Díaz-Canel: The sons of Latin America will never waive in the face of pressures and blackmails

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 15 (ACN) Remarks delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic of Cuba, at the political-cultural event on the occasion of the celebration of the XX ALBA-TCP Summit, at the Convention Palace, on December 14, 2021, "Year 63 of the Revolution".

(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;
Dear Heads of State and Government of ALBA-TCP;
Dear Heads of delegations and guests;

Comrades:

Nicolas, thank you for your accurate words, your kindness and your solidarity with Cuba, with ALBA and with the world.

Seventeen years ago the historic leaders of the revolutionary processes in Venezuela and Cuba, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías and Fidel Castro Ruz, founded the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, which shortly afterwards became the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), an authentic moral fortress of solidarity, of compact unity, which honors Our America with its example and dignity.

During all these years of hard trials, including the painful physical disappearance of its architects, the Alliance defended and maintained as a principle the spirit of brotherhood and the defense of national sovereignty.

And in the almost two years of confronting the terrible COVID-19 pandemic, cooperation among the Member States made itself felt, with its load of solidarity, in the most difficult moments. By sharing the little that was available to each of us, the Alliance demonstrated that supporting each other is not only necessary, but also possible.

While our peoples were feeling the impact of the economic paralysis caused by the pandemic, the United States and its transnational corporations did not stop plundering the natural resources of Our America. The world economy fell, the people are feeling the consequences, but the accounts of the most powerful grew.

The selfishness and ambition promoted by the prevailing neoliberal ideology have made it impossible to solve the problems generated by the pandemic immediately, globally and within the reach of all economies. The unjust global order is no match for human intelligence, capable, as we have seen, of creating vaccines against the virus in record time. While in some wealthy nations large segments of the population decide not to be vaccinated and others decide to protect themselves several times, there are countries and even continents that are practically virgin to such protection.

On the other hand, we are witnessing an open struggle for hegemony in which the United States is trying to supplant the work of international organizations. It is no longer enough for them to set themselves up as global judges, drawing up lists and ratings of degrees of freedom, democracy and human rights.
A few days ago, a so-called Democracy Summit was held, convened by the United States, the country that has contributed the most to overthrowing political processes in the world.

How fortunate for those of us who were excluded from the guest list, such as several of the States of Our America and the ALBA-TCP. In truth, we were not interested in meeting the requirements demanded by the host, but one must have a very poor concept of democracy to summon some in its name and exclude others, just because those others have chosen a different way of governing ourselves.

Just days before the highly publicized Democracy Summit, in a telephone exchange with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden is said to have warned the Russian leader that one nation cannot tell another to change its policies, and that nations cannot tell others with whom they can work.

Evidently, the current occupant of the White House advises what he does not follow. Because he does not know the advice he gives, his country has been subjecting millions of human beings on the planet to blockades and sanctions for years.

We Cubans, who suffer from this policy of blockades and reinforced sanctions, ask ourselves: What morals does the United States have and who gave it the authority to decide, on a planetary level, what is democracy?
Can its support for governments and political candidates with far-right, philo-fascist and extreme right-wing populist positions be considered democratic?

How did the United States explain at that Summit its malicious use of judicial systems, control of the media and digital networks to persecute, imprison and weaken progressive and leftist figures?

Did the United States condemn at that Summit the selective assassination, massacres or the brutal repression and proscription of social protest, through which in countries of our region young people, the elderly, women and indigenous people were assassinated, mutilated and detained, extremely serious acts to which the United States Government and its instruments, such as the OAS, turned a blind eye?

Did the Summit address the plans of the United States Government to reverse the social progress achieved by leftist governments in Latin America that legitimately won elections?

How did the United States explain the coup d'état in Bolivia, which it encouraged and supported without hiding?

It is worth remembering today that, when the coup d'état was consummated, Donald Trump's then Secretary of State exclaimed: Bravo, Bolivia! And two years later, Joe Biden's administration, which is supposed to be different from that of his predecessor, decides not to invite the legitimately elected government of Bolivia to the Democracy Summit.

How can a democracy summit not condemn, ignore, silence the growing number of assassinations of social leaders and journalists who do not respond to the hegemonic control media in the region?

Why was there no mention in that Summit of investigating the politicians who hid their fortunes in tax havens?

If the hosts of that imperial Summit considered that excluding some of our countries from their meeting was just another sanction, let me tell you that we received it as a recognition. Not even a thousand more unilateral sanctions will be able to bend the shame and dignity of the Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Cuban peoples (Applause), already too punished and sanctioned by this global policeman to scare us by one more exclusion.

On behalf of Cubans, I say that in each one of us beats the blood of those who fell for our independence, heir to the courage, bravery, morality and conviction of Martí, Maceo and Fidel, to the teachings and guidance of Raúl. From all of them and from many other brave Cubans who would make an infinite list, we learned to defend the homeland or die for it.

As Latin Americans, we feel we are heirs of Simón Bolívar, Augusto César Sandino, of all the heroes of American independence and of Hugo Chávez Frías, who took up the legacy of so many and together with Fidel gave a contemporary dimension to our yearnings for independence and sovereignty, but also for unity and solidarity, all principles that make the bond of ALBA brotherhood unbreakable.

The children of Latin America, as Che Guevara liked to declare, we are free men and women who will never waver in the face of pressure and blackmail.

We are a group of nations in this Alliance willing to continue making the maximum of sacrifices for the dignification and happiness of our peoples.

As expressed by our National Hero, José Martí: "It is the hour of the count, and of the united march, and we must walk in a tight square, like silver at the roots of the Andes".

Dear brothers and sisters of ALBA:

Count on Cuba's hand of solidarity to continue advancing, within our modest possibilities, in the collaboration programs already undertaken and in others that we will continue to develop.

The achievement reached by Cuban scientists with the vaccines against COVID-19 and the other vaccine candidates going through the process of approval for their use, are at the service of humanity and in particular of our brother peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Long live the seventeenth anniversary of the Bolivarian Alliance!

Long live Chávez and Fidel!

To victory always!

Fatherland or Death!

We shall overcome!