YouSaid · the spoken record

ALARCON de QUESADA

lines on the record: 72
first: 1968-09-24
most recent: 1992-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

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“For their sake, we shall continue our struggle, without hesitating, despite all obstacles, hard and difficult though circumstances may be; ever onward to victory.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Today we are facing an enemy more powerful than Spain was then, but we have a united, brave people, worthy heirs of those combatants who never retreated despite the greatest misfortunes. We will never betray their memory; we will never renounce a fatherland which we liberated with rivers of blood and sacrifice. We also rely on the solidarity of peoples. We know that the oppressed, the exploited and the victims of discrimination on this Earth who place their hopes in Cuba's survival are many. For our dead, and for those who hope for a worthy life, we will continue resisting. We will not betray the mandate of our ancestors and the confidence of peoples. We will prove ourselves capable of resisting and we will know how to resist. We will continue to pursue our most sacred duty: to save the fatherland, the revolution and socialism.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It is necessary to be able to feel all the torments of the agony of many years to understand how long a revolution lasts, to realize how much time passes, to understand the prodigious resistance of the combatants, to appreciate their heroism, to be worthy of admiring those admirable men ... "It is necessary to live in such infamous times, stumbling through the darkness of injustice, to feel for those men, elevated by their own efforts to the dignity of complete men, all the enthusiastic reverence, all the impulsive admiration, inspired by those capable of heroically representing the highest virtues of mankind." Those times referred to by Hostos were certainly even more difficult for our people.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Attempts were made even then to isolate our people from the rest of the world; even then the oppressor found accomplices; even then attempts were made to compel our people to surrender because of hunger, and a substantial part of our population was annihilated. The Puerto Rican patriot, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, described those painful times for Cuba in the following words: "It is necessary to imagine oneself in that terrifying situation, the most tragic ever faced by any people: deprived of everything itself, while its enemy possesses all the power and resources of civilization; abandoned, while its enemy is abetted; disdained, while its enemy is flattered by the complicity of all.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“As it has not been able to bend us to its will, imperialism threatens us with extermination and endeavours to compel the rest of the world to acquiesce to its genocidal infamy. The Yankee blockade is a brutal violation of the rights of all the Cuban people and of international norms and the sovereignty of other countries. It is, above all, a moral disgrace. Those who think they can bring Cuba to its knees are mistaken. Our people has travelled a long road to achieve its full emancipation. It started its trek, totally alone, more than 120 years ago. Within its limited island space, without allies, without the material support of any Government, it struggled for three decades against a better and larger military force than the total of the forces which Spain had used to combat rebellion in all its other colonies.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Part of our territory continues to be illegally occupied by a United States military base, which is the source of frequent provocation; the air above and the sea around the country are constantly being used for manoeuvres by the mighty who assault us; more than 1,500 hours of aggressive radio broadcasts are transmitted to Cuba weekly, and there have been unsuccessful attempts to invade our television spectrum; the territory of the United States is used openly and shamelessly, and with the apparent complicity of the authorities of that country, for the purpose of carrying out terrorist attacks against us; and Cuba is being subjected to a systematic campaign of slander to distort the image of a country which the United States has not been able to defeat and which refuses to renounce its independence.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Only in a society such as that of Cuba could such disastrous conditions have occurred without leading to the closure of a single school, to neglect of the health of a single child or elderly man or woman, or to the abandonment of a single citizen. Can the same be said of our rabid enemies or our hypocritical critics? There is no greater proof of the strength of our social system or of the implacable resolve and unity of the Cuban people in defence of its revolution than the heroic popular resistance to this imperialist onslaught. How many countries have endured such a trial? But this large-scale economic warfare is not the only action being taken against Cuba.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Indeed, the enormous damage to our economy has had inevitable repercussions for the living standards and consumption levels of the population, as well as for the country's production and development programmes. In these grave circumstances the imperialists nurture the hope that, by making their blockade tougher and more oppressive, they will be able to create conditions of poverty and hunger and, thus, make our people surrender. However, that is nothing but a foolish hope. Those who seek to annihilate us are ignoring the fact that Cuba's main resource - its only true wealth is its people. Only a united, informed and resolute people, a people prepared to fight for what it wants to achieve, a people whose social relations are governed by equity and solidarity, can confront and overcome such adversity.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The blockade is being intensified at a time when Cuba is suffering an extremely trying situation arising from the dissolution of the Socialist bloc, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the sudden and radical change in relations with the countries with which we conducted 80 per cent of our trade, as well as from the abrupt disappearance of the fair and equitable prices that governed those relations. This has meant the loss of 70 per cent of Cuba's purchasing power the figure having fallen from $8,139 million in 1989 to $2.2 million this year. In truth, Cuba is confronted by a double blockade that is becoming harsher and more implacable every day.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Never before, other than in the course of war, has a people been subjected to such rigorous, prolonged and total attack. This aggression is being carried out against a small and poor country - a country with very few natural resources, and no substantial sources of energy; a country whose development prospects are totally dependent on foreign trade; a country that receives no credit or finance from international organizations; a country to which even various types of humanitarian aid are restricted. And now attempts are being made even to prevent us from trading.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“While former adversaries become partners, and while the number of countries to which Washington applies economic restrictions diminishes, the budget and resources of the Government office entrusted with enforcement of those restrictions have been increased, and it is publicly acknowledged that those actions are geared towards reinforcement of the blockade against Cuba. The United States obstructs Cuban economic and commercial activities world wide. It strives to prevent us from purchasing oil, foodstuffs and medicines; puts pressure on investors and businessmen; and, more than once, has been able to intimidate others, and thus frustrate entirely legitimate operations, by its stubborn and criminal attempts to starve our people into surrender.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against the Cuban people has been in force for more than 30 years, but it is now being intensified and extended. While talking hypocritically of peace and international cooperation, the Government in Washington forbids foreign vessels involved in any business with Cuba to enter United States ports and tries to compel corporations based in other countries to follow its anti-Cuban policy. Thus it is grossly violating not only the most basic rights of my people but also the sovereignty of other countries and the fundamental principles and norms of international law.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The irrational consumption patterns of the wealthy exhaust non-renewable resources, poison oceans and rivers, make the air in our cities unbreathable, adversely change the climate, dangerously raise the sea level, irreparably damage the soil, destroy forests, enlarge deserts and deepen the poverty of hundreds of millions of human beings. The environment is also the victim of a relentless war that has already caused the death of numerous species and is putting many others in danger of extinction. When will it be man's turn to fall victim to his own folly? For how long will a lifestyle that condemns each and every one of us to death continue to be worshipped? I address this Assembly at what is, for Cuba, a particularly difficult time.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“On what moral grounds can profoundly unjust societies present themselves as a universal archetype when the inordinate consumption patterns and the extravagance of their insolent minorities mock the plight of countless others in their midst who are suffering a life as miserable as that of the poorest in the third world? In terms of human solidarity they have nothing to teach us; on the contrary, they have much to learn from us. In truth, not only is the type of society that would be imposed upon us intrinsically unjust and inhuman: it threatens the survival of the human species - indeed, life itself on our planet.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The most powerful country has not been able in two centuries to solve any of those problems through capitalism, although it not only has been able to rely on its own wealth but also has been pitilessly exploiting other peoples during that lengthy period. Certain turncoats may kneel before that deceptive golden calf, but to understand the failure of capitalism as a social project it is not necessary to read Karl Marx one need only take stroll through the New York or Los Angeles inner city. The American dream may dazzle some weak minds, but for broad, and growing, sectors in this country and, above all, for tens of millions of Afro-Americans, Latinos, native Americans and Asians, the unemployed, the poor and the destitute - that dream has been, and is, a bitter, sad and perpetual nightmare.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Those who exult over the failure of some socialist societies should be capable of demonstrating that capitalism is solving the problems of mankind or at least that it is doing so somewhere. After all, capitalism has been the predominant system in the world for centuries and has come to full development in some of the more wealthy countries. But, after more than 200 years of capitalism in a rich, developed and powerful country such as the United States, the population as a whole still lacks a health system; millions are calling for employment, housing, education and protection in their old age or are suffering the consequences of drug addiction, violence and other social evils; and tens of millions are victims of the worst expressions of racism and racial discrimination.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Millions of dollars that could be devoted to more noble purposes are being spent today in selling those ideas. But the peoples of the third world have not forgotten that it was the unrestrained voraciousness of capitalism that compelled them to endure the long and harsh experience of colonialism, that crushed them with racism and discrimination, that subjected them to the backwardness and poverty still besetting them. Capitalism was and is the essential cause of the evils afflicting our peoples; it can never be their solution. The euphoric promoters of so-called neo-liberalism are overcome with joy when they see the bankruptcy of a number of socialist projects which, as is well known, lasted barely a few decades and were tested in adverse conditions and in comparatively less developed countries.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“What is the sense of, and how can we condone, the decision of that country's Supreme Court which legalized the right to kidnap anyone of any nationality in any part of the world? Has mankind ever seen such an abuse of power and high-handedness at any other stage in its history? At the same time, encouraged by the setbacks of European socialism, they are trying to decree the end of socialist ideals and to impose capitalism, in its most uncontrolled fashion, as the sole, definitive and permanent model to be applied around the world. They proclaim the so-called neo-liberal formulas as dogma which everyone must observe and they do not even blush when they portray themselves as having the exclusive recipe for mankind's prosperity and happiness.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Cynically they proclaim themselves the representatives of a superior society and they go so far as to attempt to present themselves as the very image of democracy, freedom and human rights. With the same arrogance shown by their colonialist ancestors, with the same haughtiness shown by their fascist inspirers, today's hegemonists boast about the alleged superiority of their societies, their way of life, their ideas, beliefs and values, and use every means in attempting to impose them upon other peoples. They are attempting to impose not only their ideas, but also their "justice", which lacks the slightest equity and which, even within the territory of the United States, and with an openly racist point of view, pronounces the harshest sentences, including the death penalty, on, almost exclusively, blacks and hispanics.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The aims of those who are concocting the reorganization of the world, with a view to dominating it, are becoming increasingly obvious. Underdevelopment and poverty would be permanently reserved for the peoples of the South, which constitute three quarters of humankind, and they would continue to be the providers of wealth for the affluent minorities of the North. International bodies would be converted into mechanisms for domination and intervention to guarantee a world system where the powerful would impose their corrupted ideas and values. The new conquerors are not bearers of the cross; rather, they brandish the sword and the moneybag, and the only gospel they preach is profits.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“During the tenth summit conference that we held at Jakarta early this month, the non-aligned countries adopted a common platform to face the present international situation and to ensure concerted action in the United Nations. The Jakarta Message, the Final Document and the resolutions that were adopted should become our tools to mobilize the third world in defence of its rights and to organize our resistance to those who are attempting to impose a self-styled new world order, which was conceived against, and without taking into account the interests of, the peoples of the South and which would constitute nothing but the installation on a global scale of the kind of hegemonistic delusions upon the cinders of which this Organization was created.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We must not tolerate the use of the Council by those who so frequently defile the ideals of democracy as an instrument for carrying out a virtual coup d'etat in the United Nations. Nor can we we allow ideas to take hold that would introduce the concept of limited sovereignty and promote the creation of mechanisms that would result in converting the Organization into a permanent source of intrusion, interference and intervention, to the benefit of the interests of the powerful. The Organization must be democratized in order to strengthen its role and enhance its efficiency. To that end, it is indispensable to reinforce, not to weaken, the responsibilities of the General Assembly as the sole body in which all of us have equal responsibilities and which therefore has the capacity to represent the international community as a whole.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The Security Council's composition, functions and modus operandi must be urgently examined in depth so that it can become a truly representative body, so that the anachronistic and anti-democratic veto privilege can be eliminated and transparency can be introduced into its activities, while limiting them strictly to those set down in the Charter, and so that it will fully respect the obligation enshrined in the Charter to be accountable to the General Assembly, which, in turn, should strictly fulfil its responsibility to exercise control over the Council. The Security Council has no authority whatsoever to interpret the Charter or to broaden the scope of its powers, or to carry out all the orders coming from its surreptitious informal gatherings.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Member States must prevent that; if they do not they would in practice be permitting its termination and the elimination of all possibility of achieving an equitable and peaceful world. We must not accept the Security Council's operating as a secret society, turning its back on the Organization which created it and in whose name it should be acting; we must not accept its assuming functions which it does not have and which no one has conferred upon it.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“True, universal and durable peace will be possible only in a world full of hegemony, based on the rights, interests and aspirations of all peoples, in a world in which the purposes and principles of the San Francisco Charter will become a reality and, in particular, in a world which pays full respect to the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of States, self-determination of peoples, and the right to development. But to achieve this, it is indispensable to democratize international relations and the United Nations, providing the Organization with the conditions necessary for it to fulfil the mission for which it should exist. The United Nations cannot be reduced to a simple instrument of domination by the powerful.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Open subsidies and other selfish policies threaten to impede the conclusion of agreements which have been in course of negotiation for years to regulate international trade and which may provoke disastrous confrontations between the large economic Powers. This clearly demonstrates that the history of capitalism cannot escape its terrible and self-destructive laws. There is meagre cause for optimism at present, when many cannot even defy the consequences of recalling the principles of the new international economic order solemnly proclaimed by the Assembly in times that were supposedly less favourable for international cooperation.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The changes that have occurred between the countries of the North have no meaning for the majority of the inhabitants of the planet. If those changes are to make some sense for them, it is necessary to undertake decisive and effective action against the hunger and poverty which affect hundreds of millions of people in the third world; and against infant malnutrition and incurable diseases which are daily taking the lives of thousands of children in an ongoing and silent war that some choose to ignore. The economic crisis, the external debt of the third world, which has risen to the figure of $1.50 trillion, unequal exchange, and increased hunger and poverty have never been greater amongst the immense majority of mankind. Their effects are staggering even for the most solid economies of the world.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We hear unending rhetoric about the end of confrontation and the beginning of a new era of international cooperation, but it seems to exist only in the imagination of those so gullible as to believe it. If a spirit of international cooperation does really exist and if the cold war has ended, why are the military expenditures of the big Powers not being drastically reduced and why are the resources thus released not being channelled to the promotion of development in underdeveloped countries? How can it be explained that now precisely now attempts are being made to reduce international cooperation for development to an even more subordinate and hypothetical role, further to diminish the already limited presence of the United Nations in that field and also to introduce unacceptable conditionalities and restrictions?”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We have no reason to imagine that the effects of the present conditions of unipolarity and hegemonism will be more favourable to our peoples. On the contrary, dangers are greater than ever in the face of a triumphant ecstasy on the part of those who are in possession not only of the largest military power but also of an insurmountable historical ignorance and the most gross moral callousness. The cold war is disappearing, but the arms race is not being reduced in parallel, nor are militarism and bellicose mentalities being abandoned. If the danger of war has been reduced, why does the United States aspire to continue developing its military superiority, as was recently announced by the occupant of the White House? Against whom will the empire now direct its weapons?”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“While threatening with a battle which never occurred, imperialists used all their means and resources to invade, attack, repress and oppress the peoples of the South; many of their sons and daughters fell in confrontations which had nothing to do with the rivalries between the powerful, and they died without knowing how that antagonism was to be transmuted into a bizarre convergence. Just as the existence of the cold war did not alter the fate of the third world, its disappearance does not, so far, seem to be benefiting its peoples. The previous balance of power that contained the opposing blocs and avoided a direct military conflict between them did not prevent the practice of war, aggression and intervention against the third world.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The end of the cold war, and with it the lessening of the danger of a nuclear holocaust, should not be used to attempt to conceal what everyone knows. It is true that military confrontation between the super-Powers which threatened mankind with extermination never happened, and that the rancorous antagonism of yesteryear was transformed through the unilateral incantation of a baffling kind of alchemy into complacent subordination and a show of fondness. That that war never occurred is of course salutary and deserving of praise, but to identify with that fact the emergence of universal peace is an absurdity which can make sense only from the profoundly racist perspective of the new conquerors. The period which now seems to be coming to an end was for the third world a period of hard-fought struggles for independence and freedom.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Today, as in the past, the idea is to determine whether the future will allow human solidarity to flourish or whether it will still be weighed down by selfishness; whether it will one day lead to the emancipation of the dispossessed, or whether it will for ever perpetuate their tragedy; whether we are on the verge of a new colonizing adventure, or whether, at long last, hope will begin to emerge for the poor of this Earth. In recent years humanity has been surprised by a series of developments which have radically changed important elements of international relations and have led to an avalanche of hasty interpretations and conclusions promoted by the unrestrained haste of the privileged and the naive optimism of many others.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“But it was also witness to the heroic resistance of its peoples, which time and again rose up, pushed by the powerful and anonymous force of the Caribbean winds, in their eagerness to achieve their freedom. While the plundering of its resources and the iniquitous exploitation of its people led the Caribbean to its encounter with the rest of the world, it was the struggle to abolish all kinds of servitude and to have no master other than our own conscience, which shaped our profound and irreducible identity and allowed us to discover ourselves. The Assembly is meeting at a crucial moment of definition. Today, as five centuries ago, we are faced with attempts to reshape the world and reorder relations between nations.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“I wish to congratulate Mr. Ganev on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at this session. He can be sure of the cooperation of the Cuban delegation. We shall soon be commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the clash between two worlds and the beginning of an era that was to transform radically relations between nations. That dramatic and as yet unfinished piece of history started in the Caribbean Sea and forever left its mark upon the fate of the peoples of the area. Our deepest root, which gave us life as a nation and a place in history, is our rebelliousness. For centuries the Caribbean was the victim of the brutal greed of all sorts of intruders, the crossroads of slave-traders and pirates, of traffickers and invaders; violence and cruelty were its constant scourges.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“60. Such a people, heirs to such rich revolutionary traditions and brought up on so many examples of sacrifice and heroism, forged in the fire of these hundred years of war, may be destroyed but never again will fall to its knees. Homeland or death! We shall triumph!”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The people who produced Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the President of the Republic in arms, who died fighting alone against a Spanish column; the people who produced Antonio Maceo, the guerrilla leader of a thousand heroic campaigns, who did not live to see victory but left behind the warning that whoever tried to seize Cuba would only pick up the dust of its soil, drenched in blood, if he did not die in the struggle; the people which gave birth to José Martí, that sublime poet who marched to his death in the fate of the enemy cavalry and who taught us to use the sling of David against United States imperialism; the people who welcomed as their favourite son Ernesto Guevara, who gave up everything in the highest example of revolutionary and internationalist sacrifice in order to go to his death in a corner of the American jungle in order to save his brothers — such people neither bend nor hesitate.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“And it is in the same spirit that they are preparing to celebrate next year the tenth anniversary of the triumphant revolution which crowned the process of struggle started a century earlier. It is an optimistic spirit, which has its roots in our unshakable loyalty to the revolutionary principles, in our faith in the inexhaustible power of the masses, and in our profound conviction that peoples prepared to fight for their rights will eventually triumph. 59. A people such as that which I have the honour to represent here is invincible.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“While our workers are devoting hours of their leisure to sowing new land, building more roads, schools and hospitals and, in short, to creating greater wealth, officials of the Central Intelligence Agency are eagerly introducing saboteurs to destroy that work, in an attempt to undo the efforts of a small, under-developed country which is struggling tenaciously to secure a better life. 57. Our people know that so long as United States imperialism exists they will have to live in a state of constant alert, ready at any moment to defend with their blood that which at the cost of so much blood and sacrifice they have achieved. 58. It is in that spirit that the Cuban people are commemorating the centenary of the war of 1868.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“There are certainly many problems yet to be solved. The tremendous increase in the domestic market resulting from the land reform, the elimination of unemployment and the raising of the level of living of broad masses of the population who formerly lacked even the most elementary needs — all this, combined with the consequences of the ferocious imperialist blockade, in a country whose production was totally integrated with that of the United States, makes that easy to understand. 56. Nor should it be forgotten that our people are carrying out their gigantic work of creation virtually in war conditions.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“One of the most outstanding examples of progress is to be found in the field of animal husbandry. The massive introduction of artificial insemination and the use of scientific cross-breeding methods have brought the number of our livestock to its highest level and created new strains that are more productive and more resistant to the climatic conditions. 54, Besides raising our agricultural and stock-farming production, we have increased the output of various branches of industry which support agriculture, such as the fertilizer, machinery and building industries. Agriculture will give Cuba the means to accumulate the stocks it needs to enter without delay the phase of industrial development already envisaged for the very near future. 55. We are not seeking with these facts to give an idyllic picture of the situation in our country.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Because of all these factors, it can be affirmed that the target our people have set themselves, namely to produce ten million tons of sugar in 197C, will be achieved. The 1970 crop will be a sharp blow to those who have been nourishing illusions about our present difficulties. 52. The production of citrus fruits, other fruits and coffee is being expanded prodigiously throughout the country with a view to increasing both the consumer possibilities of our people and our export balances. Forty million coffee plants have been sown this year in the outskirts of Havana alone, and so far as vegetables, market-garden produce and reafforestation are concerned, the work achieved is without parallel in our history. With very few exceptions, all sectors of our agricultural production have developed to an extent unimaginable ten years ago. 53.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Through the large-scale use of machinery, the adequate use of fertilizers, rational use of the soil, the creation of a widespread system of irrigation and drainage, the introduction of science and technology into farming and the whole-hearted work of our compatriots, Cuban agriculture is marching along the road that will very soon place it on a level with the most advanced countries. 51. Special attention has been given to sugar production. The area sown, the new varieties introduced, fertilization, irrigation and the partial mechanization of sugar farming have brought significant changes in the growing of our traditional product. To give a single instance, the average amount of sugar cane sown each day is much more than double the highest average achieved in any year before the revolution.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Men and women are at this moment making brave efforts to boost the country’s economy. On the basis of an appropriate analysis of the characteristics of Cuba at its present stage, the revolutionary Government has laid down the basic guidelines fur development at this stage in terms of a rapid increase in agricultural and stock-farming production, and the bulk of our resources are being devoted to that end. Both the figures achieved and the immediate projections of our agricultural and stock-farming development bespeak the soundness of the policy pursued and the success of the people’s work. 50.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“in a country which for centuries was shackled by foreign domination, with a totally distorted economy entirely dependent upon foreign trade, a country whose economic life was based on the harvesting and production of a single export crop, with an almost total lack of infrastructure, an acute shortage of technicians and scientists, no previously existing industrial development and only limited natural resources and sources of energy — all this inherited from its former masters — the task of overcoming under-development is as arduous, as difficult and as heroic as was the long struggle for independence. 49. Today our people are waging war on under-development with the same spirit, indomitable will and determination to triumph as has always inspired the martyrs of our glorious past.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“We have banished for ever from Cuba those exploiters, politicians and parasites who for all too long lived at the expense of the sacrifices, sweat and poverty of the vast majority of Cubans. 48. We make no secret, however, of the fact that we still have a long way to go.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Today every citizen in every part of the country has access to free medical attention, and hospitals and dispensaries now form part of the landscape of even cur most remote mountain regions. Cuba has also wiped out the unemployment which in 1958, counting only those forced into unemployment against their will, condemned half a million persons to hunger. Today every citizen is assured of work throughout the year and a complete social security system which guarantees the well-being of the aged and the infirm. The evictions and unjust rents to which its rural inhabitants were subjected in the past have disappeared from Cuba for ever. A radical land reform has wiped out all forms of exploitation in farming and has given the land to those who had worked it painfully and hopelessly for years.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“After the first ten years of their revolution, however, the Cuban people can point to their achievements with pride. Illiteracy has been eradicated from Cuba for ever, more than a million children are at present attending school, tens of thousands of young people are absorbing scientific and technological knowledge in educational centres that are absolutely free, every corner of the country is a classroom where young and old are waging a determined war on ignorance, and very soon compulsory education will go as far as pre-university level. The laxity in health matters which in the past has led to so many deaths from curable diseases has also been eliminated in Cuba.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It has been said that the Agreement would be an instrument for gauging the relations between developed and developing countries and the possibilities for co-operation between the two groups in matters of international trade. The evidence could hardly be clearer. The United States monopolies have not the slightest intention of respecting the principles adopted by the First United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held at Geneva from 23 March to 16 June 1964, nor can we expect from them the slightest co-operation, not even for the minimum objective of the regulation of markets sought by the commodity-exporting countries. Moreover, we all know the outcome of the Second United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held at New Delhi from 1 February to 29 March 1968. 47.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In its determination to destroy the Cuban revolution the United States has brought all kinds of pressure to bear on other countries and in international bodies and is trying to drag the whole world, if possible, into its criminal policy of blockade. 46. To cite only the most recent example, it was on the instance of the United States at the last session of the International Coffee Agreement that our country was denied the modest export quota which it had always been allocated and that efforts were made to impose upon it other arbitrary clauses harmful to its legitimate interests. For these reasons, Cuba had no alternative but to withdraw from the International Coffee Agreement.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Mercenary invasions, the constant infiltration of spies and saboteurs, a total economic blockade, diplomatic isolation, armed provocations against our territory, threats, pressure and blackmail of all sorts, hostile propaganda campaigns, unlimited support for groups of stateless individuals who have taken refuge in the United States — of such has the attitude of the United States Government towards the Cuban revolution been compounded. The entire creative work of the revolution has had to be carried out in the face of uninterrupted harassment by imperialism and in the midst of a continuous struggle against an enemy with whom no reconciliation is possible. 45. The hatred of Yankee imperialism for Cuba has known no bounds.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)