal capacity, have the right to intervene in the direction of the state, either directly or through their elected representatives to organs of the People’s Power and to participate, for that purpose, as provided for by law, in periodic elections, plebiscites, and popular referendums, which shall be by free, equal, direct, secret ballot vote. Each elector has the right to only one vote.

It should also maintain the essence of municipal elections regarding proposal, nomination, and election of delegates by the direct vote of the people. This first stage is essential to democracy, because the municipality is the level closest to the elector. It is a good place to inspire learning and improvement of electoral processes.

Other elements that should remain unchanged, among others, are the principles guiding these processes that have characterized our electoral system, such as the inclusion of grassroots representatives which can reach up to 50% of the deputies in the National Assembly.

- Which processes should the new law expand or simplify?

There are stages in the electoral processes, such as the swearing in ceremony for example, that become too formal sometimes, and since they have been previously valued, they are extended unnecessarily. They should be revisited in the new law.

However; in accordance with constitutional guidelines, which establish information and transparency as basic precepts of the organization and functioning of the state, there are other processes, such as those developed through candidacy committees, for example, that should become more visible.

In this sense, processes such as the pre-selection of candidates should be developed in line with this guideline: On what principles is it based, what are the control mechanisms regulating it, to ensure selection of the best proposals and to inform the people.

Likewise, the Constitution also defines the permanence of electoral structures. Even though there are constitutional principles that clearly establish the organization of this body at all levels, the law should broaden other aspects such as the number of members; how many will be full-time staff members; and what is the content of their work between elections, for example.

It also should guarantee, in line with its mission, the reliability, transparency, speed, publicity, authenticity, and impartiality of the processes of democratic participation, which implies a great responsibility.

The benefits that the permanent character of these structures implies should be emphasized from the standpoint of control and follow-up of processes, professionalization, and the promotion of a culture of engagement.

We should not only focus on electoral participation but also on plebiscites, referendums, popular consultations, as the Constitution establishes in Article 80. Even in immediate procedures such as the Eleventh Temporary Provision, which mandates, in a period of two years, the drafting of a Family Code, its submission to popular consultation and a referendum.

This law will also have the authority to stipulate how the election and revocation of electoral bodies will proceed: it must regulate the number of representatives to the National Assembly, in order to increase its functionality without undermining its ability to represent the people and its efficiency in action. It also should explain, for example, how the relationships between the public, permanent Voter Registry and the National Electoral Council will work.

Moreover, there are some positive practices that should be reflected in this new law, such as the participation of supervisors and collaborators in the electoral process, without overlooking the basic principles for their registration, as well as their training.

- And once the law is passed, what will happen?

We will be witnessing a new scenario for everyone and for the way information is provided to the people in electoral processes. Then a process to elect and create the new state bodies will ensue, which is essential to organize and legitimatize these structures, and to implement the main transformations taking place in the country.

The Constitution’s temporary provisions and its foundational precepts can be taken as a guide for what should be established related to the election of the highest positions in the state and government including governors, deputy governors, and mayors.

- The country’s highest authorities have insisted on the inclusion of universities and the legal sector in the legislative process demanded by the new Constitution, how do you evaluate this relationship in this case?

There are new experiences these days in the field of relations between researchers and decision-makers that are very innovative and this is a fundamental step forward in overhauling the legal system in general. In the field of elections, specifically, there are research results that have been used as references in making some modifications, which is highly significant in the current context.

However, even though the new Electoral Law will reflect the current state of affairs in Cuba and reforms introduced in the structure of the state, we cannot talk, in any way, of a finished product. The transformations that could take place in the future, as part of the ongoing process of democratic consolidation in our society, will also have a legal framework.

INSIDE THE PROPOSED ELECTORAL LAW

The new law has 16 titles, 45 chapters, 32 sections, five final provisions, six transitory ones, with a total of 290 articles.- Proposed is the creation of a National Electoral Council and electoral councils at the provincial and municipal levels, to exercise their functions permanently. – Two periodic elections are recognized: municipal votes for the election of delegates to Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power, their presidents and vice presidents; and national elections for deputies to the National Assembly, its president, vice president, secretary, other members of the Council of State, and the President and Vice President of the Republic. – Proportional representation for the election of deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power is to be modified, reducing the total number of deputies elected by 131, although maintained is the principle that 50% of deputies are elected delegates to municipal assemblies.- Proposed is the simplification of procedures to verify the validity of elections to Municipal Assemblies and the National Assembly, establishing that this is the responsibility of electoral authorities. – The Council of State will include 21 members, from among whom the leadership will be chosen.- The swearing in of the President of the Republic is to be incorporated within the ceremonial constitution of the incoming National Assembly.

- The proposal establishes that elections for provincial governors and deputy governors be held simultaneously throughout the country, and establishes guidelines for this process.

- Electoral Councils at all levels are to control the preparation and updating of the Voter Registry.- Provisions are incorporated for plebiscites in relation to voting abroad, as established in current law for referendums. – Sentencing guidelines for “electoral crimes” are more severe and it is established that they will eventually be incorporated into the new Penal Code.- Municipal Electoral Councils are expected to participate in processes that take place to revoke the mandate of a delegate, which implies modifications to the relevant current law (No. 89/99) – Salary regulations for members of electoral structures are proposed.- The draft law further develops the principle that the vote is free, equal, direct and secret; grants the constitutional right that each citizen has to elect, be elected, and be listed in the Voter Registry; nominate and be nominated as a candidate for delegate to the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power; as well as participate in electoral processes and file related legal complaints.