BY LAURA GARZA
UNITED NATIONS - "Cuba wishes normal relations with the
United States, if and when a true sentiment of good will
betweeen neighbors, respect, and equality prevail between
both countries," said Roberto Robaina, Cuba's foreign
minister, in a speech here September 25. "But Cuba will
never give up in the face of threats, and it will survive in
any case, as there are always ways out of a crisis, but not
from the dishonor of living on our knees."
In his address before the 50th session of the UN General Assembly, Robaina blasted efforts to pass legislation in the U.S. Congress that will significantly tighten Washington's economic embargo of the Caribbean nation.
"Only a few days ago," the Cuban foreign minister said, "the House of Representatives took the first step of this announced crime by passing this bill that, among other absurd things, suggests an international blockade against Cuba, which in fact is against humanity itself."
Robaina was referring to legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Dan Burton and Sen. Jesse Helms. On September 21, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a strong bipartisan majority of 294 to 130. The legislation will be discussed next in the U.S. Senate.
Despite the threat of a tighter embargo, Cuba will resist any attempt to force it to give up its right to self- determination and independence, the Cuban leader stated.
"Since 1959 we have been defending, jealously and firmly, the commitment made by the founders of our nation, that of keeping it free and sovereign just 90 miles from the great power that has always looked at us as its backyard and as an appendix of its soil," Robaina said.
"We firmly believe in the authenticity and popular support upon which our revolution and our socialism were constituted and are being carried out. They are as Cuban as our palm trees."
The Helms-Burton bill would grant U.S. citizens who are former owners of expropriated properties the right to sue in U.S. courts individuals and companies that currently hold investments in those properties in Cuba. The legislation would also require the federal government to deny entry to the United States to any shareholder, executive, and their family members, of a company that does business involving properties confiscated after the 1959 revolution. That was when the Cuban people overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
In addition, the bill would compel Washington to cut aid to any country that provides goods or loans to Cuba at below-market rates, require a reduction in U.S. government contributions to the World Bank or other international lending institutions if they provide aid to Cuba, and impose stiffer civil and criminal penalties on unlicensed travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens.
During debate on the legislation, the House of Representatives also rejected in a 283-138 vote an amendment that would have eased the embargo by allowing the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, which are barred under current law.
Robaina said the Helms-Burton bill is being pushed as Cuba is experiencing an economic stabilization for the first time since 1990, when the collapse of aid and trade at preferential prices with the former Soviet Union triggered a formidable economic crisis. Havana has implemented a series of fiscal and other steps in the last two years to reverse the economic slide.
As part of these economic measures the Cuban government has been trying to attract more foreign investment. The country's National Assembly approved a new law September 5 that allows investors from abroad to wholly own business and property in Cuba and permits foreign investment in many sectors of the economy for the first time.
The big-business press, however, reacted with skepticism. "Foreign investment hurdles remain despite Cuban reform," said a headline in the September 25 Financial Times of London. The article complained that "President Fidel Castro said the law was part of a process of economic reform intended to improve the country's socialist system, not destroy it."
Capitalists divided
The unflinching determination of the majority of the
working class in Cuba and its communist leadership to stay
on the revolution's socialist course, combined with a small
improvement in Cuba's economy this year, are feeding
divisions among ruling circles in Washington and elsewhere
on how best to go about weakening and eventually dealing a
mortal blow to the Cuban revolution.
U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher said in a letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich he would recommend a presidential veto of the Helms-Burton bill if the legislation is approved by the House and the Senate.
Many opponents of the Cuban revolution have concluded that the methods being pursued by supporters of measures like the Helms-Burton bill simply aren't the most effective to undermine the revolutionary government in Havana.
Opposition to the moves to tighten the embargo spans the spectrum of capitalist politicians and spokespeople, from William Buckley, editor-at-large of the conservative National Review, to the editors of the Washington Post. An editorial in the September 22 Post argues that the Clinton administration "has a better idea than Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton" about how to pressure Cuba into following the dictates of Washington. This includes maintaining the embargo but holding out the carrot of easing it if the Cuban people begin to accede to U.S. government demands.
As that debate continues, opponents of Washington's economic war against Cuba who support Cuba's sovereignty and independence will hold rallies and marches on October 14 in Chicago and San Francisco, and on October 21 in New York (see article on facing page).
In his UN speech, Robaina praised those in the United States and millions around the world who have stood with Cuba in its fight against imperialist aggression and domination.
Robaina noted that conditions in the world today include the greater threat of war, the resurgence of rightist movements, and the continued domination of the economies of Third World countries by the imperialist powers with the imposition of harsher austerity measures against working people and no relief from growing poverty. He also stated, "We should definitively support the approval of treaties completely banning atomic weapons.... All nuclear powers, without exception, should embrace such treaties."
Robaina went on to discuss the battle Cuba is engaged in to survive in the face of a world economic crisis, and the unceasing aggression by the U.S. government.
The following are excerpts from Robaina's September 25 speech to the UN General Assembly. The translation from the transcript of the entire speech, provided by the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, is by the Militant.
BY ROBERTO ROBAINA
At the threshold of the 21st century, the criminal economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for 36 years is still on. We have survived the experiment of making us disappear, which has been ridiculed by the tenacious resistance of my people.
After several years of crisis the Cuban economy had a 0.7 percent growth by the end of last year, while the budgetary deficit was reduced almost by half. Inflation, measured taking into consideration the informal exchange market, was reduced more than 90 percent, and near the end of the first semester of 1995 the economy had grown 2 percent.
Important economic measures have allowed those results, measures which did not deviate at any moment from the traditional attention and assistance of our government to education, health, employment, and social security.
All this has been possible because since 1959 we have defended, jealously and firmly, the commitment made by the founders of our nation: that of keeping it free and sovereign, just 90 miles from the great power that has always looked at us as its backyard and as an appendix of its soil.
This has been possible because in this world, determined even to buy and sell souls, and to profit from them, we have persisted and proved that you can live with ethics of principles, national unity, justice, respect for human dignity, equality, morals and loyalty; and nobody, absolutely nobody, has the right to question those ethics....
I would be ungrateful if, while speaking about the incredible feats of the Cuban people, I do not refer to the millions of people who have accompanied us throughout these difficult years, to the dozens of countries and governments which did not break relations with Cuba, to those who strengthen their relations with us, and those who had the courage of opening their arms to us for the first time under unheard of pressures and threats.
It is now, when trade and foreign investments contribute to boosting the Cuban economy, that the U.S. Congress is in a race to adopt legislation that defies the will of the majority of nations, violates free trade and all civilized forms of relations between peoples and governments....
Only a few days ago the House of Representatives took the first step of this announced crime by passing this bill which, among other absurd things, suggests an international blockade against Cuba, which in fact is against humanity itself.
This is no surprise to us, because with the exception of those gestures from the many friends we have in that great nation, those who have led it have offered us nothing pleasant in the last 36 years.
However, I am confident that there are are not friends of the Cuban government, have the minimum rationale to realize which side reason is on.
There is still time to stop in the Senate and the executive branch the hand that wants to stab in the back the future of any attempt to come closer between Cuba and the United States, and to add new tensions to the already difficult relations....
What can be expected then from the next century if this rehearsal of world government against Cuba succeeds!
We need something more than the reiteration of the condemnation of the blockade in this assembly. Cuba has the right to demand actions that put an end to such madness, because if they are successful, any one of you could be the new victim tomorrow....
In contrast to the lying and pathetic chronicles of alleged violations of human rights in Cuba, the world should know that there has been no lack of love and sacrifice devoted to saving the millions of children and mothers who, because of the blockade against our markets, do not have enough food.
It should know of the efforts, sometimes heroic and painful, to obtain medicines for the sick, insulin for diabetics, aminophylline for asthmatics, pacemakers for heart patients, because the suppliers of those drugs and equipment have been warned, boycotted, or proscribed by the United States Treasury Department....
If truth had a better price on the market, the world would clearly identify the loudest victims of alleged human rights [violations] in Cuba as what they really are: common servants of a foreign power from which they receive encouragement and resources for raising their voices and taking action against the very country where they were born, favoring the annexationist hopes of our powerful neighbor.
The honest people of the world will be able to differentiate among the community of Cuban emigrants residing in this country. An ever-growing majority defends the sovereignty of Cuba, demands their rights, which have also been blockaded, and work with all of our support and respect to normalize relations with the homeland....
It should be well understood: Cuba wishes normal relations with the United States, if and when a true sentiment of good will between neighbors, respect, and equality prevails between both countries.
But Cuba will never give up in the face of threats, and it will survive in any case, as there are always ways out from a crisis, but not from the dishonor of living on our knees.