Issues discussed by Minister of Foreign Affairs

Embassy of the Republic of Cuba
Wellington - New Zealand

PRESS RELEASE

Issues discussed by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, during press conference this Thursday, March 6th, 2014 at the Cuban Chancery

ON VENEZUELA
• President Raúl Castro paid homage to the leader and exceptional friend, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, and attended the impressive civic military parade in Caracas, demonstration of the popular will and the strength of the union between the people and the Bolivarian Armed Forces which are faithful to the legacy of Chavez, in defense of the irreversible conquests.

• We express the invariable and total solidarity to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its constitutional President Maduro, to the government and the political-military leadership before the foreign interference, especially the United States, the attempts to defeat violently the legitimate government elected democratically, the events organized by fascist groups that have provoked deaths, wounded and destruction, the sabotage and the economic aggression and the transnational media campaigns.

• Cuban collaborators will continue working to the benefit of the Venezuelan people and will comply with their duty under any circumstance as it was demonstrated by their presence during yesterday’s civic-military parade.

• We strongly condemn the resolution adopted by the United States House of Representatives and the one presented at the Senate on Venezuela, and OEA’s interference.

• Venezuela has the right to defend its independence and sovereignty.

ON SITUATION IN UKRAINE
• As it was expressed by President Raul Castro Ruz, last February 22, “the intervention by the interference of Western powers must end, to allow the Ukrainian people to legitimately exercise their right to self-determination. It must not be overlooked that these events could have very serious consequences for international peace and security”.
• The events that came next demonstrate the seriousness and validity of this idea. The violent defeat of a constitutional government with tens of deaths and wounded through an intervention sponsored by the United States and some of its NATO allies, the threats to the integrity of the citizens based on their national origin and the destruction of legitimate institutions and entities judicially recognized.

• Those who threat the Russian Federation with sanctions and reprisals are the governments who hastened a change of regime in Ukraine and have previously launched wars of conquest, interfere or intervene directly in the internal affairs of different States that do not go along with their interest of domination and defend their sovereignty and independence.

• Cuba rejects the hypocrisy, the double standard and the manifested aggressiveness of NATO’s actions and discourse related to this matter.

• History will demand responsibility to the United States and its allies for the consequences of a military doctrine that becomes more offensive each day beyond the boundaries of the North Atlantic Alliance, which poses a menace to the sovereignty and Independence of all States and constitutes a gross violation of the International Right and the Charter of the United Nations. The attempt to extend NATO up to the frontiers of the Russian Federation constitutes a serious threat to the international peace, security and stability.

ON NON CONVENTIONAL WAR
• President Raúl Castro Ruz declared last February 22, “more than a few examples can be found in non-conventional war manuals, which were implemented in various countries of our Latin American and Caribbean region, as is occurring in Venezuela today, and some with similar features have been in evidence on other continents, first in Libya and currently in Syria and Ukraine. Anyone who has doubts about this, I would invite to read through the U.S. Army Special Forces Unconventional Warfare Training Manual 18-01, published in November 2010, entitled Non-conventional War”. End of quote.

• As none of you has published anything related to this, I reiterate the invitation. It was issued in Washington, on November 30th, 2010. Circular 18-01 describes the realization of subversives operations aimed at attacking and degrading the adversary’s political moral or psychological, economic or military strength, its cohesion and effectiveness, and distancing it from its population, undermining the capacity of the government by stating it is not capable to govern effectively, using the support of a coalition partner or a third country to weaken or diminish the legitimacy of a government, divide the population and generate discontent, to influence or create leaders and unify them ideologically, to use émigrés, provoke catalyst events and create conditions favorable to the intervention with the use of propaganda, demonstrations, boycotts and sabotages, even with the absence of declared hostilities to achieve concessions, having degrading its capacity in a way that a popular uprising against the presidential palace to defeat the government.

• A White House National Security senior official wrote in August, 2011, “the new strategy of the United States is more efficient and less expensive…, Bush Administration considers the occupation…, and Obama’s is a national liberation…through the development of a national movement… The strategy of military intervention in Libya could also be applied in other countries.

• Can United States and NATO give warranties that the use of force and these concepts of non-conventional war are not applicable to and are not applied today against Venezuela, Cuba and other countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that was declared as Zone of Peace during CELAC’s II Summit? Which would be European Union’s opinion? What would the United Nations do?

• Those who dream about the success in Cuba of this forms of war and their internal paid agents, will crash against a Revolution that knows how to defend itself and a politic power and sovereignty which, as a main conquest, exercise our people.

ON RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND CUBA
• Last February 10th, I received a letter from the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with an invitation to initiate negotiations on an agreement for a political dialogue and cooperation between the European Union, its Member States and the Republic of Cuba.

• This road started with a similar proposal from Cuba to the European Union in 1998, 26 years ago, when diplomatic relations between Cuba and European communities were established, which was always rejected since that moment on.
• In 1996, president of the Spanish government, Aznar, imposed, in a meeting of the European Union’s ministers of Finance, a unilateral policy, whose draft in English was received from Washington.

• In 2003, the European Union tried to imposed to Cuba uncultured and inapplicable sanctions which were answered to with the rejection to all European cooperation with Cuba and the cancellation of our proposal for the adhesion to the Cotonou Agreement on relations between the European Union with Asian, Caribbean and Pacific nations.

• In January, 2005, the European Union “suspended temporarily” those sanctions against Cuba, which it could never apply.

• In 2007, the Agreement for the Dialogue and Cooperation with the next government of Spain was signed.

• In June, 2008, the European Union decided to unconditionally eliminate those inapplicable sanctions and invited Cuba to a process of political dialogue and to resume cooperation.

• In October, 2008, the basis for a high level political dialogue were established: unconditional character, reciprocal and non-discriminatory, total respect to sovereignty equality of the States, the judicial framework and the institutional order of the Parts and with total adhesion to the principle of no interference in the States internal affairs.

• At this moment (October, 2008), Louis Michel, European Union Commissioner, visited Cuba and signed a Joint Declaration to reestablish cooperation.

• Five sessions of the High Level Political Dialogue have been celebrated.

• 14 European Union Member States signed Bilateral Agreements for Cooperation and Memorandums of Understanding for the political exchanges with Cuba, which were totally reciprocal and respectful.

• Cuba welcomes with satisfaction this proposal, from February 10th, from the High Representative which means the end of the unilateral policies on Cuba and accepts to initiate negotiations in this matter, as it was informed to the Ambassador of the European Union in Havana.
• I would like to thank the High Representative, the Member States and the European Commission for the efforts that ended in said proposal.

• I would like to reiterate that Cuba will participate at the upcoming process in a constructive manner and it considers that the stated principles have full validity and must be a reference to our relations.

• Unilateral policies like the ones applied by the government of the United States against Cuba, focused on the economic, political blockade, anchored in the Cold War, that violates the human rights of Cubans, provokes incalculable damages, seriously affects our economy, our lives and development and constitutes an act of genocide, do not work and are condemned to failure.

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