INTRODUCTION

This document affords the reader the opportunity to get to know Cuba's position with respect to the spurious anti-Cuban maneuvers that the US government contrives each year at the Commission on Human Rights —pressuring and blackmailing nations in the crudest of fashions— in order to discredit Cuba’s exemplary achievements in the area of human rights.

This document complements the official documents distributed during the 59th, 60th and 61st sessions of the Commission on Human Rights, under the codes of E/CN.4/2003/G/37, E/CN.4/2004/G/46, E/CN.4/2005/G/39, E/CN.4/2005/G/26, E/CN.4/2005/G/41, E/CN.4/2005/G/42 and E/CN.4/2005/G/43, respectively. These reports have offered detailed accounts of the most significant achievements of the Cuban people, who have freely chosen to build and ever fairer and more equal society.

Cuba does not and shall never recognize the legitimacy of the anti-Cuban resolutions foisted upon the Commission on Human Rights by Washington representatives. Nor shall it recognize any mechanism or position authorized by these texts, including the Personal Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, conceived by the United States to step up its campaigns of misinformation and aggression against the Cuban people.

In its efforts to steer the Commission towards an anti-Cuban position, the United States has had the conspiratorial and active support of the governments of other industrialized nations, especially of those who have been taken in under the empire's wings, anxious to get their hands on the juicy leftovers of US imperialist circles. These governments have kowtowed to and fully supported Washington's policy of hostility towards Cuba.

Like any other responsible member of the international community, Cuba cannot, through silence and resignation, become the accomplice to a maneuver that spells the death of the credibility of the entire international human rights cooperation system.

Today, faced with the intensified policies of hostility, aggression and blockade of the Bush administration, Cuba's independence and sovereign existence are imperiled as never before.

The design and implementation of a markedly aggressive and fascist-like imperialist foreign policy has coincided with the unprecedented levels of access to US decision-making mechanisms that have been granted Miami's terrorist and anti-Cuban mob. Never before have plans to invade and annex Cuba been taken to such extremes.

The decisions, actions and statements of important figures in the Bush administration are characterized by ever more aggressive threats and provocations towards the Cuban people. An eventual military action in Cuba has not been discarded as an option by Washington, and it shall remain a possibility for the duration of the president's second term in the White House. In the chapters that make up this report, abundant information is provided in this connection.

Unmasking the lies about our country divulged by the transnational mass media which responds to the empire's interests, this report gives a brief account of some of Cuba's most significant achievements in its efforts to promote and protect the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of all Cubans.

The document denounces the numerous and continuing terrorist and mercenary actions against Cuba that are perpetrated by groups which operate with impunity from US soil, groups which, no few times, have been trained, supported and financed by that country’s authorities. It also condemns the arbitrary detention of and the unjust and cruel treatment to which five young Cubans —five heroes who fight against terrorism and have earned for themselves the admiration and respect of all Cubans and those who demand justice— are subjected to in the United States.

Though Cuba firmly repudiates the United States' anti-Cuban maneuver at the Commission on Human Rights, it continues to fully cooperate with all universal and non-discriminatory human rights mechanisms of the United Nations system.

There is no legitimate reason or justification for any government on the planet to question or condemn Cuba's human rights record at the Commission on Human Rights or any other institution of its nature. Few are the governments that have done so much in defense of the human rights of their people as has Cuba over the last 47 years. All honest people in the world know this perfectly well.

Many are the nations who have benefited from the Cuban people’s permanent and altruistic commitment to advance human rights in all parts of the world. Hundred of Cubans spilt their blood, fighting next to their African brothers, in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid in Africa. Thousands of Cuban health professionals, teachers, sport coaches and experts working in the most varied areas of knowledge have traveled to the most remote villages, mountains and inaccessible places in many Latin American, Caribbean, African and Asian countries to share Cuba’s achievements with these peoples, especially its invaluable human capital, in spite of its modest resources, its condition of South country and the criminal blockade it endures.

Cuba knows that the government of the United States shall continue to resort to lies and pressures to continue pursuing its anti-Cuban agenda at the Commission on Human Rights and its future Council; it cannot do without these heinous fabrications, it needs a pretext to continue intensifying its policy of hostility, aggression and blockade against the Cuban people and to destroy the example that its spirit of resistance and its determination to be sovereign and independent represents.

The Cuban people reaffirms its determination to continue struggling until truth is victorious and calls on the solidarity and support of all individuals, peoples and governments in the world who value dignity and justice as principles to be defended at any cost.