The policy of hostility, blockade and aggression adopted by successive U.S. administrations against the self-determination and sovereignty of the Cuban nation —a policy that includes the unjust anti-Cuban campaign in the Commission on Human Rights— did not begin with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, nor with the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Revolution in 1961. This hostility and aggression have been consistent patterns of conduct for over 200 years, the result of the imperialist appetites that have determined policies towards the island from within the power circles of the superpower. The United States’ economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba is one of the most significant massive, flagrant and systematic violations of the human rights of the Cuban people generated by the policy of hostility towards the Cuban nation, but it is not the only one.

The Cuban people have been victims of mercenary invasions, biological warfare, radio and television aggression, outside encouragement of illegal and violent emigration, assassination plots against its top leaders, and acts of sabotage and terrorism that have caused material damages totaling 54 billion dollars, the deaths of 3,478 Cuban citizens, and permanent disability for 2099 more.

The resolution against Cuba in the Commission on Human Rights is a manipulative maneuver on the part of the United States. It does not matter if responsibility for authorship is publicly assumed by some other government; the facts demonstrate that the texts of successive anti-Cuban draft resolutions have been conceived in Washington, and the adoption of these resolutions has only been made possible through the pressures exerted directly by the superpower.

The Bush Administration’s aggressive actions, hostile measures, provocations and threatening statements against Cuba over the last three years have seriously intensified over the course of 2003 and the first months of 2004. The possibility of a military attack on the island is very much a reality today; it has been demonstrated in this report. Those who have joined in the support of the anti-Cuban campaign in the CHR are acting in complicity with the unjust fabrication of pretexts to set the stage for a military attack on Cuba.

The measures sovereignly adopted by Cuba in the trial and sentencing of mercenaries in the service of the superpower or of terrorists – measures implemented for the legitimate defense of the nation, with full respect for the law and as an urgent requirement of national security – cannot be judged without taking into account the unprecedented rise in U.S. hostility towards the Cuban people and the imminent threat of a military attack that would end its very existence as an independent nation.

The media campaign orchestrated by Washington to present the sentenced mercenaries as alleged “journalists, trade unionists and peaceful political opponents” is an insult to the just cause of human rights and outrageously untrue. No one was sentenced for expressing opinions or ideas, or for exercising any of the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All were tried with full respect for the procedures of due process and all of those sentenced were provided with evidence of the serious charges that determined the decisions adopted by the courts. They are now serving their sentences in the conditions of dignity, proper care and respect that are guaranteed to all Cubans and foreigners sentenced to jail terms in Cuba.

Cuba has fully cooperated and will continue to cooperate with all of the non-discriminatory and universally applied procedures and mechanisms of the United Nations human rights machinery. However, it cannot recognize or cooperate with the implementation of the spurious anti-Cuban resolutions imposed in the Commission by the superpower, the basis for the mandate of the so-called “Personal Representative” of the High Commissioner for Cuba. As was the case in the past with the so-called Special Rapporteur, this new procedure will disappear one day when justice is able to prevail once again, and the person assigned this illegitimate mandate will never exercise it on Cuban territory.

The Cuban people’s resistance and determination to fight until victorious are continuously subjected to arduous tests. Five young men who fought terrorism and defended the human rights of the Cuban people are being arbitrarily held in U.S. prisons and subjected, along with their families, to the cruelest forms of psychological torture. The Cuban people, with the solidarity of a great many honorable people from around the world, including the United States itself, are demanding their release and their right to return to their homeland.

Despite the inherited conditions of underdevelopment and the asphyxiating blockade imposed by the government of the United States, the Cuban people have been able to make significant advances in the revolutionary transformations aimed at building a society that is ever more just and equitable, one that guarantees ample possibility for the exercise of democratic participation by all citizens. The institutions and components of a state that recognizes the power of the masses of workers, intellectuals, professionals and artists work together with a large and active civil society, giving every Cuban citizen effective and systematic participation in the decisions that affect their present and will determine their future.

The Cuban people will continue to fight to defend their rights to self-determination, development, peace and a more just and equitable international order, in which the goal of All Human Rights for All can finally become a reality. To achieve these just demands, they are willing to offer up all of their talent, sweat and blood, if necessary.