New York, 26 September 2019. In his statement during the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), at the United Nations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla warned about the extremely complex current world scenario, characterized by the increase in military expenditures, the modernization of nuclear weapons and the proliferation of unconventional warfare, politicization and double standards in addressing the human rights issue; violations of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, including acts or threats of aggression, interference in the internal affairs of States to undermine their political independence and territorial integrity.
The Cuban Minister, who headed his country's delegation, took the opportunity to strongly condemn the ongoing aggression against Venezuela, a member of the Movement, which faces an unconventional warfare, attempted coups d'état, terrorist acts, economic sanctions and other hostile and illegal actions orchestrated and perpetrated by the U.S. government in its efforts to impose the Monroe Doctrine. In Venezuela the future of the right to sovereignty of our peoples is being decided today, he said.
He explained that this escalation of imperialist aggression in Latin America is reflected in Cuba, where its people are suffering the tightening of the blockade. The extraterritorial application of the blockade, especially through the implementation of the Helms-Burton Act, is an attack on International Law, on Cuba's sovereignty and also on the sovereignty of all States, he stressed; while recalling that the blockade constitutes the main obstacle to the development of the island and is a flagrant violation of the human rights of all Cubans.
Rodríguez Parrilla also rejected attempts to destabilize the Republic of Nicaragua and reiterated his support for and solidarity with the democratic-cultural revolution led by President Evo Morales Ayma, which has placed the Plurinational State of Bolivia at the forefront of the struggle for sustainable development and social justice.
At the same time, he called for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution that would allow the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and to establish an independent and sovereign State based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The senior Cuban diplomat said that the United States has spurred the situation of instability in the Middle East as a result of its unilateral decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan as part of that country's territory, as well as by withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the nuclear programme and increasing unilateral sanctions and military threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations