CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Pedro Núñez Mosquera, Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations

PLENARY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

AGENDA ITEM 63 a) y b). NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT: PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTATION AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT.

New York, 20 October 2009.

Mr. President,

Today, 20 October, our country celebrates the Day of the Cuban Culture. On today’s date back in 1868, in the city of Bayamo, recently taken by rebel troops, the Bayamesa (Bayamo’s song) was sung for the first time in Cuba. This march became our National Anthem by its own right.

Barely 10 days after the beginning of the First Independence War, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes set his slaves free. This was one of the most significant acts of justice of the young history of our country.

The historical bonds between Cuba and Africa go back five centuries, when over 1.3 million African slaves arrived in our lands. It is not possible to conceive the cultural and political history of the Cuban archipelago without taking the African stamp into our genes and social life.

Before the revolutionary triumph in 1959, the neocolonial political elites in Cuba, subordinated to foreign capital interests, made very little for Africa to take its right place in our society.

Only with the effort of the Cuban Revolution to build a new society, what our national poet Nicolás Guillén called Color Cubano or “Cuban color” finds real space, representing in that image what we are and what we aspire to be. Africa is an inseparable part of our existence, of our insular ethnos. For Cubans, Africa is an extension of our homeland.

The National Museum on the Slave Route, located in the San Severino Castle, in the city of Matanzas, inaugurated last June, perpetuates the memory of the rebel spirit of African ethnic groups like Lucumis, Carabalis, Congos, Gangas, Mandingas, Minas, Bibis, and Yorubas that, after being pulled out of their homelands, refused to accept their destiny decided by the colonizers at that time.

Therefore, no one should be surprised at our coming here today to proclaim with sound pride that the Cuban people has directly and naturally inherited the gallantry, bravery, and culture of the African resistance, which has been heroically struggling for centuries to overcome challenges that still exist.

Mr. President,

Shortly after the triumph of the Revolution, Cuba started modestly paying its huge debt to those hundreds of thousands of slaves who made Cuba their homeland, to the independence of which they dedicated their lives.

The deepest internationalist convictions of the Cuban Revolution have enabled our country to be constantly at Africa’s side, from the unqualified support to its anti-colonialist fights to cooperation projects in several fields of the economic and social development of the continent.

More than 381 thousand Cuban soldiers and officials unselfishly fought to defend the integrity and sovereignty of African sister nations during almost three decades. From Africa, we only brought the remains of our dead comrades and the honor of having accomplished our duty.

Today, over 2,400 Cuban collaborators provide services in 35 African nations with a view to promoting their development in areas as diverse as healthcare, education, agriculture, sports, construction, and others.

As in the past, Cuba will continue contributing its human capital and experience in the collaboration with several countries of the continent. Today, only in the Comprehensive Health Care Program, more than 1,120 Cuban medical doctors and health technicians work in 23 African countries providing services to a population of over 48 million people.

At present, more than 2,200 youths from 45 African countries are studying in our Universities and Polytechnic Institutes. Up to date, over 32 thousand youths from that region have graduated in different specialties.

For its part, Africa has always been on Cuba’s side. In more than 50 years of the unjust and cruel economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba, the African Governments and peoples have closed ranks 17 times before the United Nations General Assembly to demand the right of the Cuban people to decide its fate. We are confident they will do it once more next 28 October in this room.

Likewise, Africa evidenced its strong bonds of solidarity with the Cuban people after the lashing of devastating hurricanes in 2008. Once again, we thank the moral and material support we received from our African brothers and sisters in difficult circumstances.

Mr. President,

The African need to develop will not be met with rhetorical lamentations of powerful people, or by reviewing, time after time, the statistics referring to such-and-such calamities.

Inevitably, the current international system that plunges 80% of the world population into poverty so that 20% in rich countries squander world resources must be changed.

It is the same system where African countries are demanded to continue spending five times more resources in opprobrious foreign debts, than in health and education programs.

It is the same system where powerful multinationals strive to control African mineral resources; where, with a few exceptions, rich countries fail to comply with the humble commitments of official assistance, and an unjust regime of patents and trade prevent the development of African nations.

To address the African problems, we must get rid of the philosophy of profit at all costs that supports the current international order.

Our country will continue supporting the AU and all regional coordination mechanisms in their effort to find their own solutions to the African problems. However, Africa needs also the strong support of the international community. Africa needs an integrated approach from the United Nations for the solution to all problems related to peace, security and development in the continent.

Mr. President,

Cuba advocates for a more just, equitable and peaceful international order. That is the only requirement for Africa and the rest of the developing nations to face without absurd obstacles the challenges of working for the wellbeing of our peoples.

We do not claim paternalism for Africa, but equality of opportunity. Africa requires and deserves, first of all, solidarity and respect.

Our African brothers and sisters can always count on the unshakeable solidarity and unconditional support of Cuba.

Thank you very much.

(Cubaminrex- Embacuba ONU)