Speech 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, in the political-cultural act on the occasion of the celebration of the XX ALBA-TCP Summit, in the Palace of Conventions, on December 14, 2021, “Year 63 of the Revolution.”
Closing XX ALBA-TCP Summit
Revolution Studies
(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;
Companions and companions:
Nicolás, thank you for your accurate words, your kindness and your solidarity with Cuba, with ALBA and with the world.
17 years ago the historical 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 after became the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Trade Treaty of the Peoples (ALBA-TCP), an authentic moral strength, solidarity, compact unity, which honors Our America with its example and dignity.
During all these years of harsh trials that include the painful physical disappearance of its architects, the Alliance defended and maintained as a principle the spirit of brotherhood and defense of national sovereignty.
And in the almost two years of confronting the terrible COVID-19 pandemic, cooperation between Member States made itself felt, with its burden of solidarity, in the most difficult moments. By sharing what little each of us had available, the Alliance demonstrated that supporting each other is not only necessary, but also possible.
While our peoples felt the impacts of the economic paralysis due to the pandemic, the United States and its transnational companies did not stop looting the natural resources of Our America. The world economy fell, the peoples are feeling its consequences, but the accounts of the most powerful grew.
The selfishness and ambition promoted by the prevailing neoliberal ideology have made a solution to the problems generated by the pandemic impossible in an immediate, global way and within the reach of all economies. The unjust global order is not at the level of human intelligence, capable, as has been seen, of creating vaccines against the virus in record time. While in some rich 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 untouched by that protection.
We are witnessing, on the other hand, an open struggle for hegemony in which the United States intends to supplant the work of international organizations. It is no longer enough for them to become global judges, drawing up lists and ratings on 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 political processes to overthrow the world.
What luck for those of us who were excluded from the guest list, such as several of the States of Our America and ALBA-TCP. In truth, we are not interested in meeting the requirements demanded by the host, but you have to have a very poor concept of democracy to summon some in your name and exclude others, just because those of us have chosen a different way of governing ourselves.
Just days before the publicized Democracy Summit, in a telephone exchange with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, they say that Joe Biden warned the Russian leader that one nation cannot tell another to change its policy, and that nations cannot tell others who they can work with.
Obviously, the current White House tenant advises what he does not comply with. By ignoring 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 reinforced policy of blockades and sanctions, ask ourselves: What morality does the United States have and who gave it the authority to decide, on a planetary level, what democracy is?
Can your support for governments and political candidates with far-right, philosophical and far-right populist positions be considered democratic?
How has the United States explained at that Summit its malicious use of judicial systems, control of the media and digital networks to persecute, imprison and weaken progressive and left-wing figures?
At that Summit, did the United States condemn the selective assassination, massacres, or the brutal repression and banning of social protest, through which young people, the elderly, women, and indigenous people were murdered, mutilated, and detained in countries of our region, very serious acts in the face of the that the United States Government and its instruments, such as the OAS, turned a blind eye?
Were the plans of the United States Government to reverse the social progress achieved by leftist governments in Latin America that legitimately won elections at that Summit?
How did the United States explain the coup in Bolivia that it promoted and supported without hiding?
It is worth remembering today that at the conclusion of the coup, the then Secretary of State of Donald Trump exclaimed: Bravo, Bolivia! And two years later the Joe Biden 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 murders of social leaders and journalists who do not respond to the media of hegemonic control in the region?
Why was there no talk at 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 appointment was one more sanction, let me say that we receive it as recognition. Not a thousand more unilateral sanctions will be able to subdue 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 the fallen for our independence, heir to the courage, bravery, morality and conviction of Martí, Maceo and Fidel, of the teachings and guidance of Raul. From all of them and from many other brave Cubans who would make the infinite list, we learned to defend the homeland or die for it.
As Latin Americans, we feel like 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 desire for independence and sovereignty. , but also of unity and solidarity, all principles that make the bond of the ALBA brotherhood unbreakable.
The children of Latin America, as Che Guevara liked to declare, we are free men and women, who will never hesitate in the face of pressure and blackmail.
We are a group of nations in this Alliance willing to continue making the maximum sacrifices for the dignity and happiness of our peoples.
As our National Hero, José Martí, expressed: “It is time to count, and to march together, and we have to walk in a tight box, like silver in the roots of the Andes.”
Dear brothers 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 achieved by Cuban scientists with the vaccines against COVID-19 and the other vaccine candidates that are going through the approval process for their employment, 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!
Ever onward to victory!
Country or Death!
Overcome! Exclamations of: “We will win!”
(Ovation.)
