[Marxism] Cuba will not return to the OAS - Declaration of the Revolutionary Government

["Lüko Willms" <lueko.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From Granma Int'l 
<http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/junio/lun8/Declaration.html>

> Spanish original 
<http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/06/08/nacional/artic05.html>

--------- full english translation ---------------------



Declaration of the Revolutionary Government

IN an act of unusual historic significance, the OAS has just formally buried 
the shameful resolution which excluded Cuba from the Inter-American System 
in 1962.

That decision was despicable and illegal, contrary to the declared aims and 
principles of the OAS Constitution. It was, at the same time, consistent with 
the trajectory of this organization; with the motive for which was created, 
promoted and defended by the United States. It was consistent with its role as 
an instrument of U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere and with Washington's 
capacity to impose its will on Latin America at the historic moment in which 
the Cuban Revolution triumphed.

Today, Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing another reality. The 
decision adopted at the 39th session of the OAS General is the fruit of the 
will of governments more committed to their peoples, with the region's real 
problems and with a sense of independence that, unfortunately, did not 
prevail in 1962. Cuba acknowledges the merit of the governments that have 
undertaken to formally erase that resolution, referred to in that meeting as 
"an unburied corpse."

The decision to rescind Resolution 6 of the 8th OAS Meeting of Consultation 
of Ministers of Foreign Affairs constitutes an unquestioned disrespect for the 
U.S. policy on Cuba followed since 1959. It pursues the aim of repairing a 
historic injustice and is a vindication for the Cuban people and peoples of the 
Americas.

Despite the last-minute consensus achieved, that decision was adopted 
against Washington's will and in the face of intensive moves and pressure 
exerted by governments in the region. In that way, it dealt imperialism a 
defeat using its very own instrument.

Cuba welcomes with satisfaction this expression of sovereignty and 
civic-mindedness, while thanking those governments which, with a spirit of 
solidarity, independence and justice, have defended Cuba's right to return to 
the organization. It also understands the desire to free the OAS from a stigma 
that has remained as a symbol of the organization's servility.

However, Cuba once again confirms that it will not return to the OAS.

Since the triumph of the Revolution, the Organization of American States has 
played an active role in Washington's policy of hostility against Cuba. It made 
the economic blockade official, ruled on the embargo of weapons and 
strategic products, and stipulated member countries' obligatory breaking off 
of diplomatic relations with our revolutionary state. Despite the exclusion in 
place, over the years it even tried to keep Cuba under its authority and to 
subject it to its own jurisdiction and that of its specialized agencies. This 
is 
an organization with a role and a trajectory that Cuba repudiates.

The Cuban people were able to resist the aggressions and the blockade, 
overcome the diplomatic, political, and economic isolation, and face, on their 
own, without yielding, the persistent aggressiveness of the most powerful 
empire known to the planet.

Today our country enjoys diplomatic relations with all the countries of the 
hemisphere apart from the United States. It is developing broad links of 
friendship and cooperation with the majority of them.

Moreover, Cuba has won its full independence and is marching unstoppably 
toward a society that is more just, equitable, and full of solidarity every day.

It has done so with supreme heroism and sacrifice, and with the solidarity of 
the peoples of the Americas. It shares values that are contrary to those of 
neoliberal and egotistical capitalism promoted by the OAS, and feels that it 
has the right and the authority to say "no" to the idea of joining a body in 
which the United States still exercises oppressive control. The peoples and 
governments of the region will understand this just position.

Today it can be understood more clearly than in 1962 that it is the OAS that 
is incompatible with the most pressing desires of the peoples of Latin 
America and the Caribbean, that it is incapable of representing their values, 
interests and genuine yearning for democracy; it is the OAS that has been 
unable to solve the problems of inequality, disparities in wealth, corruption, 
foreign intervention, and the predatory actions of transnational capital. It is 
the OAS that has remained silent in the face of the most horrendous crimes, 
communes with the interests of imperialism, and conspires against and 
subverts governments genuinely and legitimately constituted with 
demonstrable popular support.

The speeches and declarations of San Pedro Sula have been more than 
eloquent. Well-founded criticisms of the organization's anachronism, given its 
divorce from continental realities and its disgraceful record, cannot be 
ignored.

The demands to end, once and for all, the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba 
reflect the growing and unstoppable sentiment of an entire hemisphere. The 
spirit of independence represented there by the many that spoke is the one 
with which Cuba identifies.

Aspirations for the integration and coordination of Latin America and the 
Caribbean are increasingly manifest. Cuba is actively participating in, and 
proposes continuing to do so, the representative regional mechanisms of 
what José Martí called "Our America," from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, 
including all of the Caribbean islands.

Strengthening, expanding and harmonizing those bodies and groups is the 
path chosen by Cuba; not the outlandish illusion of returning to an 
organization that does not allow reform and that has been condemned by 
history.

The response of the people of Cuba to the ignominious 8th Meeting of 
Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OAS was the Second 
Declaration of Havana, approved in a mass assembly on February 4, 1962 by 
more than one million Cubans in the Plaza de la Revolución.

The declaration textually affirmed:

"...Great as was the epic of Latin American independence, heroic as was that 
struggle, today's generation of Latin Americans is called upon to engage in 
an epic which is even greater and more decisive for humanity. For that 
struggle was for liberation from Spanish colonial power, from a decadent 
Spain invaded by Napoleon's armies. Today the call for struggle is for 
liberation from the most powerful imperial metropolis in the world, from the 
most important force in the imperialist world and to render humanity an even 
greater service than that rendered by our predecessors.

"...For this great humanity has said, "Enough!" and has begun to march. And 
its march of giants will not be halted until they conquer real independence, 
for which they have died in vain more than once."

We will be loyal to these ideas which have made it possible for our people to 
maintain Cuba free, sovereign and independent.

Havana, June 8, 2009

Translated by Granma International 

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Yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------

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