Bruno Rodríguez at Summit of the Americas: “Cuba will not accept threats or blackmail from the United States”

Bruno Rodríguez during his speech at the 8th Summit of the Americas. Photo: Chancellery of Peru / Flickr.

Unofficial version of the speech by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the 8th Summit of the Americas.

His Excellency Mr. Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, President of the Republic of Peru:

Ministers:

I pay homage to the people of Peru , to which we are linked by close ties since the wars of independence and in the common effort in health or natural disasters.

The profound change in hemispheric relations that President Raul Castro Ruz claimed at the last Summit has not occurred.

Our America , martiana and bolivariana, a group of nations, from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, united by a common destiny in the search for its second and definitive independence, continues being sacked, intervened and vilified by the North American imperialism that invokes the Monroe Doctrine for exercise domination and hegemony over our peoples.

It is a story of wars of conquest, dispossession of territories, invasions and military occupations, coups d’etat and imposition of bloody dictatorships that assassinated, disappeared and tortured in the name of freedom; of rapacious plundering of our resources.

Today there is the danger of a return to the use of force, the indiscriminate imposition of unilateral coercive measures and bloody military coups.

The seriousness of the arbitrary and unjust declaration of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , the cradle of Latin American independence and the second reserve of hydrocarbons, should not be underestimated as an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the superpower.

The exclusion of President Nicolás Maduro Moros from this Summit is an affront to all the peoples of Our America and a historic setback imposed by the current government of the United States .

As the voice of the sister and heroic Venezuela , we are here to defend their self-determination and to reiterate the unwavering solidarity of Cuba with the Venezuelan Bolivarian civic-military and Chavez union, headed by its constitutional President. We wish successes to the next presidential election.

On behalf of Cuba, I invoke the Proclamation of America and the Caribbean as a Peace Zone , signed by the Heads of State and Government in 2014.

I also do not forget the absence of Puerto Rico .

Our America, with its cultures and history, the territory, the population and its resources can develop and contribute to the balance of the world, but it is the region with the most unequal distribution of income on the planet.

The richest 10 percent amass 71 percent of the wealth and, in two years, one percent of the population would have more than the remaining 99 percent. It lacks equitable access to education, health, employment, sanitation, electricity and drinking water.

We will only advance through regional integration and the development of unity within the diversity that led to the creation of CELAC .

Recent events show that the OAS and its hysterical Secretary General are instruments of the United States.

The Cuban chancellor on the screens of the VIII Summit of the Americas in Lima. Photo: Chancellery of Peru / Flickr.

Now, the objective is to reestablish imperialist domination, destroy national sovereignties with unconventional interventions, overthrow popular governments, reverse social conquests and restore, on a continental scale, wild neoliberalism.

For this, the fight against corruption is used as a political weapon; prosecutors and judges act as “political parties” and voters are prevented from voting for candidates with strong popular support, as is the case of the President, political prisoner, Luiz Inacio “Lula” Da Silva whose freedom we demand.

It is hidden that corruption prevails among conservative politicians, parliamentarians and politicians and in electoral systems, in corrupt laws and political models, by nature, based on money, on corporate “special interests”.

People are manipulated from private monopolistic property on media and technological platforms.

In electoral campaigns, there are no ethical limits, hate, division, selfishness, slander, racism, xenophobia and lies are promoted; neofascist tendencies proliferate and walls are promised, militarization of borders, massive deportations, even of children born in the territory itself.

In the hemisphere, massive, flagrant and systematic violations of civil and political human rights are increasing; and economic, social and cultural rights of hundreds of millions of human beings.

What democracy and values ​​are spoken of here? Of those of President Lincoln or the “dream” of Martin Luther King , that would elevate the American people to whom indissoluble bonds unite us ?, or of those of Cutting and of the supposed “anti-system” extremist conservative?

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla participates in the Summit of the Americas. Photo: Chancellery of Peru / Flickr.

Cuba will not accept threats or blackmail from the government of the United States . He does not want confrontation, but he will not negotiate anything of his internal affairs, nor will he yield a millimeter in his principles. In defense of independence, the Revolution and Socialism , the Cuban people have shed their blood, assumed extraordinary sacrifices and the greatest risks.

The progress made in recent years, based on absolute sovereign equality and mutual respect, which are now reversed; They showed tangible results and that civilized coexistence, within the deep differences between governments, is possible and beneficial for both.

The blockade and financial persecution harden, cause deprivation to our people and violate human rights, but the isolation of the US government throughout the world, in American society and in Cuban emigration, also increases with respect to that genocidal policy, obsolete and unsuccessful.

The international rejection of the occupation of our territory in Guantánamo by the Naval Base and the detention and torture center located in it increases equally .

He suffers total discredit the pretext to reduce the staff of the Embassies and affect the right to travel of Cubans and Americans.

The next April 19, in the year 150 of our independence struggles, with the constitution of a new National Assembly of Popular Power will culminate the general elections. Cubans and Cubans, especially the youngest ones, closely united to the Party of the nation, founded by Martí and Fidel; together with Raúl, we will commemorate the victory against the mercenary aggression of Playa Girón, firm, confident and optimistic.

Thank you very much.