Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Campaign News | Tuesday, 13 May 2003
Cuba has nothing to hide, and nothing to be ashamed of
Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Cuba has nothing to hide, and nothing to be ashamed of
Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Cuba has nothing to hide, and nothing to be ashamed of
Last Wednesday, April 30, the Government of the United States released its
annual report entitled "Patterns of Global Terrorism". This year’s report once
again includes Cuba on a list of states that supposedly sponsor international
terrorism.
The government of Cuba strongly rejects, once again, the outrageous inclusion of
our country on this unilateral and spurious list. The Bush administration is
lying yet again to the U.S. and international public, in an effort to justify,
with false accusations, the cruel and inhuman policy of the blockade and the
relentless hostility and aggression against Cuba.
In doing this, the U.S. government loses even more credibility in its campaign
against international terrorism, by resorting to political manipulation and
flagrant lies against Cuba in its obsession to destroy the Revolution.
The U.S. government arbitrarily includes Cuba on the list of countries that
supposedly sponsor terrorism around the world, at the same time that it
continues to reject, through empty, irrational and completely unfounded
arguments, Cuba’s proposal to implement a bilateral program to fight terrorism.
This proposal was first made to the U.S. government on November 29, 2001, and
repeated on December 3, 2001, March 12, 2002, and December 17, 2002, during the
19th round of immigration talks between the two countries.
Petty electoral motivations in Florida, where the terrorist mob that has
organized hundreds of terrorist attacks against Cuba operates with impunity, and
a visceral hatred for the example and alternative that the Cuban Revolution
represents for the countries of the Third World, lead the U.S. government to
deprive its campaign against international terrorism of any possible political
rationality, by including Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Cuba knows, perhaps more than any other country in the world, what terrorism
means. Since 1959, we have been the victims of the most cruel and merciless
terrorism imaginable, very frequently sponsored, protected, funded and organized
by the U.S. government itself, and resulting in the deaths of thousands of Cuban
citizens.
The Cuban Revolution’s policy with regard to terrorism leaves no room for
questioning or doubts whatsoever, and much less so from Washington.
Cuba condemns all terrorist acts, methods and practices, in all of their forms
and manifestations, wherever they are committed, whoever commits them, whomever
they are committed against, and whatever the reasons behind them may be. It
further condemns any actions aimed at encouraging, supporting, financing or
concealing any terrorist acts, methods or practices.
Cuba was one of the first countries to strongly condemn, without hesitation, the
crimes of September 11, 2001. It expressed our people’s condolences to the
people of the United States, and our willingness to provide medical and
humanitarian assistance to the victims. It immediately offered to open its
airspace and its airports to receive any passenger planes that were in the air
and were headed, at that difficult moment, for the United States.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba denounces before the people of Cuba and
international public opinion the fallacies and lies with which the U.S.
government is attempting to deceive the world and its people and thereby defend
its aggressive and hostile policy towards our country.
FACED WITH THE REPETITION OF THESE FALSE ACCUSATIONS, WE FIND OURSELVES OBLIGED, ONCE AGAIN, TO PRESENT THE TRUTH
As part of its policy of global hegemony, the U.S. government has been issuing
its lists of "state sponsors of terrorism" since December of 1979.
It applies a wide variety of sanctions against these states, including economic
sanctions, blockades, the freezing of assets in U.S. banks, political isolation
measures, etc.
There are currently seven countries on the list: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan,
Libya, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Cuba. A mere glance reveals
the obvious political objectives behind the list.
In addition, since 1981, the U.S. State Department has issued a report entitled
"Patterns of Global Terrorism", through which it informs the U.S. Congress about
the international terrorism situation during the previous year, based solely on
its own unilateral opinion, with no legal grounds or international approval
whatsoever.
Cuba was added to the list in March of 1982. That same year, the annual State
Department report on "Patterns of Global Terrorism" mentioned Cuba for the first
time. Since then, and for 21 years now, the U.S. government has persisted in its
slanderous and outrageous accusations against Cuba with regard to terrorism.
Throughout all these years, the pretexts used to include Cuba on the list have
varied, but what has remained constant is the clear lack of veracity and
objectivity of these accusations, and the inability of our accusers to back them
up. The U.S. government has never succeeded, and never could, in proving that
Cuba has participated in any terrorist act whatsoever. Their false accusations
have become so thoroughly worn out over the course of time that some U.S.
government officials have even come to admit that the inclusion of Cuba is
simply a political tool against our country.
Since the mid-1990s, their false pretexts have become even more untenable, and
because they have been unable to come up with any new ones, they have been
forced to keep repeating practically the same lies in all their recent reports.
What are the fallacious claims used by the U.S. government to include Cuba on
the list of state sponsors of terrorism?
The presence in Cuba of Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) members.
Cuba’s provision of safe haven and support to members of the National
Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The presence in Cuba of U.S. fugitives.
The fact that an Irish Republican Army (IRA) "weapons expert" and longtime
resident of Havana was arrested in Colombia for allegedly training FARC
members in the use of explosives. Cuba’s "opposition" to the U.S.-led "coalition"
prosecuting the war on global terrorism and its criticisms of many associated U.S.
policies and actions. The sending of agents to U.S. missions around the world to
provide false leads
designed to subvert investigations.
On the presence of ETA members in our country
The presence in Cuba of members of the Basque organization ETA originally
resulted from a request from the governments of Spain and Panama, for the
purpose of helping to resolve a situation in the latter country that was
threatening to become extremely complex. Based on this request, an agreement
was reached in 1984 with the Spanish government, led at the time by President
Felipe González, and the government of Panama. In accordance with that
agreement, a group of ETA members traveled to Cuba.
The ETA members residing in Cuba have never used our territory for activities
on the part of that organization against Spain or any other country. Cuba has
scrupulously complied with the spirit of that agreement. The issue of the
presence of ETA members in Cuba is a bilateral matter, subject to discussions
with the government of Spain. The government of the United States has neither
the right nor the authority to interfere in these affairs, which do not
involve it in any way whatsoever, much less affect its national security, or
the security of any other state, for that matter.
On the so-called safe haven and support for members of the FARC and ELN
The organizations that the United States classifies as terrorist groups,
assuming a "right" that does not correspond to it, include the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), also
Colombian.
Talks between the government and the guerrillas are currently suspended, but,
as is known, both the Colombian government and these guerrilla forces agreed
at one point on requesting Cuba’s participation in the peace process, and they
continue to maintain this position.
Cuba supports a negotiated political solution to achieve peace in Colombia. We
are part of the Group of Facilitating Countries for dialogue between the FARC
and the Colombian government, together with other countries in the Americas
and Europe, and also part of the Group of Friendly Countries for peace talks
between the ELN and the Colombian government, in this case, together with
France, Spain, Switzerland and Norway.
Numerous rounds of negotiations between the guerrilla movements and the
Colombian government have been held in our country. The Cuban government’s
transparent stance and contributions to the peace process in Colombia have
been widely recognized, not only by the FARC and ELN, but also by the UN and
the Colombian government itself, which has publicly declared it.
The irrationality of this argument is epitomized in the State Department
report itself, which recognizes that "Bogota was aware of the arrangement and
apparently acquiesced; it has publicly indicated that it seeks Cuba’s
continued mediation with ELN agents in Cuba."
On the presence in Cuba of U.S. fugitives
With regard to the supposed presence in Cuba of fugitives from U.S. justice,
it should be recalled that it is the government of the United States that has
taken in, throughout all these years, and precisely as part of its policy of
aggression against Cuba, any and all Cuban terrorists or criminals who have
reached U.S. territory, by whatever means.
From the very first moments after the triumph of the Revolution, the United
States took in hundreds of dictator Fulgencio Batista’s henchmen, torturers
and murderers fleeing from revolutionary justice. In the more than four
decades that have since passed, it has maintained the policy of protecting and
sheltering any criminals who arrive in U.S. territory after committing crimes
against Cuba and its people.
Confessed murderers, terrorists, hijackers of boats and planes and criminals
of all kinds have been welcomed by the U.S. government, which has never so
much as attempted to send back any of these individuals sought by Cuban
justice.
Two extradition agreements have been signed between Cuba and the United
States, one in 1904 and the other in 1926. It was not Cuba that ceased to
honor these agreements. As early as January 7, 1959, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Cuba sent the U.S. State Department a diplomatic note requesting
the extradition of a number of fugitives from Cuban justice, Batista henchmen
who had fled to the United States.
Since then, scores of diplomatic notes have followed, demanding the return of
individuals who have committed crimes in our country and subsequently traveled
to the United States. There has never been a positive response from the U.S.
government to any of these notes. The United States has never sent back a
single fugitive from Cuban justice.
Recognized terrorists and murderers like Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch,
Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo Sampol, Leonel Macías,
Nazario Sargent, Francisco José Hernández Calvo, José Basulto, Rubén Darío
López Castro, Roberto Martín Pérez, Silverio Rodríguez Pérez, Rodolfo Frómeta,
Ramón Leocadio Bonachea, William Chávez and others who would make the list
endless, have freely walked the streets of Miami for years, without anyone
bothering them, with total impunity and privileges.
Cuba was one of the first victims of the terrorist practice of airplane
hijacking. Between 1959 and 2001, a total of 51 Cuban planes were hijacked and
the vast majority were taken to the United States. Many of those planes
remained and continue to remain in the United States, shamelessly stolen by
the Miami mob. A good number of pilots, guards and other individuals have been
murdered or wounded during these hijackings. The U.S. government has never
punished a single one of these hijackers.
On the other hand, between 1968 and 1984, a total of 71 airplanes were
hijacked in the United States and diverted to Cuba. A total of 69 of the
participants in these acts were charged and served sentences in Cuba. The vast
majority of them left the country after completing their sentences.
On September 18, 1980, after warning that it would implement this measure in
the event of any new cases, the Cuban government returned two airplane
hijackers to the United States, turning them over to the U.S. justice system.
In so doing, Cuba successfully eradicated the hijacking of airplanes to Cuban
territory.
The recent anti-Cuban manipulation around the hijackings of the DC-3, AN-24
and other Cuban aircraft and boats, of which our people have been amply
informed, clearly demonstrates that the same irresponsibility with which the
U.S. authorities have acted in the past continues to be the pattern guiding
them in the present.
Other individuals have been returned to the United States in more recent
years. As will be recalled, the Foreign Ministry Note of March 17, 2002
reported that on January 12 of that year, U.S. citizen Jesse James Bell,
charged with numerous drug-related offenses in the United States, was turned
over to the U.S. government.
Our country, moreover, has always demonstrated full cooperation in sharing
information with the U.S. authorities. U.S. prosecutors and investigators
involved in cases of drug trafficking, illegal emigration, hijacking, etc.,
have freely entered Cuba, and Cuban officials have testified in numerous
trials in the United States when the U.S. authorities have requested
cooperation.
On the presence in Cuba of an Irish Republican Army (IRA) "weapons expert"
This year’s State Department report recycles, yet again, the lie that first
appeared in the 2001 report. This issue has already been clarified publicly
and in detail.
The supposed IRA "weapons expert", Mr. Niall Conolly, was arrested in August
of 2000 in Bogota, Colombia, where the Colombian authorities initiated legal
proceedings against him that have yet to be concluded.
Niall Conolly lived in Cuba from 1996 to 2000; throughout that period, he was
in our country as a representative of Sinn Fein, a legal Irish political party
with members in the British parliament.
His activities in Cuba were always of a strictly political nature, in the
framework of relations with the Communist Party of Cuba and other political
parties in Latin America.
On Cuba’s so-called "opposition" to the U.S.-led coalition against global
terrorism, criticisms of U.S. policies and actions, Cuba’s supposed attempts
to "subvert" the post-September 11 investigation, and the supplying of "false
leads" on terrorists
This is, without doubt, the most outrageous of the pretexts used by the
government of the United States to include Cuba on the list of so-called state
sponsors of terrorism.
The government of the United States, in making these accusations, strives to
cover up and minimize everything that Cuba has done to fight international
terrorism.
With this fallacious argument, the U.S. government hopes to confuse public
opinion, by disregarding all of the gestures and actions of the Cuban government
since September 11, 2001.
In addition to the declarations made by the Revolution’s leaders regarding the
September 11 attacks, our initial actions, and the steps undertaken
internationally, of which our people are fully aware, it is also important to
recall:
On September 21, 2001, the Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) issued Diplomatic
Note 1613, which contained the reply to a request for information made by the
United States Interests Section (USIS) concerning a list of 25 individuals who
might have entered Cuba as tourists and were considered to be terrorists by
the U.S. authorities.
On September 25, 2001, MINREX sent the USIS Diplomatic Note 1621, with
information on nine foreign citizens who were in our country at the time and
about whom they had requested information from us.
On October 26, 2001, MINREX sent the USIS a Diplomatic Note which contained an
offer to sell the United States drugs to combat anthrax, at cost. The offer
was for up to 100 million tablets of Ciprofloxacin.
On October 27, 2001, MINREX sent the USIS, as a donation, 100 tablets of
Ciprofloxacin, which the U.S. diplomatic mission had requested for the
individuals who had handled diplomatic pouches suspected of being contaminated
with anthrax.
On November 12, 2001, MINREX informed the USIS of our country’s willingness to
provide, immediately, one or two high-technology devices developed by the
Cuban Neuroscience Center that could help the U.S. medical authorities
identify anthrax strains. It was further indicated that we were in a position
to manufacture a number of the devices to provide to the U.S. authorities,
with no interest in profiting from them.
We offered the U.S. authorities the information and resources at our disposal.
We offered them responsibly and seriously.
The government of the United States has not even had the political courage to
publicly acknowledge Cuba’s cooperation; on the contrary, it has shamelessly
lied, once again.
Our country has firmly and steadfastly opposed the wars against Afghanistan and
Iraq and the new Nazi-fascist doctrine that the United States is attempting to
impose on the world, and we will continue our opposition. We have more than
enough arguments and principles to back it up.
On September 17, 2002, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, Mr. Dan Fisk, erstwhile aide to former senator Jesse Helms
and one of the authors of the Helms-Burton Act, launched similar accusations
against our country.
On that occasion, Mr. Fisk accused Cuba of subverting his country’s
investigation of the September 11 attacks by supplying false, meaningless and
out-of-date information and using human and electronic resources to obstruct the
United States’ anti-terrorist efforts.
Mr. Fisk’s intent at the time was to use these lies to neutralize the impact
that would result from the so-called "National Summit on Cuba", an initiative
successfully undertaken by numerous organizations in the United States that
oppose the current U.S. policy towards Cuba, particularly the blockade, and
advocate a change in this policy.
That September 17, Mr. Fisk went so far as to say that Cuba had sent "at least
one ‘walk-in’ a month since September 11 purporting to offer information about
pending terrorist attacks against the United States or other Western interests."
As will be recalled, Mr. Fisk’s slanderous claims were immediately and
forcefully rejected by Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Pérez Roque, who
challenged Mr. Fisk to present a single piece of evidence that would back up his
accusations.
More than seven months have passed since Mr. Fisk made these statements, and so
far not a single official from the U.S. administration nor a single report
issued by the U.S. government has been able to respond to Cuba’s challenge.
In spite of this, the State Department has decided to resort once again to this
outrageous and fallacious claim as a way of reviving the unsustainable terrorist
file against Cuba. It has decided to do so at a moment of great imperial
euphoria, when the United States has succeeded in occupying Iraq, and when the
representatives of the Miami terrorist mob are demanding that the White House
repay their services by punishing Cuba as harshly and cruelly as possible, while
desperately trying to orchestrate new provocations to lead the way for military
aggression against Cuba.
We call on the U.S. government, once again, to present proof of this purported
sending of agents to U.S. missions around the world to supply false leads aimed
at subverting anti-terrorism investigations.
Cuba has been the victim of terrorism organized, funded and executed from the
United States
It is precisely the government of the United States that has historically backed
the principal terrorist and repressive regimes around the world. The U.S.
government was the main support for the bloody governments of Pinochet, Somoza,
Duvalier, Batista and Stroessner, the military dictatorships in Guatemala, El
Salvador and Argentina, and the apartheid regime in South Africa. Today, the
government of the United States is the principal ally of the genocidal and
terrorist government of Israel, which is massacring the Palestinian people with
full impunity.
On January 1, 1959, Cuba was freed of the terrorists, murderers and torturers of
the Batista dictatorship, who left our country to head for a genuine safe haven:
the United States of America.
Unlike the United States, Cuba is not home to the headquarters of a single
terrorist organization, like the ones that operate with impunity in Miami. In
our country’s banks, there are not and have never been any funds linked to
terrorist activities, although such claims been reported to the United Nations
and the UN Security Council on more than one occasion.
It is the government of the United States that is responsible for the
application of a terrorist and genocidal policy against Cuba, designed to force
the Cuban people into surrender through hunger and disease, destroy our
Revolution, and reassert U.S. neocolonial domination.
Cuba rejects the unilateral definitions of terrorism imposed by the government
of the United States, which completely lacks the moral authority to classify
Cuba, before the world, as a terrorist state.
Presenting itself as the leader in the fight against international terrorism
while protecting, encouraging and supporting the terrorist organizations that
have acted against Cuba for decades is just one example of the hypocrisy and
inconsistency of U.S. policy.
The government of the United States, which accuses Cuba of terrorism, was the
government that supported the bloody Batista dictatorship, which caused more
than 20,000 deaths in Cuba. After the dictatorship’s defeat, the U.S. government
funded, trained and supported the armed bands and terrorist groups responsible
for countless crimes against our population.
The government that is now accusing us of being terrorists is the same one that
has tolerated and even participated in hundreds of assassination plots against
our Commander in Chief and other leaders of the Revolution. It is the government
responsible for the sabotage of the French ship La Coubre, and the fire that
destroyed the department store El Encanto. It organized and backed with its
armed forces the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It is responsible for numerous
pirate attacks from the air and sea against defenseless Cuban settlements and
civilian facilities. It has supported the burning of sugar cane fields, machine
gun attacks on Cuban territory, attacks against humble Cuban fishermen, and the
murder of members of our National Revolutionary Police and Border Patrol Troops.
The government of the United States shares in the responsibility for the
terrorist acts committed with bombs and explosives against Cuban diplomatic
missions in Portugal, the UN, and in other countries, killing and seriously
wounding Cuban diplomatic officials. It is responsible for the disappearance of
Cuban diplomats in Argentina, and the murder of a Cuban diplomat in the city of
New York itself.
The U.S. government is responsible for the most monstrous and repugnant
terrorist act of all against Cuba: the blowing up in mid-flight of a Cubana
Airlines passenger plane, in which 73 people were killed.
The government of the United States shares in the responsibility for the
terrorist acts perpetrated against Cuban hotels in 1997, which resulted in the
death of an Italian tourist. These acts, as has been widely recognized, were
organized by Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, trained and employed by
the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
It is more than obvious that the U.S. administration is desperate to find any
pretext, no matter how wild their accusations may be, to try to justify to the
U.S. and international public their aggression against our country, their
hostile policy, and the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade.
Since the very moment of the triumph of the Revolution, successive U.S.
administrations have tried to portray Cuba as a threat to the national security
of the United States, thus complying, in addition, with the interests of the
most reactionary sectors of the Miami mob.
In spite of all this, in the last few years, there have been numerous statements
made by Department of Defense officials, as well as by members of the U.S.
military, both in active duty and retired, attesting to the fact that Cuba does
not pose a threat to the national security of the United States. These
statements by U.S. armed forces members and government officials clearly refute
the false accusations made by the U.S. government.
U.S. government support for terrorist acts against Cuba has caused the death of
3478 Cuban citizens and physical injuries to 2099 others, as is amply described
in "The People of Cuba v. The Government of the United States for Human Losses
and Damages," a lawsuit filed on May 31, 1999, to which the U.S. government has
never responded. Cuba reiterates once again its denunciation that the government
of the United States is directly responsible for these atrocities and must
answer for them to the Cuban people.
It is the government of the United States that is implementing a genocidal
policy against the Cuban people, reflected in the inhuman and irrational
blockade it has maintained against our country for more than 40 years.
International terrorism did not suddenly emerge on September 11, 2001. Both
before and after that date, Cuba has sincerely and responsibly cooperated with
the government of the United States. We have done this conscientiously,
convinced of the need to unite all possible forces in fighting this
international scourge, and following our traditional policy in this regard.
If the United States truly wants to demonstrate its commitment to the fight
against terrorism, it now has the opportunity to take firm action, with no
double standards, against the different terrorist organizations that have been
attacking Cuba from U.S. territory throughout all these years.
The government of the United States must set free, without delay, the Heroes of
the Republic of Cuba: René González Sehwerert, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Fernando
González Llort, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo. These
men are unjustly imprisoned in U.S. jails when their only crime was to defend
the Cuban and American people from the terrorist activities that continue to be
organized from Florida today.
Despite the grossly unfair trial held against our five heroes in Miami, the
struggle they waged against anti-Cuban terrorism based in the United States was
brought to light. They were punished solely and exclusively for having fought
against the terrorist groups that operate freely in Miami, risking their own
lives in the process.
The eminently illegal legal process in the case of our five heroes has
constituted a scandalous endorsement of the anti-Cuban terrorist groups that
operate there.
It is truly disgraceful that while our five heroes are unjustly imprisoned and
subjected to draconian sentences and punishment, with their human rights
brutally violated, the terrorists who have hijacked Cuban boats and planes are
granted easy bail or sometimes even completely set free in the United States.
This proves, once again, that the U.S. government does not punish terrorism when
it is perpetrated against countries that refuse to bow down before its
imperialist policies.
The government of the United States must repeal the murderous Cuban Adjustment
Act, responsible for the deaths of numerous Cuban citizens attempting to reach
U.S. territory, spurred by the privileges granted by this law.
The government of the United States must repeal the Helms-Burton and Torricelli
Acts, terrorist instruments that that violate international law and cause
suffering for the Cuban people.
Cuba can hold its head high and proudly declare that:
It has never participated in a single terrorist act against any country.
We have modern anti-terrorism legislation adopted by the National Assembly of
People’s Power on December 20, 2001.
Cuba has signed and ratified the 12 international conventions on terrorism
adopted in the framework of the United Nations system, responding to the call
from the Secretary-General of this organization.
We have reiterated our willingness to increase legal cooperation with all
countries, without exception, in order to fight this scourge.
We have maintained ongoing cooperation with the Committee on Terrorism of the
United Nations Security Council.
We are a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,
despite the fact that the only nuclear power in the Americas maintains a
policy of hostility towards Cuba that does not exclude the use of force.
We have ratified the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin
America and the Caribbean, known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which our
country signed in 1995.
We will continue to advocate international cooperation, based on respect for the
principles of international law in the framework of the United Nations, and
particularly the UN General Assembly, as the only effective means to prevent and
combat terrorism.
With the inclusion of Cuba on the list of "state sponsors of terrorism", the
government of the United States has demonstrated once again that what motivates
it is not a genuine desire to fight international terrorism, but rather an
irrational thirst for revenge against the Cuban Revolution.
The multilateral fight against terrorism cannot be conceived solely as a means
to serve the national interests and foreign policy objectives of the world power
that currently enjoys unipolar hegemony.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates, clearly and firmly, that the
inclusion of Cuba on the illegal list of state sponsors of terrorism and in the
State Department’s report on "Patterns of Global Terrorism", an action that
creates the ideal conditions for a possible military attack against Cuba, does
not intimidate us in the slightest. If that was the goal of the people in the
Bush Administration, they are wasting their time.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba condemns and rejects with all its force
this new attack by the Unite
