Remarks by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodrìguez Parrilla at the solidarity meeting with Cuba. New York, 27 September 2025

Remarks by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodrìguez Parrilla at the solidarity meeting with Cuba. New York, 27 September 2025

Dear Comrades, friends, brothers and sisters;

Once again, we take advantage of our participation in the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly to meet with friends in New York.

It is an opportunity to engage with those interested In Cuba's role at the UN, our priorities and our views on the current complexities of international affairs, in particular the threats to countries of the South.

One of our priorities in this session of the UN General Assembly is to express our firmest condemnation of the genocide being committed by Israel against the people of Palestine.

The Security Council seems impotent in the face of such slaughter.

Should we accept that the UN has no responsibility to protect Palestinians or that nothing can be done?

Of course not.

As we deliberate here, 2.2 million human beings in Gaza are doomed to starve due to the acts of genocide, extermination and ethnic cleansing of the Zionist regime, which counts on the military and financial supplies and the impunity guaranteed by the United States government.

We have condemned at the General Assembly the complicity of some governments with the crime and denounce the inability of the Security Council to put a halt to the slaughter.

Cuba´s solidarity with the Palestinian people is unwavering.

We have demanded the support of the UN General Assembly to the unequivocal right of Palestine to be a full-fledged member of the UN.

We have defended its right to a State within the borders prior to 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem and the return of refugees.

The world, particularly the nations of the South, is faced with many challenges and threats.

We are burdened by an international, political and economic order that is unfair and unsustainable.

It is an order inherited from colonialism and neocolonialism, that threatens the conditions and sources of life in our planet; an order burdened by the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption of capitalism.

We have the duty to ask. Which is the alternative?

As we see it, the priority for the UN is the urgent need to create a new international order:

· that guarantees peace,
· that ensures the right to development,
· based on equal sovereignty among States
· that secures the participation and representation of developing countries in global political decisions

An order that would deliver the common good and prosperity in harmony with nature;

That would ensure the exercise of all human rights by all human beings.

Solidarity, international cooperation and the peaceful solution of controversies should prevail as alternatives to war, to the use of force, to aggression, occupation and exploitation.

We deserve an order free from economic blockades and unilateral coercive measures; an order based on multilateralism, the UN Charter and International Law.

At the UN we have expressed our deep concern about the provocative, extravagant and unjustified military presence in the southern Caribbean.

Can anyone seriously accept the legend that the aim of such deployment is to fight drug trafficking?

Certainly not.

The real aim is to impose a military threat on the region.

This buildup is a direct and dangerous threat of military aggression against Venezuela. It dramatically alters the climate of peace and security in the region, for all its nations.

The Monroe Doctrine is an instrument of imperialism, a tool of domination, that is rejected by the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

We have reaffirmed at the UN our strong and all-out rejection of the threats of aggression against Venezuela and our fullest support to the Bolivarian and chavista government of this sister nation and the Popular - Military Union led by President Nicolas Maduro Moros.

The Cuban people mobilize in support of Venezuela and reject the US threats by collecting signatures to endorse the Declaration issued by the Cuban Revolutionary Government.

We also reject all attempts of militarization, intervention and domination in our region, which was declared as a Zone of Peace by the leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean in Havana in 2014.

Dear comrades;

As expected, one of our priorities in the UN will be to denounce the unrelenting aggression of the US government against Cuba.

Our country is the target of an extremely asymmetrical war of attrition.

The US government is bent on destroying the way of life of the Cuban people, on making life as unbearable as possible.

The actions are not limited to the bilateral engagement between Cuba and the US.

It is an effort to sabotage or to put obstacles to Cuba´s commercial and economic relations with every country in the world, through intimidation and coercion against companies, banks, financial institutions and even governments of other nations.

Today, Cuba finds huge impediments to carry out its financial transactions, to have access in any place of the world to the technology required to repair, sustain and modernize its infrastructure.

The US applies and reinforces these coercive economic measures to provoke hardships and suffering.

The aim is to conquer Cuba, to dominate our nation and isolate Cuba from the rest of the world.

Consequently, our economy is on a very vulnerable condition and our people are facing unheard-of hardships.

The impact is both direct and indirect, and covers every aspect of life.

Our people are suffering many hours of blackouts, due to insufficient power generation.

We are facing:

· A depression in public transportation

· Problems with water supply and sanitation

· Insufficient health services because of lack of medicines, materials, equipment and other necessary requirements.

· A depression in real income

The cynical reality is that the US government claims that our current difficulties are not the result of such an unrelenting hostility, but the responsibility of the Cuban government.

They want you to believe that it is the fault of socialism or that it is a consequence of the Revolution.

Are we to accept those allegations?

Let me share some facts.

One of the main reasons for which we face problems with power generation is the insufficient availability of fuel. Yet it has been calculated that the financial cost of only two months of the economic blockade is equivalent to 1.6 billion dollars, the amount of money needed to satisfy the fuel requirements of our power generation.

With the cost of 5 days of blockade, equivalent to 100 million dollars, we would have the money needed to fully repair and refurbish one of our main generation plants.

The cost of 16 days of blockade is equivalent to 339 million dollars, the amount of money needed to secure the basic needs of the population in terms of the National List of Essential Medicines.

These are just a few examples.

We know, because it has been made public, which are the aims of the US government. They were expressed with full clarity in an internal memorandum of the State Department dated as far back as April 1960. I will quote some excerpts of that memorandum.

It reads:

"The majority of Cubans support Castro."

"There is no effective political opposition."

And then it adds:

"The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship."

And it continues:

"…every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba…denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government."

This, Comrades, has been the main goal of the US policy against Cuba for more than six decades, to make life as economically difficult and unbearable as possible with the aim of overthrowing the government.

They go to the extreme of attacking Cuba´s international medical cooperation which, during the past decades, has saved millions of lives and healed millions more in 165 countries.

As we speak, the US is carrying out a fierce campaign of propaganda to discredit this immense expression of solidarity.

It is a campaign based on lies, slanders and defamation. It is characterized by political pressure, intimidation and coercion against recipient countries.

Cuba´s cooperation is absolutely legitimate and totally coherent with UN notions of South-South cooperation. It is carried out through bilateral intergovernmental agreements, fully respectful of International Law.

Can anyone believe that we will step back under such pressures and abandon our internationalist commitments?

Anyone who knows Cuba understands that we will not be intimidated.

I categorically confirm that Cuba will maintain the commitments entered into with each and every country with which we have bilateral agreements on medical cooperation.

We are ready to face all threats and slanders without wavering on our duty of solidarity.

Currently, over 24 thousand Cuban professionals are delivering medical services in 56 countries.

We will preserve our willingness to expand our cooperation with any country ready to engage with us for the benefit of their people.

Dear brothers and sisters;

We are fully aware of the great challenges before us and the need to pursue our economic performance with creativity and the participation of all.

We are mindful of the need to move forward in the recovery of our economy and social services, in spite of the continuation and immense impact of the US aggression.

We are not sitting back with our arms crossed.

There is a comprehensive plan in place that is being implemented.

Some results have already been achieved. As our Commander in Chief said: "we will change everything that needs to be changed".

They are of a macroeconomic nature and, unfortunately, they are not yet felt by the population, but they are a sign of progress.
We are heavily investing in solar panels to expand our generation capacity.

We have succeeded in reducing our fiscal deficit.

We have managed to slowdown inflation.

We are expanding the creation of joint ventures and technology transfers in the field of biotechnology and biomedical products, including in third countries.

We count on our human resources, the scientific infrastructure we have built, the fair nature of our cause and the political consensus around the Revolution that includes, in particular, our youth.

We are confident that we shall overcome.

Imperialism cannot erase the unquestionable social and economic accomplishments of Cuba during the initial decades of the Revolution and its transformative nature.

It cannot obscure the bold transformation in the structure of property that led to the fundamental rearrangement in the distribution of wealth creation and enjoyment.

It cannot deny its impact in uplifting several generations of Cubans from the conditions of poverty, exploitation, imperialist domination, racism and inequality.

It will not break Cuba´s sense of sovereignty, patriotism, solidarity, unity, social commitment and revolutionary spirit.

It cannot make us abandon the path of socialism.

We are aware of our responsibilities and we are also aware of the solidarity that we enjoy from all over the word.

We are particularly thankful to our friends and comrades of the United States.

We understand that the majority of Americans do not support and would strongly reject the current policies of their government against Cuba, if they were correctly informed.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the many Americans and organizations that for many years have struggled to promote friendship between the people of the United States and the people of Cuba.

We are grateful for the expressions of solidarity and empathy, and for the material support of donations in these difficult times.

The historical leader of the Cuban Revolution Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, who spoke in this church in the year 2000, was a firm believer in the idea that a better world is possible.

He was also a strong believer in the notion that the only alternative for the oppressed, the forgotten, the discriminated against and exploited was to struggle and struggle in the quest for that better world.

Long live the friendship between the peoples of Cuba and the United States!

Long live solidarity!

We shall overcome!

Venceremos!

(Cubaminrex)

Source

• MINREX

Tags

• Cuba
• Solidarity
• United States
• Cuban Foreign Minister

Categories

• Ministro
• Discursos del Canciller cubano

Relaciones Bilaterales

• Estados Unidos de América
• ONU