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

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In 1959, after a struggle which eventually cost the lives of twenty thousand fighters, the Revolution triumphed as the legitimate heir to our hundred years of combat. 43. During the last ten years our people have been engaged in a titanic enterprise of creative and collective effort which will enable the country to scale the heights of economic development, wipe out the aftermath of centuries of colonialist and imperialist exploitation and at the same time organize Cuban society in keeping with the principles of socialism, abolishing all forms of exploitation and alienation of human endeavour. 44. This undertaking, however, has not been a peaceful one. The stage of construction of Cuba’s new society has run its course amid the unceasing aggression of United States imperialism.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“They took over our best land, were masters of the mines and factories, completely controlled foreign trade, arrogated to themselves the “right” to interfere directly in our internal affairs, wrested from us a part of our national territory, imposed — to govern the country — puppet cliques which for over fifty years plundered the national treasury, handed over the country’s wealth to foreign monopolies and by blood and fire repressed any attempt by the best of our people to achieve a more worth-while life. The Cuban people have learned, as have few others, what tyranny, corruption and poverty the domination of United States imperialism means. But the seed sown by so many sacrifices was bound to put forth shoots.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The single star, chosen by the Cuban patriots of the last century as a symbol of our nationality, represented not only the loneliness of a small people struggling against more powerful enemies but also the immutable purity of an emancipating movement which would accept nothing less than complete victory, whatever the cost. 42. The first half of the twentieth century was for Cuba a period of absolute domination by United States interests.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For three decades there raged throughout the island a cruel war of liberation, but one which led, not to independence, but to a new colonial yoke even more cruel and intolerable; this came about as a result of the military intervention of United States imperialism. In the nineteenth century the struggle for political freedom assumed even more dramatic shades in Cuba than in the rest of Latin America, because, owing to its particular geographical situation, our country was isolated from the rest of the continent and it was subjected before any other country to the voracity of the nascent United States empire.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“History and geography have linked Cuba and Puerto Rico in a common destiny; for three decades we fought together against Spanish domination and together we fell under the Yankee yoke in 1898. The Cuba that is now finally free, faithful to its mandate of fraternal solidarity, will continue to support the heroic struggle of the Puerto Rican people for the emancipation of their country and will demand that this Organization should stand by its own declarations and support the cause of Puerto Rico. 41. A hundred years ago the Cuban people marched out to their first battle for national emancipation.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Ever since 23 September 1868, when its first Republic was proclaimed at Lares, the Puerto Rican people have not ceased for one instant the struggle for their complete independence. 39. For the last seventy years the United States Government has denied the Puerto Rican people their rights and has held them in colonial subjugation. But all the efforts of United States imperialism to destroy Puerto Rican nationality have been 'n vain. Today Puerto Rico is celebrating its centenary with the same unshakable will to be free that animated the patriots of Lares. Yet the United States delegation has prevented the Special Committee on Decolonization from even starting to consider the matter, which is a classic example of colonialism. 40.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“We feel, however, that we must express our reservations concerning the use of this Organization as an instrument for the liberation of those countries. 37. The United Nations cannot achieve the anti-colonialist objectives it claims to be seeking while the imperialist Powers obviously dominate it. Puerto Rico offers the most flagrant example of the anti-colonialist farce being played here. 38. Like the Cuban people, the people of Puerto Rico are commemorating the centenary of the start of their struggle for national independence. Puerto Rico has a nationality of its own, one forged at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Its culture, traditions, customs and interests are completely alien to those of its colonial metropolitan country, the United States.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The underlying cause of the crisis in that region is the aggressive policy of United States imperialism, which culminated in the war of June 1967. In connexion with that conflict, my delegation wishes to reiterate in full the views it expressed at the fifth emergency special session of the General Assembly [1534th meeting]. 35. The Cuban delegation reaffirms its full support for the Arab peoples in their struggle to secure full national and social liberation and upholds the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. 36. In various regions an anachronistic colonial system is maintained, sometimes combined with shameful racist practices. The revolutionary Government of Cuba firmly supports the struggle of those peoples for independence and gives them its entire solidarity.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The Korean people, both in the north and in the south, have adopted that position and it is they alone who will reconstruct the unity of their country, despite all the machinations of imperialism. 33. As part of its policy of repression of the revolutionary movement and hostility to the Asian peoples, the United States Government is keeping the Chinese province of Taiwan under occupation and persisting in its attitude of bringing about the international isolation of the People’s Republic of China. In keeping with its principles, the delegation. df Cuba has once more asked the General Assembly to restore to the People’s Republic of China its legitimate rights in this Organization and to expel the spurious Chiang Kai-shek group. 34. The Middle East is still a subject of concern to the international community.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The entry of the armed spy ship “Pueblo” into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the intensification of Yankee provocations along the demarcation line and the frenzied military preparations of the forces stationed in the South, all point to the danger of an outbreak of war in that country in which this Organization might find itself involved, despite the fact that the great majority of its members have nothing to do with the imperialist designs against Korea. 32. The unification of Korea is of vital interest to all peoples who are fighting against imperialism and to achieve national independence. It is for this reason that all over the world there is growing support for the just position of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the independent unification of that country.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In order to do so, it is necessary that the United Nations should decide on the immediate withdrawal of the United States occupation forces, dissolve the so-called United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea and refrain from any future interference in the domestic affairs of that country. 31. In view of the latest events, these measures are becoming so urgent that they brook no delay.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It has existed as an independent entity for several centuries, long before the foundation of this Organization or the birth of the United States. The problem of the country’s unification is a domestic matter for Korea, and it is for the Korean people alone to solve it. Neither the United Nations nor anyone else has any right to intervene in the internal affairs of the Korean people. The fact that the Korean nation is still arbitrarily divided is due to the aggressive policy of United States imperialism. 30. The independent States represented here must strive to persuade this Organization to redress the policy it has been pursuing in connexion with this problem.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The discussion of the so-called Korean question is simply a manoeuvre designed to distract attention from the occupation of South Korea by United States troops, the conversion of that territory into a Yankee colony and the steady increase in armed provocations leading to the preparation of a new war of aggression against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 29. As has been shown in the fifteen years of its existence, UNCURK is no more than a provocation and propaganda agency at the service and under the control of the United States Government, its purpose being to perpetuate the artificial division of the Korean nation and to complete the colonialist absorption of the south of the country. There is only one Korean nation.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“To stress its lack of respect for the principles and rules of international law, the United States delegation forces this Assembly every year to discuss the so-called Korean question on the basis of the report of the so-called United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK). As we all know only too well, the discussion of this matter is a gross violation of the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of States, as also of the United Nations Charter itself, Article 2 (7) of which expressly prohibits any interference in the sphere of jurisdiction of each State. 28.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Our delegation pays a tribute from this rostrum to the Viet-Namese people, our brothers in the same anti-imperialist struggle, to the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam, and to the Government and Party of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam for their just, firm and courageous attitude of unshakeable resistance to the imperialist aggressor. We also send messages of solidarity to the people of Cambodia and Laos, victims of the threats and provocations of United States troops. 27. The Korean peninsula is another important focal point of international confrontation. In 1950 this Organization was drawn into a shameful act of aggression and interference against a small country. Since then the United Nations has served in that region as an instrument of the colonialist interests of the United States Government.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The right of small and weak peoples to shape their future with their own hands is being decided in Viet-Nam, as is the right of poor peoples, impoverished for centuries by imperialist interests, to achieve a level of living in keeping with historical developments, and the rights of the peoples who have been tyrannized by cliques servile to foreign masters to redeem their national values and speak with their own voice before the international community. 25. Viet-Nam will emerge victorious from the struggle that it is waging on behalf of all peoples. We are forced to this conclusion, not only by the deep conviction that nothing can halt the historic trend towards progress, but also by the concrete facts of the struggle in South-East Asia which point to the certain victory of the Viet-Namese people. 26.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Within the aggressor country itself, new contingents of young people and intellectuals — the more conscious sectors of the population — are day after day expressing their disapproval of a policy which is benefiting only a handful of powerful monopolists and which has earned the United States people the contempt and hatred of mankind. Large nuclei of the United States people are refusing to go on supporting a war which already constitutes a heavy burden for their country and which has dragged the United States into one of its most serious crises. 24. Today all honest men on earth feel as one with the Viet-Namese people in their struggle. Viet-Nam has become the banner of all revolutionaries, progressive people and patriots all over the world, for the fate of mankind is at stake there.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Not even the wildest spokesmen of imperialism are talking any longer about the possibility of a military victory. Politically speaking, too, the war is a complete defeat for the aggressors. Their hypocritical words about peace have been unmasked as clumsy manoeuvres designed to hoodwink public opinion and to stem the rising tide of world revulsion at their crimes. The conversations in Paris have laid bare the real intentions of the Yankees and their stubborn opposition to an unconditional cessation of the bombing and other aggressive acts against the territory of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam. In all corners of the world, the movement of those who oppose imperialist aggression is gathering strength.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The South Viet-Namese people, under the leadership of the National Liberation Front, are heaping blow after blow on the aggressors and reducing all the Pentagon’s plans to ashes. 22. For more than four years the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam has been subjected night and day to relentless bombing by the United States Air Force. Schools and hospitals, factories and places of worship have been destroyed and their rubble remains as evidence of the most monstrous crime in the annals of history. The Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam is also being subjected to numerous attacks by land and by sea and at the same time to an intense trade blockade. Yet it still stands undaunted in the face of Yankee barbarism. 23. It can now be affirmed that the aggressive policy of the United States Government against Viet-Nam is completely bankrupt.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The heroic resistance of the Viet-Namese people further proves that at the end of that road there is only one possible result: namely, the complete defeat of the aggressors and the victory of the people. 21. Against Viet-Nam, United States imperialism is using all its resources with the sole exception of nuclear weapons. It has concentrated over half a million Yankee soldiers on Viet-Namese territory, built dozens of military bases and is using thousands of tons of bombs against patriots, whose fields it is bestrewing with chemical and bacteriological substances. It is machine-gunning their villages, pouring napalm on their huts and torturing and murdering tens of thousands of the inhabitants. Yet the Yankees are being beaten.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The international situation is still characterized by the sharp confrontation between the deprived peoples of the Third World and the exploiting interests of imperialism. In Asia, Africa and Latin America millions of people subjected to political oppression, economic stagnation, technological poverty and educational backwardness are waging an increasingly obstinate struggle against the forces of imperialism responsible for their poverty and suffering. 20. The heart of that universal struggle lies in South-East Asia. The war of aggression unleashed by the United States imperialists against Viet-Nam provides the most eloquent proof that in order to achieve and consolidate their independence the small nations have no recourse other than direct and total combat against their enemies.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“17. The Cuban delegation is attending this twenty-third session of the General Assembly in very special circumstances. This year our people as a whole are commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of their struggle for national independence: on 10 October 1868, the Cubans rose in arms against Spanish colonial domination and, from that day, long struggles, hard trials and countless sacrifices have been needed in order to secure the right to the full exercise of sovereignty, which was gained only in 1959. 18. Today, a century after the first fight, Cuba raises its voice free and proud, free from foreign ties and domination and fully able to express the feelings of its people, in absolute independence and master forever of its own destiny. 19.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)