11-9-06, 7:15 p.m.

The proposed amendment presented by Australia to the draft resolution entitled 'Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba' is unacceptable to the Cuban people. The decision to present such amendment has resulted from the pressures of the Washington authorities to impact the overwhelming pattern of votes in favor of the draft resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly every year on the issue and which in 2006 rose to 182 countries.

Why did the United States decide to keep this amendment unrevealed until today? There is a simple answer to it. They cannot sustain and provide arguments for it in a public debate and have resorted to the surprise factor, seeking to confuse some and pretending to deceive others. Nor was it easy for them to find a government willing to take on the unworthy role of go-between for the imperial interests.

Last 17 October 2006, Cuba started to circulate the draft resolution to be adopted. From that date onwards, numerous bilateral consultations were held with the concerned delegations. Until today, no delegation has requested that our country introduce any changes whatsoever to the text of the draft which, for all intents and purposes, is practically the same adopted by the General Assembly in the last few years.

The agenda item to be debated tomorrow 8 November is very clear and specific. Human rights issues are addressed under the relevant agenda items of this Assembly. There are specialized bodies to adopt decisions in that area, both the Third Committee and the Human Rights Council.

If the United States were really interested in the respect for and the enjoyment of the human rights of the Cuban people, it would have already ended its inhumane policy of blockade and hostility against Cuban men and women, against its elderly people and its children, for it even affects their chances for the full enjoyment of the rights to food and health.

If the United States were concerned about human rights, it would have already closed down its center for arbitrary detentions and torture in Guantanamo and would have allowed the Cuban people to exercise their right to self-determination on that portion of their territory illegally occupied by the US Naval Base.

The United States, through this amendment whose public sponsorship has been taken on by Australia, intends to legitimize the pretext that it has fabricated in order to provide continuity to and further tighten their blockade policy against the Cuban people, a policy that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the international community and which runs counter to the most basic norms of International Law. Voting in favor of the resolution presented by Cuba is also to reject the enforcement, by the United States, of a policy that is overtly extraterritorial.

Voting in favor of the US amendment presented by Australia would be tantamount to assisting in the fabrication of the pretext allegedly used to justify the blockade against Cuba and the International Law violations that it entails.

Cuba requests all States to vote in favor of the non-action motion that will put before the General Assembly regarding the U.S. amendment presented by Australia. On the one hand it constitutes a manipulation by the Government of the United States in order to try to justify its continuous violation of the norms of International Law. On the other hand, the draft resolution being now considered, does not deal with Cuba, but with the measures adopted against it which, by their extraterritorial nature, affect all countries in the world. Finally, this amendment is not relevant. This is neither the body nor the item of the Agenda to discuss the issues referred to in the U.S. amendment presented by Australia.