A few days earlier, on Washington’s orders, Cuba had been expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS). The OAS had also called on governments in the hemisphere to cut all economic and diplomatic ties with the Caribbean nation. On February 3, the day before the rally where the declaration was read, Washington had instituted an embargo on U.S. trade with Cuba, a policy that remains in place today, more than 40 years later.

The Cuban government translated the declaration into the world’s major languages and distributed it throughout the globe. Havana also urged all supporters of the Cuban Revolution in Latin America to distribute it widely among workers, peasants, students, and others. Pathfinder’s edition also contains the first declaration of Havana issued Sept. 2, 1960, in response to the U.S. government-inspired censure of Cuba by members of the OAS because of the Cuban government’s refusal to reject aid from the Soviet Union and China. Copyright © 1994 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
 

From the people of Cuba to the peoples of the Americas and the world: On May 18,1895, on the eve of his death from a Spanish bullet through the heart, José Martí, apostle of our independence, wrote in an unfinished letter to his friend Manuel Mercado:

“Now I am able to write…I am in danger each day now of giving my life for my country and for my duty…of preventing the United States, as Cuba obtains her independence, from extending its control over the Antilles and consequently falling with that much more force upon our countries of America. Whatever I have done till now, and whatever I shall do, has been with that aim…

“The nations most vitally concerned in preventing Cuba from becoming the opening round in the annexation of the countries of Our America by the rough and brutal North that scorns them—something that must be prevented, and which we are preventing with our blood—are being hindered by public and lesser commitments from openly supporting and joining in this sacrifice, which is being made for their immediate benefit.

“I have lived within the monster and know its insides; and my sling is the sling of David.”

In 1895 Marti had already pointed out the danger hovering over the Americas and called imperialism by its name: imperialism. He pointed out to the people of Latin America that more than anyone, they had a stake in seeing to it that Cuba did not succumb to the greed of the Yankees, scornful of the peoples of Latin America. And with his own blood, shed for Cuba and Latin America, he wrote the words that posthumously, in homage to his memory, the people of Cuba place at the top of this declaration.

Sixty-seven years have passed. Puerto Rico was converted into a colony and is still a colony loaded with military bases. Cuba also fell into the clutches of imperialism, whose troops occupied our territory. The Platt Amendment was imposed on our first constitution, as a humiliating clause that sanctioned the odious right of foreign intervention. Our riches passed into their hands, our history was falsified, our government and our politics were entirely molded in the interests of the overseers. The nation was subjected to sixty years of political, economic, and cultural suffocation.

But Cuba rose up. Cuba was able to redeem itself from the bastard tutelage. Cuba broke the chains that tied its fortunes to those of the imperial oppressor, redeemed its riches, reclaimed its culture, and unfurled its banner of Free Territory and People of the Americas.

Now the United States will never again be able to use Cuba’s strength against the Americas. Conversely, the United States, dominating the majority of the other Latin American states, is attempting to use the strength of the Americas against Cuba.

The history of Cuba is but the history of Latin America. The history of Latin America is but the history of Asia, Africa, and Oceania. And the history of all these peoples is but the history of the most pitiless and cruel exploitation by imperialism throughout the world.

At the end of the last and the beginning of the present century a handful of economically developed nations had finished partitioning the world among themselves, subjecting to their economic and political domination two-thirds of humanity, which was thus forced to work for the ruling classes of the economically advanced capitalist countries.

The historical circumstances that permitted a high level of industrial development to certain European countries and the United States of America placed them in a position to subject the rest of the world to their domination and exploitation.

What were the compelling motives behind the expansion of the industrial powers? Were they for reasons of morality and civilizing, as they claim? No, the reasons were economic.

From the discovery of America, which hurled the European conquerors across the seas to occupy and exploit the lands and inhabitants of other continents, the fundamental motive for their conduct was the desire for riches. The discovery of America itself was carried out in search of shorter routes to the Orient, whose goods were highly paid for in Europe.

A new social class, the merchants and the producers of manufactured articles for commerce, arose from the womb of the feudal society of lords and serfs in the decline of the Middle Ages.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home