Statement by H.E. Mr. Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the presentation of Cuban Draft Resolution against the blockade

Statement by H.E. Mr. Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the presentation of Draft Resolution A/80/L.6 entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba"

New York, October 29, 2025

Madam President:

I would like to express my deepest condolences and solidarity to the governments and people of Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, who have suffered loss of life due to Hurricane Melissa. I also extend my condolences to Panama which has suffered some losses due to heavy rains, and our best wishes to the Bahamas and Bermuda.

I speak on behalf of a people who are currently facing a monstrous hurricane with scarce resources, relying almost entirely on willpower, unity, and solidarity.

As the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro Ruz, said last night, and I quote, "...we will also emerge victorious from this new challenge."

I speak on behalf of a people who right now, with scare resources and only by sheer will, unity and solidarity, are coping with a monstruous hurricane.

We all heard the infamous, threatening, arrogant, deceitful and cynical statement made by the new Permanent Representative of the United States. It came as no surprise, knowing as we do where this character comes from as well as his shady links with the Secretary of State and the political mafia of Miami.

Yesterday, from this rostrum, he said he was going to refer to facts, but he did quite the opposite. I will just recall what he seems to ignore, despite his responsibilities, or what he distorts, in a mendacious spirit. The laws and rules of his country's economic aggression against Cuba are not ambiguous regarding their actions and ambitions.

They openly turn into law their ultimate goal to restrict Cuba's commercial, investments and credit relations with all countries. They likewise turn into law the obligation of US diplomats to comply with that mandate during their contacts with officials from other governments.

I´d like to recommend my colleagues from United States to read Title 1 and Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and the content of the Torricelli Law.

Actions speak louder than words and I will refer to them in crystal-clear terms. This Assembly will decide for itself, as it has done for 33 years, whether the item under discussion is about an economic blockade or not.

During the last few weeks, there has been a brutal and unheard-of deployment of pressures, intimidation and toxicity by the State Department at the global scale to force sovereign States to change their vote on the resolution that we will adopt today. They have resorted to all of their weapons and tricks, especially coercion.

But the truth, the laws, reason and justice are far more powerful and overwhelming.

No one could hide the fact that, by virtue of the United States' criminal policy against Cuba, my country is viciously deprived, in every corner of the world, of the use of banking systems to make payments and collect funds.

It is deprived of access to sources of current financing; investment capital; remittances; technology for industry, food production, infrastructure, scientific development and services, including the most sensitive ones, such as health care.

The strategic purpose of the blockade is to provoke social unrest that would lead to the overthrow of the constitutional order that we Cubans have freely chosen through several referendums.

The Secretary of State is the evil, corrupted and fraudulent reincarnation of Mallory, and the Permanent Representative is his spokesman. As is known, the impact of this type of aggression is never solely economic. It is applied by design, with cold-blooded premeditation, in respect of its social and humanitarian effect on millions of people.

In Cuba, for example, recent years have seen the deterioration in some health indicators which, although still outstanding for a developing country and comparable to those of developed countries, are today lower than the levels that our country was able to progressively achieve.

One such indicator is infant mortality which, after consecutive years with rates below 5 per one thousand live births, stands at 8.5 in the first half of 2025.

It would be necessary to lie, as was done by the Permanent Representative of the United States, to ignore the link between this result and the impact that the economic blockade has on the sustainability of the health system; just as it would be impossible to ignore the impact of the economic blockade on the life expectancy or maternal mortality rates, or the availability of highly subsidized medicines for the population.

Only between March 1, 2024, and February 28, 2025, the blockade caused Cuba some 7.5561 billion dollars in material damages. This is an impact similar to the nominal Gross Domestic Product of at least 30 countries, according to World Bank data.

But the damages caused by the blockade are not only expressed in figures and material losses, but also in the daily lives of our compatriots. No person, family or sector escapes its daily and devastating effects. It is impossible to express in mere figures the hardships, anxiety and psychological damage caused by the blockade among children, pregnant women, ill persons, the elderly and their relatives.

Dailiannis, a young 29-year-old Cuban lady suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potential life-threatening condition, requires the implant of an automatic defibrillator that Cuba does not have access to. Dailiannis and many other Cuban patients suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are still waiting for this type of implant.

Six-year-old Abdiel needs a hip surgery that requires a bone graft. This tissue is produced at the Tissue Bank of the "Frank País" Hospital, but the essential freeze-drying process has been halted due to the lack of a sensor. It has not been possible to purchase it, even with the money to pay for it, because the companies that supply it, in view of the blockade against Cuba, refuse to sell it in accordance with the usual commercial practices.

This is not collateral damage. These are not isolated cases. These are everyday experiences. These are human beings who are suffering.

The creativity of our institutions and the professionals who work in them is extraordinary and highly commendable, but it is impossible to calculate the anguish this situation causes to Cuban families, or the strain that the impossibility to count on these medicines and supplies, when they are needed, places on our health system.

Since 2019, an essential part of the tightening of the blockade has been the increased persecution of fuel supply operations, including shipping companies, insurance companies, banks and governments, which has led to a reduction in suppliers and an exponential increase in prices for Cuba.

Blackouts are today one of the most visible and irritating impacts of the economic blockade against Cuba, with a daily effect on families, which is at times exasperating.

A few months ago, a corporation and a friendly government declared it impossible to supply a spare part or even provide basic technical assistance to repair a Cuban thermoelectric plant, citing the threat of US sanctions.

Another vital sector of the economy that has been particularly harmed is tourism. Today, citizens of more than 40 countries are being intimidated and threatened with reprisals from the US government and the denial of access to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) if they decide to visit Cuba, exercising their fundamental rights.

The US government not only deprives its own citizens of the right to travel to Cuba, but also seeks to and succeeds in depriving, through coercion, citizens of other countries not under its jurisdiction, especially European citizens.

One of the most impactful measures is the unjustifiable inclusion of Cuba on the unilateral and arbitrary list published by the US government of states that allegedly sponsor terrorism.

Cuba is a victim of terrorism. So have we demonstrated previously before this Assembly. For years, and even today, terrorist acts against the country have been and are still being organized and financed from U.S. territory. Notorious perpetrators of horrific acts of aggression against the Cuban people, resulting in thousands of dead, maimed and extensive material damage, live here peacefully and with absolute impunity. In 2023, we handed over to the US government the names and data of 62 terrorists and 20 terrorist organizations acting against Cuba from this country and, so far, the US government has done nothing about it.

The economic warfare includes a comprehensive program of destabilization organized, financed and executed directly by the US government through operatives of Cuban origin based in this and other countries.

The assignment is to depress the incomes of the population through the speculative manipulation of the exchange rate, with a direct impact on the increase of prices, the spread of intimidating and alarming messages through social networks and the consequent alteration of the market's natural operation. The effect is a severe damage to the pockets of each and every Cuban and the creation of additional obstacles to the macro-economic stabilization programs.

To do that they resort to the laundering of the money from the US federal budget, using funds that come from the US Congress, the State Department, several NGOs and contractors that channel them up.

Our government has irrefutable evidence of these operations, which includes data, names, contacts, communications and the direct involvement of the US government and its diplomats. This is a criminal activity that is contrary to International Law, the Cuban laws and even the US laws.

Madam President:

The United States has tried to sell the idea that the blockade is a justification used by the Cuban government to hide its inefficiencies or the errors of its development model.

This political campaign is based on a propaganda and digital operation which, by resorting to toxic disinformation, euphemisms, selective silence and the coordinated saturation of messages, seeks to establish the perception that the blockade does not exist or does not affect the population. The US government not only attempts to deny or minimize the blockade, but also penalizes those who document its effects, by resorting to campaigns of discredit, cyber-troops paid with the funds earmarked for "a change of regime" and the algorithmic censorship of Cuban national contents. Dismantling that narrative would be a pre-condition for an honest discussion based on facts.

Of course, not all of our problems are due exclusively to the blockade. The Cuban government and people are aware of the challenges and difficulties we must overcome. These are limitations of our own, like those faced by any other country, and it is only up to us, Cubans, to resolve them.

But what is extraordinary, and not only unjust but criminal; what is unacceptable to any country, is for a foreign power to seek to subject the nation to a ruthless economic war. There is no parallel between both situations, nor can there be any.

Anyone who denies the fact that, without the blockade, Cuba's economic problems would be better and more quickly resolved, would be lying.

In fact, the very promoters of the blockade and maximum pressure policy boast of its destructive effect and its capacity to undermine the standard of living of an entire people. Just look at the statements made by the US Secretary of State and the politicians who have made careers and fortunes out of the attacks against Cuba.

If the blockade were our justification, why don't they remove that justification?

They don't do so because they know that, without the blockade, our economy would prosper on its own merits. They know that if Cuba were not deprived of the right to take part in, compete at and have access to the international economy on an equal footing with respect to other countries; if it were not forced to fight for its survival bound hand and foot, the country's performance would be very different, even without access to the U.S. market and without having links with that immense and extensive economy.

If the US government had a modicum of concern about "helping the Cuban people", it could suspend or make humanitarian exceptions to the blockade to palliate the damages that hurricane Melissa would cause.

Cuba is a peace-loving country. No one in their right mind and with a modicum of honesty can claim that Cuba represents or intends to represent a threat to the national security of the United States and the well-being of the American people.

Which country has military forces deployed in an aggressive, extraordinary and unjustified manner in the Caribbean Sea as we deliberate here? Which one threatens regional peace, security and stability, especially the peace and right to self-determination of the Venezuelan people? Which one has adopted the criminal practice of ordering its armed forces to commit murders in the high seas or within the territorial or jurisdictional waters of other countries? Which one has our region riddled with military bases and openly plots aggressive plans of subversion and regime change against progressive governments?

If the US government wishes to contribute to peace in "Our America", it should withdraw the military threat and accept a civilized dialogue, without pre-conditions or impositions, with Venezuela, with Colombia, with Nicaragua, with Cuba and with all countries with which it has differences and, in a collective way, with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

The blockade is a policy of collective punishment. It qualifies as an act of genocide. It flagrantly, massively and systematically violates the human rights of Cubans. It makes no distinction between social sectors or economic actors.

I deeply thank those who, in this debate and during the high-level segment of the 80th session of the General Assembly, raised their voices to call for an end to the blockade and Cuba's removal from the infamous list of State sponsors of terrorism.

I also thank the regional and consultative groups that, throughout the year, have made strong statements on this matter; the numerous organizations in solidarity with Cuba around the world; and the US citizens who advocate for a relationship based on respect and sovereign equality between the two countries.

I acknowledge the expressions of Cubans around the world who, through their statements and actions of solidarity and patriotism, have opposed and struggle against the blockade.

Cuba will never give up.

We will persist in denouncing the infamy and the abuse. We will resolutely exercise the right to decide upon our destiny. We will continue to endeavor to eradicate our current difficulties and ensure the country's economic sustainability even under a continued and further tightened blockade.

Like, José Martí, our people reaffirm today that "…before giving up on the effort to make the Homeland prosperous and free, the South Sea will join the North Sea, and a serpent will hatch from an eagle's egg."

And from Antonio Maceo we learned that, and I quote: "Whoever tries to take over Cuba will gather the dust of its blood-soaked soil, if they do not perish in the struggle."

And with Fidel Castro Ruz we shout, once again "Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome!"

Madam President:

On behalf of the noble and fraternal people of Cuba, who have been working an admirable feat of patriotism, justice, resistance, creation and sacrifice for decades, I respectfully request all Member States to vote in favor of draft resolution A/80/L.6, entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."

Doing so would be an act of justice in favor of a peace-loving people that is today coping with another monstruous hurricane.

Thank you, very much.

(Cubaminrex)

Source

• MINREX

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• Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
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