Resistência

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba, June 2, 2016

The sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela undertook a difficult but victorious diplomatic battle against the interventionist plans of imperialism and oligarchies, in the Extraordinary Session of the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council, held Wednesday, June 1.

The nation was able to reassert the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of states, and the right of these to choose their own political, economic, and social systems, without external interference, as established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government during the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Summit, held in Havana in January of 2014.

The hysterical, awkward, unethical manner in which the OAS Secretary General attempted to serve dark interests is surprising.

Mr. Almagro attempted to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter, in particular its Article 20, allegedly directed toward responding to severe breakdowns or alterations in constitutional order, which was not invoked at the time of the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chávez Frías, nor to condemn coup attempts which have plagued the region over the last 15 years, with only one exception in 2009, when the United States and some right-wing forces mounted strong resistance.

To do so, assuming authority which he does not possess, without any mandate from member states, with the support of elements of Venezuela’s coup-plotting opposition and other reactionaries with dubious reputations, Mr. Almagro wrote a slanderous, interventionist report, which he made public in violation of established procedures.

All appearances indicated that a triumphal parade was at hand, but the Secretary General, OAS bureaucrats, and their ghastly mentors forgot that we do not live in 1962, when with shameful complicity the organization tried and convicted socialist Cuba.

Making the difference were the tone of the debate; forceful condemnations of the Secretary Generals’ indecent role; the firm positions of ALBA-TCP sister nations; the calm, clear arguments of those who have chosen dialogue; respect among countries and peace as diplomatic norms; and the measured but firm Caribbean resistance to the treacherous conspiracy against Venezuela.

The Ministry of Foreign Relations considers what has now occurred in Washington as new evidence that Our America has changed, although the OAS continues to be an unreformable instrument of U.S. domination over the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, a reminder of what President Raúl Castro Ruz said in December of 2008, and reiterated during the recent 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, when paraphrasing José Martí, he asserted, “Before Cuba returns to the OAS, the northern seas will unite with the southern seas, and a snake will be born from the egg of an eagle.”

We once again reiterate to the Bolivarian, Chavista Revolution – solidary and generous – to President Nicolás Maduro Moros, the civic-military union, and the valiant people, the full support of the Revolutionary people and government of Cuba, and our unwavering confidence in the triumph of their just cause.

Ministry of Foreign Relations

Havana, June 2, 2016