The International Relations Commission of the National Assembly of People’s Power fully supports the Revolutionary Government’s Statement issued June 16 on the policy directive that President Donald Trump has decided to apply in relation to Cuba.

The Commission welcomes the increasing expressions of respect and consideration for Cuba and the solidarity actions that have taken place in Latin America, the Caribbean and the world, in rejection of this policy setback; as well as the declarations in the United States by legislators, retired military personnel, academics, solidarity groups, businessmen, farmers, non-governmental and religious organizations, the media and representatives of the Cuban community, urging President Donald Trump to continue to advance in improving relations with our country.

President Trump, poorly advised and misinformed about the Cuban reality and the history of our relations with the United States, decided to return to past methods of a failed policy, which not only harms the Cuban people, but also the interests of large sectors of U.S. society, and satisfies only an increasingly isolated minority of Cuban origin.

The promoters of this policy forget that for the people of Cuba there is no more sacred or revered value than their independence and the right to build their own future, without external interference. The revolutionary legacy of the generation of Fidel and Raúl, assumed with conviction by the new generations, is to continue moving forward without being intimidated by anything or anyone.

As Cuban civil society organizations have reaffirmed, neither pressure nor impositions will cause us to move back in the effort to build our independent, sovereign, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.

No one can set standards for the Cuban people. We will never accept any imposition regarding norms of conduct or opinions on our democracy or the functioning of our economic, political and social system.

Cuba is an example in the exercise of human rights, in the political participation of its citizens and in the exercise of the freedoms of its entire people. That is why our Revolution is invincible.

We call on the world’s legislators, parliamentary, regional and international organizations, and parliamentary friendship groups, to address the U.S. Congress and demand once more the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade that is in force, harms the Cuban people, and that the U.S. government has now proposed to intensify.

The subversive programs against our country must also be stopped and the financing of mercenaries must be eliminated. The territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base must be returned.

The United States Government should not prevent millions of U.S. citizens from free and direct contact with the people of Cuba. Obviously it fears that they will come to know our reality.

The International Relations Commission of the National Assembly of People’s Power supports the willingness of the Revolutionary Government to continue a respectful dialogue with the United States on issues of mutual interest, based on respect and equality between the two nations, and endorses the words of the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, before the Third CELAC Summit on January 28, 2015, in Costa Rica, when he said:

“Cuba and the United States must learn the art of civilized co-existence, based on respect for the differences which exist between both governments and cooperation on issues of common interest, which contribute to solving the challenges we are facing in the hemisphere and the world.

“However, it must not be supposed that, in order to achieve this, Cuba would renounce its ideals of independence and social justice, or abandon a single one of our principles, nor cede a millimeter in the defense of our national sovereignty.

“We will not invite, or accept any attempt to advise or exert pressure regarding our internal affairs.

“We have earned this sovereign right through great sacrifices and at the price of great risks.”

International Relations Commission

National Assembly of People’s Power.

Havana, July 11, 2017