YouSaid · the spoken record

ROA

lines on the record: 369
first: 1959-09-24
most recent: 1974-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
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

“Grenada is an island near to our own and, like Cuba, forms part of the same Caribbean historic constellation, a dialectic synthesis of races, languages and cultures and struggles which dovetail and fertilize each other. A common colonial and neo-colonial past generated our under-development and our dependency. But that same past gave birth to our rebellion and to our determination to be free. Cuba offers its friendship, its support and its co-operation to that island. 12. The establishment of Grenada as an independent country means one link less in the colonialist chain of the Antilles. But there are still fetters to shatter and therefore freedoms to win. Among the other nations of the area Puerto Rico is still subjugated and under the colonialist domination of the United States, against the sovereign will of the people.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“But it is obvious that after the recent changes in the structure of power resolutely supported by the broad masses and by the revolutionary and progressive political parties, it is cleansing and strengthening its foundations and, among the harassments and resistance of an outmoded economic order that is still intact, it appears to be heading towards democratization of the country. 10. The admission of the Republic of Bangladesh war* a long-delayed act of justice. Cuba fully supported the inalienable right of that people to national independence and was one of the first States to recognize it as a free and sovereign country. 11.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Yet we must be alert to the maneuvers and the plots of reactionary white settlers in connivance with South Africa and the imperialist powers to frustrate the freedom movement in Mozambique, Cape Verde and Angola. 9. We must in all fairness rely on the commitment proclaimed in this hall by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal [2239th meeting]. The new Portuguese Government has, by its actions, confirmed its anti-colonialist and anti-Fascist policy. As a consequence of the onerous legacy it received from the outmoded regime overthrown by the armed forces of the people, the new Government of Portugal faces difficulties and problems.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Am Hear Cabral, the supreme guide and national hero of the people of Guinea-Bissau, was our friend, our comrade and our brother. He died, vilely murdered on the very threshold of victory. But today, crowned with laurels, he is reborn in the thoughts, hearts and will of his people. He will continue to point the way even though he is dead. Let us not mourn his death. Those who lead peoples receive a lasting tribute by having their work carried on. 8. The people of Mozambique, led by the Frente de Libertagao de Mozambique [FRELIMO] is also now in the process of total decolonization through a fixed- term agreement signed with the new Government of Portugal, which is to a large extent the result of the struggle for national liberation in its colonies.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In accordance with its revolutionary principles, Cuba is committed to the battle being waged by the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America against colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism and, therefore, we celebrate as our own the triumph of the people of Guinea-Bissau. The Cuban people was not merely a spectator at that memorable epic. We supported it. We assisted them. Our young fellow-country-man, Pedro Rodriguez Peralta, was one of the international fighters who personally took up arms in defense of freedom and fought shoulder to shoulder with the brave and dedicated warriors of Guinea- Bissau. Wounded and captured in combat, he faced, with the unshakable determination of a Cuban revolutionary, torture and harassment in the horrible dungeons of Portuguese fascism. 7.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The admission to the United Nations of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the Republic of Bangladesh and the island of Grenada is a matter of great satisfaction for Cuba. While they are all milestones on the road to the universality of the United Nations, what is more important is the significance of their constitution as independent nations; it strengthens and accelerates the process of decolonization. The advent of the people of Guinea-Bissau to independence is the glorious culmination of a long and arduous fight that earned the admiration and solidarity of all corners of the world. 6.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The Cuban revolution greets the Algerian revolution for this well-earned distinction. 3. We are also very happy to express our gratitude to Mr. Leopoldo Benites for the excellent work he did as President of the General Assembly during the twenty-eighth regular session and the sixth special session which followed it. 4. The Cuban delegation wishes to renew its expression of friendship to the sister Republic of Honduras, recently beset by a devastating hurricane. My country has itself experienced the blind fury of that tragic concert of shattering rain, wind and tidal waves. From the very beginning of this sad event, Cuba, true to its Latin American and internationalist duties, offered the Honduran people all possible assistance within our means. 5.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“First and foremost, it bespeaks international recognition of the outstanding role played at this time by the peoples and countries of the third world, and, within that vast and stirring group, particularly those which have achieved their independence or are struggling to do so on the African continent. Furthermore, it symbolizes the new situation created by the growing convergence of the non-aligned nations, the democratic, progressive forces and the socialist countries in the arduous and determined under-taking to establish a just international order and to eradicate colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism as well as racism in all its forms and manifestations. We can conclude, therefore, that in this specific case those who honor that noble cause, by their words and by their deeds, are in themselves honored.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Mr. President, the Cuban delegation wishes to express joyous, friendly and fraternal congratulations on your election as President of the twenty-ninth session of the General Assembly. In addition to your known reputation as a revolutionary fighter in the heroic struggle for the national liberation of Algeria, you combine the skill, competence and prestige needed for such a delicate and responsible position. 2. However, we must recognize that the meaning of the unanimous election that brought Abdelaziz. Bouteflika, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, to the presidency of the Assembly goes beyond the framework of the outstanding personal qualities and abilities he brings to his duties.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“President Allende has given his people the highest example of heroism that can be offered. President Allende has embodied the best of patriotism, of valour, of honour and the combative spirit of the Chilean people". 271. The Cuban delegation renews its deep faith in the destinies of Chile and for the records of this Assembly we reiterate the last words of the revolutionary panegyric uttered by Comrade Fidel Castro: "Eternal glory for Salvador Allende, together with Che, together with Marti, Bolivar, Sucre, San Martin, O'Higgins, Morelos, Hidalgo, Juarez and all the great men who gave their lives for the freedom of our continent. The Chilean people will squash fascism." Country or death! We shall win!”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The CIA with all its resources is, and will be, the centre of repression. But we are convinced that the Chilean people will wage that war until the last consequences are faced. And, at the end, their revolutionary act will bury fascism in its own filth. 269. In this new epic struggle, the Chilean people will not be fighting alone. They will have the solidarity and support of Cuba and the socialist countries, of the non-aligned nations — in accordance with the resolution adopted at the Algiers Conference — and the support of all the revolutionary people and progressive Governments in the world. That solidarity and that support will not fail them. 270. But, over and above all, the Chilean people can count in that decisive battle, as the Prime Minister of Cuba said, on "the banner, and the immortal person of President Allende.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The Chilean people will now have to embark on the long and arduous armed struggle against colonial fascism, but they will find echo and support in the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who remain loyal to the Chilean people and to their constitutional promises "and pledges. By their own experience the peoples of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia know what the cost is, as did the countries that were earlier overrun by the Nazis. The Fascists will receive credits, weapons, and advisers from imperialism and its Latin American satellites. I should correct that statement and change the tense and say that they are already receiving them. Considerable North American credit for the purchase of wheat, and the arrival in Santiago of numberless specialists in counter-insurgency, are nothing but the prelude.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Luis Corvaian, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, is gaoled and subject to court-martial, accused of alleged crimes of treason against the country, a shameless invention of those who have dishonoured their country, those who have opened their country to all sorts of attacks because of their real treason, crimes and thefts. They have not as yet shot him but they can do so at any moment. Have there not been more than 10,000 shot and massacred there, * including the aged, women and children? According to the Washington Post, the CIA — which participates in this blood-bath — has assessed at 3,000 the number of those killed in the first days following the coup. 268.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“From all parts of the world, without distinction for political, social or religious ideologies, voices have been raised in horror at this orgy of blood and calling for an end to repression. "Slaughterhouse in Santiago" is the title of an article in Newsweek magazine. But these hardened murderers continue their ghastly tasks, blind and deaf to all human appeals. That was and is fascism. 267. World public opinion must be galvanized to call for respect for the life of the political leaders and the men and women of the country held in improvised gaols or confined in inhospitable islands, their heads against the very edge of the bayonets or their chins resting on a gun barrel.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The insatiable and bloodthirsty repression unleashed by the Fascist junta can only be compared to that of the Nazis in the occupied countries: summary executions, organized massacres, destruction of settlements, bombing of universities, horrifying tortures, concentration camps, the handing over of Latin American exiles to hangmen, night raids, burning of books, outlawing of political parties, banning of trade unions, the closing down of Parliament, aggression against embassies, attacks on merchant vessels, persecution of foreigners, violations of international law, and a state of siege. In one word: the resurrection of the dark and dreary spirit of the Middle Ages in the middle of the twentieth century. 266. This interminable escalation of terror sets the conscience of mankind on edge.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The captain and crew of the Imias are ready, in keeping with the heroic traditions of our merchant marine, to resist any attempt to confiscate the ship by force. 263. The statement by the Panamanian Foreign Office on this situation fraught with serious risks for international peace and security describes the matter very clearly and very precisely. 264. We denounce before the General Assembly this new act of piracy on the part of North American imperialism and we warn the Assembly that, if the Imias is not freed by those who have seized it, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba will take the necessary measures and steps to do so, both within and outside the United Nations. 265.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“A few days ago the Cuban merchant vessel Imias coming from Japan to our country was also arrested in the Canal, in the Gatun Lake area, and is virtually isolated by the North American authorities in connivance with the Fascist junta of Chile. 262. The arresting of a ship owned by the Cuban State is an illegal act which has grave implications, even for third parties. Violations of the norms of international law which recognize and safeguard the sovereign immunity of ships belonging to States constitute a serious threat to those using the Panama Canal, subject as they are to the same decisions by those who, according to the international regime agreed to, are required to guarantee freedom of navigation, security and neutrality of their waters.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“When preparing to cross the Panama Canal on its way to Havana, the merchant vessel Marble Island, flying under the Somali flag but under charter to the Mambisa Steamship Company, presented a request to pass through the Canal. The captain and crew were Cubans and they were told that the official in charge of the Canal had been told to arrest the ship because of an action in rem by a Chilean sugar company which demanded a payment of $4,235,298. This conspiracy on the part of the North American authorities of the Canal and the Chilean enterprise are political reprisals that violate the rights of free navigation through that international waterway. The captain and the crew of the Marble Island rejected the order of arrest, refused to land, raised anchor and left for the Pacific Ocean. 261.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Called upon a number of times to surrender and return to Valparaiso, the answer of the captain and the crew was that they preferred to scuttle the ship rather than hand themselves over to the Fascist authorities. I The Playa Larga was finally able to escape the criminal persecution and set sail for El Callao, where it arrived escorted by the Cuban merchant vessel Marble Island, which, for the same reasons, did not continue its trip to Chile. This gross violation of freedom of navigation and international law is already also before the Security Council. 260. The unscrupulous support of North American imperialism to the Fascist junta is brought out even more by its cynical complicity in the harassment and provocations against Cuban merchant vessels beyond Chilean frontiers.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“An Argentine patrol found them and took them to their barracks, giving them help and food, as was to be expected. We do not know what happened to the other two, who were arrested. Anything could have happened to them. 259. A Cuban merchant vessel, the Playa Larga, was also treacherously shelled and bombed in international waters. The captain decided to leave Valparaiso since he lacked safeguards for his ship and its crew. One of the crew members had been arrested and ill-treated on land by the mutinous Fascists. The Playa Larga was followed and shelled by the destroyer, the Blanco Encalada, and bombed by planes and helicopters. It was so seriously damaged that it was about to sink.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The first act of the Fascist foreign ministry was to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba, and we are proud: it is comforting and strengthening to us; with murderers, torturers and anthropoids we want no ties of any sort. 257. When the Cuban diplomatic personnel left the country, the Government of Sweden took over the representation of our interests. The Swedish Ambassador, Harald Edelstam, has in these dark and dangerous days behaved with a zeal and a solicitude which do honour to Swedish diplomacy and the Swedish Government. 258. Four of the very few Cubans who were still in Chile were able to get into Argentina after they had been abandoned in the Andes without adequate food or clothing in a temperature of 20 degrees below zero.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The Fascists also attacked our embassy, flouting the Vienna Convention, international law and the Charter of the United Nations. They wounded our Ambassador, who is present here, and an official of the embassy. But to their bravado and threats we always answered, "We shall defend the embassy, which is Cuban territory, until the last man falls." The complaint of Cuba on the matter is still before the Security Council. 255. Furthermore, the Fascists did not stop at harassing diplomats and technicians of socialist countries and diplomatic officials of capitalist countries. In a word, they gave proof of their barbarous contempt for civilization. 256.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Neither his wife nor his sister, who accompanied his pine coffin in a plane of the armed forces among stolid and insensible officers, was allowed to see his body. 253. But his last words will continue to vibrate in the air as an unchallengeable mandate: "Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men may overcome this bitter and grey moment, when treason is trying to impose itself. But you must know that, much sooner than later, the great road will open through which the free man can go in his effort to build a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers! These are my last words, being sure that the sacrifice will not be in vain. I am convinced" — listen carefully — "that there will be at least a moral sanction that will punish crime, cowardice and treason." 254.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“As Prime Minister Commander Fidel Castro has said: "Seldom in history was a similar page of heroism written. Never in this continent has any president played such a dramatic role. Salvador Allende showed more dignity, more honour, more courage and more heroism than all those Fascist officers together. His gesture of - incomparable greatness sank forever in ignominy Pinochet and his accomplices. His exemplary conduct morally destroyed fascism in Chile. Very often the unarmed thought has been overcome by brute force, but now we can say that never has brute force met such resistance carried out in the military field by a man of ideas whose weapons were always the word and the pen." 252. For more than 24 hours, the Fascists were silent and did not make known the death of President Allende. He was buried in secret.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In the red room, surrounded by a handful of courageous men, the President was waiting for them with a smoking rifle. He advanced resolutely on the Fascists, and a shot tore open his stomach, but he continued to fire on the murderers, leaning against a piece of furniture, until a second shot shattered his chest and sent him to the floor. Falling, his bloody body was riddled with bullets. 250. Those who survived this almost legendary scene regrouped, counter-attacked and threw out the Fascists , from the upper floors. Members of his personal guard carried the corpse of Salvador Allende to his office. They sat him in the presidential seat, they placed across his chest his presidential sash, and they shrouded him in the Chilean flag. 251.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“His answer was unshaken: "The traitorous generals do not know what a man of honour is." He remained calm, determined, courageous, at his battle-station and he would say later with lapidary sobriety: "This is the way we write the first page of this story. My people and America will write the rest." He saw many of his comrades fall before his very eyes, and among them his very close friend, the news correspondent Augusto Olivares, who stood out in those epic hours. While this was taking place, his private residence, his home, was being attacked by the armed forces with the brutality common to the bloodthirsty cowards. His home was destroyed, sacked, gutted. His wife's life was saved by chance. 249. And so the Fascists took over the ground floor of the Palace and, after a hard fight, occupied part of the upper floor.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“But President Allende, with a small number of ministers, collaborators and comrades and friends decided to resist. That man, who did not tire of advocating tolerance, respect for the law and peaceful settlement as well as the respect for the Constitution, grew until he achieved the stature of a hero. He replied to bullets with bullets. He held at bay the aggressors for a number of hours. He put a tank out of commission with a bazooka shot. He courageously resisted the fire of artillery, the attacks of the tanks, the bombing by planes and danger from fire. A number of times he was urged to surrender. He was offered a plane to take him to any other country with his family and those he might choose.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The State Department will later admit without blushing or without scruples that it knew of the planned date. 246. These facts are clear. They may be twisted or they may be denied, but the facts still stand. 247. At dawn on 11 September, the navy rebelled in Valparaiso. Their ships had sailed the night before, allegedly to participate in the so-called "UNITAS" operation, but they came back, they crawled back into port like foreigners, escorted by North American ships on combat alert. President Allende, as soon as he knew of it, went to his office after providing for the protection of his home where his wife was. The Palace also heard that Pinochet was false, a disgrace and a traitor. The army and the air force had joined the Fascist coup. The moment of armed confrontation had struck. 248.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“While the Vice-Admiral who represents dishonour, crime and fascism is here with impunity, demonstrating his foolishness with his bloodstained hands, on that same 11 September Admiral Montero was arrested and replaced by a raging gorilla, a member of the Fascist group. Officers and other ranks opposed to the coup were detained or murdered. Generals Guillermo Pickering, German Sepulveda, Alberto Bachelet and Jose Maria Sepulveda, the leaders of the carabineros up to 11 September, were arrested also. 245. The American Ambassador, Nathaniel P. Davis, in charge of Soviet affairs during the cold-war years and closely linked to Howard Hunt — who is involved in the filth of Watergate — travelled to Washington a week before the coup and returned on the eve of the coup.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“General Prats presented his irrevocable resignation to the President and Pinochet, like a witch in Macbeth, advised the President to agree to the resignation to appease the high-ranking officers of the navy and the air force, then committed himself to assume leadership of the army and to retire the other conspirators. But the only retirements he signed were those of Prats, Pickering and Sepulveda — all loyal to the troops and to the Government. 244. On 24 August the main officers of the navy met at Valparaiso and when their Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Montero, a true man of honour, arrived he was confronted with a request for his resignation. He replied that he could do so only to the President of the Republic, President Allende.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“President Allende called the Popular Unity leaders and the leaders of the Central Unica de Trabajadores (Labour Union) and told them that, in the light of the serious military situation, he had decided, in accordance with the will of the army leaders, to retire the Generals implicated in the projected Fascist coup. Among others, President Allende spoke with General Pinochet, who was at that moment interim Chief of the Army, and prepared an anti-insurrectionist plan. 242. More than half the high-ranking officers refused to condemn the ill-treatment of General Prats. Suddenly, among the Generals who supported the Minister of Defence was found Pinochet. 243.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The reactionary parties, with the Christian Democrats in the vanguard, broke off the dialogue proposed by President Allende and the Chamber of Deputies, by a mechanical vote of the majority, urged the Fascist military group to establish a coup with a statement to the effect that the Government of Popular Unity had shattered constitutional order. 240. The terrorist attacks on persons and public services continued. Buildings in Santiago — and I have seen this with my own eyes — were covered with this sinister slogan: "Djakarta is near." But the armed forces, those same armed forces that yesterday slaughtered the unarmed population of Lima, that later massacred the workers and today, in the name of law and order, commit crimes and tortures, did nothing then to stop the seditious escalation. 241.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“What came after was a multipronged political, military and popular action by President Allende to preserve the constitutional regime and avoid an armed confrontation, although he was ready to fight. Surrounded by increasing rumours of imminent army uprisings, in August there occurred — financed, organized and directed by American imperialism — the insurrectional strike of the truck-drivers which started in 1972 as an essay, to be joined by the professionals and an increasing number of tradesmen. The desire for the coup grew and became more forceful.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The abortive military coups of March and September 1972 showed the internal struggle in the armed forces between the sector that wanted the coup and those who respected the law, led by General Prats, General Pickering and General Sepulveda. But it was clearly seen that the strength of the armed forces was deteriorating when an armoured unit made an unsuccessful attack against the Moneda Palace on 27 June 1973. The Generals mentioned, leading their troops, put down that coup. As of that moment, it became obvious to the constitutionalist sector of the armed forces that its capacity to maintain internal unity and to contain the Fascist officers was being seriously challenged. 239.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“According to reliable testimony, the aims of the CIA in overthrowing Allende were the following: to restore the economic and political domination of the United States in Chile; to liquidate the relations of friendship and cooperation with Cuba and the socialist countries; to provoke the economic and financial collapse of the country in order to create conditions conducive to a Fascist coup; to jeopardize the participation of the armed forces; to ensure the overthrow of President Allende before 13 November; and to establish a dependent Government which would adopt the imperialist economic philosophy and serve the economic objectives of the United States in that country. 238.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“To prove this I shall give the code names of three of those seditious operations: Centauro, Yellow Star and Marty. 236. The military institutes, moreover, maintained excellent relations with the Pentagon. While the Government of Popular Unity found its international credit frozen, the institutes received from the Government of the United States millions of dollars and military equipment. 237.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“But it did not do so alone; it conspired with the reactionary parties and North American imperialism, the true leader and ideologist of the Fascist coup. It organized — and I want to stress this — eight special operations of intelligence, subversion and counter-intelligence, under the direction of the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA and the transnational corporations acting together with, among other Chilean capitalists, ' Matte, Alessandri, Bulnes and Edward, and with the reactionary parties and the Fascist groups. We have irrefutable proof of what I am saying and of the fact that the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party nominated a representative to these anti-national activities, a man called Felipe Amunategui, as well as Andres Donoso.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Three high-ranking officers of the armed forces were in the Council of Ministers from October 1972 to May 1973. Even when Salvador Allende visited the United Nations he designated as Vice-President of the Republic the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Carlos Prats. This trust and co-operation between the Government of Popular Unity and the armed forces rested on the understanding between the Government and the constitutionalist faction of the army and, significantly, occurred simultaneously with the efforts to overthrow the Government by the Fascist sectors of the army, the navy and the air force. 235. That sector, openly or clandestinely, conspired since Allende took over the presidency.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Lies are knowingly spoken when it is said — and you heard it yesterday — in a shameful effort to justify the overthrow of the constitutional regime and the nightmare of slaughter, murder, torture, destruction, raids and persecutions being lived through by Chile, that the Government of Popular Unity was preparing to exterminate the officers of the armed forces. What was being plotted was precisely the opposite: the Dantesque spectacle that has shaken the world. 234. The armed forces were never given much attention as regards their institutional development before the Government which was overthrown; nor were they ever called, as President Allende called them, to join in the national efforts at development and to share the responsibilities of government.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The President of Chile fell fighting. He did not stop shooting his rifle until bullets cut off his life. The last hours of this brave fighter are known because of the unchallengeable eyewitness report of his daughter, Beatriz, who was with him until she was ordered to leave, with other heroic women who were with him, because their lives were thought to be precious for the future struggle, and the testimony of some survivors, recently mentioned by the Prime Minister of Cuba. While they tried to hide it, the Fascist henchmen know full well that President Allende fell fighting against the uniformed pack of common criminals. 232. But before rapidly going over those shattering and shattered hours, I feel it necessary, even briefly, to refer to the background preceding 11 September. 233.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“But let those who try to turn back history and ignore the majority will of the people of Chile understand that, without being a martyr, I shall not go back. Let them know that I shall leave the palace of La Moneda when I have fulfilled the mandate entrusted to me by the people. Let them know. Let them hear. Let them understand it deeply. I shall defend the Chilean revolution and I shall defend the Government because this is the mandate entrusted to me by the people. I have no other alternative. Only by riddling me with bullets will they end my will to fulfil the programme of the people." And it was those self-same words that he repeated to others, and even to me, when he was speaking in the presence of his ex-rival for the presidency, Radomiro Tomic, and our Ambassador to Chile, Mario Garcia Inchaustegui. 231.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“President Allende fully understood the difficulties and understood the dangers, but he saw fascism being reborn; he saw the conspiracies falling one upon the heels of the other. And, confronted by that combination of forces fed by imperialism, he had only one decision to make, and that was to defend the process even at the cost of his own life." 230. Let us listen to what he said in Santiago on 4 December 1971. It was a statement of farewell to the Prime Minister, Commander Fidel Castro, and it was a statement that his generous blood consecrated a few days ago: "I tell you quite calmly, with complete serenity, I am not made to be an apostle, nor to be a Messiah. I do not possess the qualities for martyrdom. I u a social fighter who is fulfilling a task, a task that was entrusted to me by the people.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In those complex and hostile circumstances, the Government of Popular Unity struggled for three desperate years to fulfil its programme. They did what they could — and even more — to help the Chilean people. But, as the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba said in the statement he made at the enormous tribute paid in our country to President Salvador Allende, and as a gesture of solidarity to the Chilean people: "At least in these three years he and his workers and peasants understood that in the presidency of the Republic there was not a representative of the oligarchs, of the landowners and the bourgeois, but a representative of the humble, of the workers, a true representative of the people, who worked for the people despite the enormous difficulties confronting him.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“From propaganda they went quickly to action, both within and outside parliament — through the reactionary laws, seditious strikes on the part of the management, attacks against the leaders of the Popular Unity Party, street demonstrations in the aristocratic neighbourhoods, calls to the armed forces to overthrow the constitutional Government, and conspiracies in which, under the leadership of the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], the high leaders of the Christian Democratic Party participated, as well as the National Party, the Group "Patria y Libertad", and the big bosses of the dominating classes, the high-salaried professionals, the newspaper El Mercurio, and the officers advocating a coup d'etat, particularly in the navy and air force. 229.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The bourgeois parties and the Fascist groups would co-ordinate their activities to the same end and the mass communications media, in the hands of magnates and foreigners, started the most slanderous, violent and cowardly campaign that can be recalled. One would have to have been in Chile justly to assess the abject magnitude of this convergence of interests, closely yoked. 228.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“This series of realities and facts, furthermore, coincided with a reduction of the price paid for copper, the main export of Chile, from 75 cents a pound to 40 cents. 227. It was as urgent as it was necessary to meet the burning needs of the people and therefore to undertake the structural transformations that could contribute to that end. But he had hardly effectively put into implementation agrarian reform when the monopolizing of goods and the sabotage of agricultural production took place. Hardly had the nationalization of the great copper industry, then in the hands of North American enterprises, been approved, when the United States Government froze all the international credits that the Chilean Government had a right to call on, and organized a large-scale operation designed to ruin the economy and provoke a coup d'etat.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The heritage handed to President Allende was a gigantic hurdle that he had to surmount in order to fulfil his programme: a poor country; high unemployment; a society plagued by inequalities; the dominating classes safe behind their privileges; unbridled inflation; a bankrupt economy; and a State indebted to the level of $4,000 million, the heavy burden of the ostentatious policies of Frei, with his subservience to foreign interests. There was also a parliament whose voting power lay with the dominating classes; a judiciary which owed its existence to the interests of the status quo; a bureaucracy undermined by reaction, and armed forces which called themselves constitutional.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“He knew this at all times. But, until the Fascist uprising took place, he constantly resorted to all constitutional and legal ways and means to travel the road that he had drawn for himself. To all lights, it was an extraordinarily important experiment he was carrying out. to benefit all people; and it was for this reason that from the very outset that undertaking earned the sympathy and support of all the progressive anti-imperialist and revolutionary forces of the world. 226.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“And among the most obsequious and garrulous was the head of the junta, General Augusto Pinochet, a convicted Nazi and gloating murderer of the workers, for example during the Government of Frei. 224. In that adverse situation, President Allende began his democratic renewing of socialist efforts, sincerely convinced that he would be able to fulfil his programme ancl lay the groundwork for a more just and humane society in Chile, as he stressed in his first statement to the people after assuming the presidency. 225. The election of a Marxist leader to preside over a bourgeois Republic in a country which was dependent and under-developed was an exceptional event in history, and at the same time fraught with unknown quantities. President Allende was also aware of the other dimension of the process that he was leading.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Their main centres were the brutal National Party and the Lombrosian group "Patria y Libertad", seconded, with their own aims and ambitions in view, by the rightist leaders of the so-called Christian Democratic Party and above all by their main leader, ex-President Eduardo Frei, who, as Machiavelli might have said, combines the cunning of the fox, the treachery of the panther and the appetite of the hyena. Sometimes disguised, sometimes openly barefaced, we see the manifestations of that disgraceful plotting, the North Americans pulling the strings. The armed forces, under the then leadership of a man who was true to his constitutional obligations, apparently remained in their barracks and their highest officers never missed an opportunity of showing their loyalty, professionalism and non-political stand.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)