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Comme dirait Fidel Castro :

Although it has been said of us that we speak at great length, you may
rest assured that we shall endeavor to be brief and to put before you what
we consider it our duty to say. We shall also speak slowly in order to
co-operate with the interpreters.

Some people may think that we are very annoyed and upset by the
treatment the Cuban delegation has received. This is not the case. We
understand full well the reasons behind it. That is why we are not
irritated. Nor should anybody worry that Cuba will not continue to the
effort of achieving a worldwide understanding. That being so, we shall
speak openly.

It is extremely expensive to send a delegation to the United Nations.
We, the underdeveloped countries, do not have many resources to spend,
unless it is to speak openly at this meeting of representatives of almost
every country in the world.

The speakers who have preceded me on this rostrum have expressed their
concern about problems the whole world is concerned about. We too are
concerned about those problems and yet, in the case of Cuba, there is a
very special circumstance, and it is that, at this moment, Cuba itself must
be a concern for the world, because, as several delegates have rightly said
here, among the many current problems of the world, there is the problem of
Cuba. In addition to the problems facing the world today, Cuba has
problems of her own, problems which worry her people.

Much has been said of the universal desire for peace, which is the
desire of all peoples and, therefore, the desire of our people too, but the
peace which the world wishes to preserve is the peace that we Cuban have
been missing for quite some time. The dangers that other peoples of the
world can regard as more or less remote are dangers and preoccupations that
for us are very close. It has not been easy to come to this Assembly to
state the problems of Cuba. It has not been easy for us to come here.

I do not know whether we are privileged in this respect. Are we, the
Cuban delegates, the representatives of the worst type of Government in the
world? Do we, the representatives of the Cuban delegation, deserve the
maltreatment we have received? And why our delegation? Cuba has sent many
delegations to the United Nations, and yet it was we who were singled out
for such exceptional measures: confinement to the Island of Manhattan;
notice to all hotels not to rent rooms to us, hostility and, under the
pretense of security, isolation.

Perhaps not one among you, fellow delegates, you, who are not the
individual representatives of anybody, but the representatives of your
respective countries and, for that reason, whatever happens to each of you
must concern you because of what you represent, perhaps not one among you,
upon your arrival in this city of New York, has had to under go such
personally and physically humiliating treatment as that which the President
of Cuban delegation has received.

I am not trying to agitate in this Assembly. I am merely telling the
truth. It is about time we had an opportunity to speak. Much has been
said about us for many days now, the newspapers have referred to us, but we
have remained silent. We cannot defend ourselves from such attacks in this
country. Our day to state the truth has come, and we will not fail to
state it.

As I have said, we had to undergo degrading and humiliating treatment,
including eviction from the hotel in which we were living and efforts at
extortion. When we went to another hotel, we did all in our power to avoid
difficulties. We refrained from leaving our hotel rooms and went nowhere
except to this assembly hall of the United Nations, on the few occasions
when we have come to General Assembly. We also accepted an invitation to a
reception at the Soviet Embassy, yet this was not enough for them to leave
us in peace.

There has been considerable Cuban emigration to this country. There
are more than one hundred thousand Cubans who have come to this country
during the last twenty years. They have come to this country from their
own land, where they would have liked to remain for ever, and where they
wish to return, as is always the case with those who, for social or
economic reasons, are forced to abandon their homeland. These Cubans were
wholly devoted to their work; they respected and respect the laws of this
country, but they naturally harbored a feeling of love for their native
country and its Revolution. They never had any problems, but one day
another type of visitor began to arrive in this country, individuals who in
some cases had murdered hundreds of our compatriots. Soon they were
encouraged by publicity here. The authorities received them warmly and
soon encouraged them, and, naturally, that encouragement is reflected in
their conduct. They provoke frequent incidents with the Cuban population
which has worked honestly in this country for many years.

One of such incidents, provoked by those who feel supported by the
systematic campaigns against Cuba and by the authorities, caused the death
of a child. That was a lamentable event, and we should all regret such an
event. The guilty ones were not the Cubans who lived here. The guilty ones
were, even less, we, the members of the Cuban delegation, and yet
undoubtedly, you have all seen the headlines of the newspapers, which
stated that "pro-Castro groups" had killed a ten-year old girl. With the
characteristic hypocrisy of those who have a say in the relations between
Cuba and this country, a spokesman for the White House immediately made
declarations to the world pointing out the deed, in fact, almost fixing the
guilt on the Cuban delegation. And of course, His Excellency, the United
States Delegate to the Assembly, did not fail to join the farce, sending a
telegram of condolence to the Venezuelan Government, addressed to the
victim's relatives, as though he felt called upon to give some explanation
for something Cuban delegation was, in effect, responsible for.

But that was not all. When we were forced to leave one of the hotels
in this city, and came to the United National Headquarters while efforts
were being made to find accommodation for us, a hotel, a humble hotel of
this city, a Negro hotel in Harlem, offered to rent us rooms. The reply
came when we were speaking to the Secretary General. Nevertheless, an
official of the State Department did all in his power to prevent our stayin
at that hotel. At that moment, as though by magic, hotels began appearing
all over New York. Hotels which had previously refused lodgings to the
Cuban delegation offered us rooms, even free of charge. Out of simple
reciprocity we accepted the Harlem hotel. We felt then that we had earned
the right to be left in peace. But peace was not accorded us.

Once in Harlem, since it was impossible to prevent us from living
there, the slander and defamation campaigns began. They began spreading the
news all over the world that the Cuban delegation had lodged in a brothel.
For some humble hotel in Harlem, a hotel inhabited by Negroes of the United
States, must obviously be a brothel. Furthermore, they have tried to heap
infamy upon the Cuban delegation, without even respecting the female
members who work with us and are a part of the Cuban delegation.

If we were the kind of men they try to depict at all costs, imperialism
would not have lost all hope, as it did long ago, of somehow buying or
seducing us. But, since they lost that hope a long time ago -- though they
never had reasons to sustain it--after having stated that the Cuban
delegation lodged in a brothel, they should at least realize that
imperialist financial capital is a prostitute that cannot seduce us -- and
not precisely the "respectful" type of prostitute described by Jean Paul
Sarte.

Now, to the problem of Cuba. Perhaps some of you are well aware of the
facts, perhaps others are not. It all depends on the sources of
information, but, undoubtedly, the problem of Cuba, born within the last
two years, is a new problem for the world. The world had not had many
reasons to know that Cuba existed. For many, Cuba was something of an
appendix of the United States. Even for many citizens of this country, Cuba
was a colony of the United States. As far as the map was concerned, this
we not the case: our country had a different color from that of the
United States. But in reality Cuba was a colony of the United States.

How did our country became a colony of the United States? It was not
because of its origins; the same men did not colonize the United States and
Cuba. Cuba has a very different ethnical and cultural origin, and the
difference was widened over the centuries. Cuba was the last country in
America to free itself from Spanish colonial rule, to cast off, with due
respect to the representative of Spain, the Spanish colonial yoke; and
because it was the last, it also had to fight more fiercely.

Spain had only one small possession left in America and it defended it
with tooth and nail. Our people, small in numbers, scarcely a million
inhabitants at that time, had to face alone, for almost thirty years, an
army considered one of the strongest in Europe. Against our small national
population the Spanish Government mobilized an army as big as the total
forces that had fought against South American independence. Half a million
Spanish soldiers fought against the historic and unbreakable will of our
people to be free.

For thirty years the Cubans fought alone for their independence; thirty
years of struggle that strengthened our love for freedom and independence.
But Cuba was a fruit -- according to the opinion of a President of the
United States at the beginning of the past century, John Adams --, it was
an apple hanging from the Spanish tree, destined to fall, as soon as it was
ripe enough, into the hands of the United States. Spanish power had worn
itself out in our country. Spain had neither the men nor the economic
resources to continue the war in Cuba; Spain had been defeated. Apparently
the apple was ripe, and the United States Government held out its open
hands.

Not one but several apples fell in to the hands of the United States.
Puerto Rico fell -- heroic Puerto Rico, which had begun its struggle for
independence at the same time as Cuba. The Philippine Islands fell, and
several other possessions. However, the method of dominating our country
could not be the same. Our country had struggled fiercely, and thus had
gained the favor of world public opinion. Therefore the method of taking
our country had to be different.

The Cubans who fought for our independence and at that very moment were
giving their blood and their lives believed in good faith in the joint
resolution of the Congress of the United States of April 20, 1898, which
declared that "Cuba is, and by right ought to be, free and independent."

The people of the United States were sympathetic to the Cuban struggle
for liberty. That joint declaration was a law adopted by the Congress of
the United States through which war was declared on Spain. But that
illusion was followed by a rude awakening. After two years of military
occupation of our country, the unexpected happened: at the very moment
that the people of Cuba, through their Constituent Assembly, were drafting
the Constitution of the Republic, a new law was passed by the United States
Congress, a law proposed by Senator Platt, bearing such unhappy memories
for the Cubans. That law stated that the constitution of the Cuba must
have an appendix under which the United States would be granted the right

to intervent in Cuba's political affairs and, furthermore, to lease certain
parts of Cuba for naval bases or coal supply station.

In other words, under a law passed by the legislative body of a foreign
country, Cuban's Constitution had to contain an appendix with those
provisions. Our legislators were clearly told that if they did not accept
the amendment, the occupation forces would not be withdrawn. In other
words, an agreement to grant another country the right to intervene and to
lease naval bases was imposed by force upon my country by the legislative
body of a foreign country.

It is well, I think, for countries just entering this Organization,
countries just beginning their independent life, to bear in mind our
history and to note any similar conditions which they may find waiting for
them along their own road. And if it is not they, then those who came
after them, or their children, or grandchildren, although it seems to us
that we will not have to wait that long.

Then began the new colonization of our country, the acquisition of the
best agricultural lands by United States firms, concessions of Cuban
natural resources and mines, concessions of public utilities for
exploitation purposes, commercial concessions of all types. These
concessions, when linked with the constitutional right -- constitutional by
force -- of intervention in our country, turned it from a Spanish colony
into an American colony.

Colonies do not speak. Colonies are not known until they have the
opportunity to express themselves. That is why our colony and its problems
were unknown to the rest of the world. In geography books reference was
made to a flag and a coat of arms. There was an island with another color
on the maps, but it was not an independent republic. Let us not deceive
ourselves, since by doing so we only make ourselves ridiculous. Let no one
be mistaken. There was no independent republic; there was only a colony
where orders were given by the Ambassador of the United States.

We are not ashamed to have to declare this. On the contrary: we are
proud to say that today no embassy rules our country; our country is ruled
by its people!

Once against the Cuban people had to resort to fighting in order to
achieve independence, and that independence was finally attained after
seven bloody years of tyranny, who forced this tyranny upon us? Those who
in our country were nothing more than tools of the interests which
dominated our country economically.

How can an unpopular regime, inimical to the interests of the people,
stay in power unless it is by force? Will we have to explain to the
representatives of our sister republics of Latin America what military
tyrannies are? Will we have to outline to them how these tyrannies have
kept themselves in power? Will we have to explain the history of several
of those tyrannies which are already classical? Will we have to say what
forces, what national and international interests support them?

The military group which tyrannized our country was supported by the
most reactionary elements of the nation, and, above all, by the foreign
interests that dominated the economy of our country. Everybody knows, and
we understand that even the Government of the United States admits it, that
that was the type of government favored by the monopolies. Why? Because by
the use of force it was possible to check the demands of the people; by
the use of force it was possible to suppress strikes for improvement of
living standards; by the use of force it was possible to crush all
movements on the part of the peasants to own the land they worked; by the
use of force it was possible to curb the greatest and most deeply felt
aspirations of the nation.

That is why governments of force were favored by the ruling circles of
the United States. That is why governments of force stayed in power for so
long, and why there are governments of force still in power in America.
Naturally, it all depends on whether it is possible to secure the support
of the United States.

For instance, now they say they oppose one of these governments of
force; the Government of Trujillo. But they do not say they are against
other governments of force -- that of Nicaragua, or Paraguay, for example.
The Nicaraguan one is no longer government of force; it is a monarchy that
is almost as constitutional as that of the United Kingdom, where the reins
of power are handed down from father to son. The same would have occurred
in my own country. It was the type of government of force -- that of
Fulgencio Batista -- which suited the American monopolies in Cuba, but it
was not, of course, the type of government which suited the Cuban people,
and the Cuban people, at a great cost in lives and sacrifices, over threw
the government.

What did the Revolution find when it came to power in Cuba? What
marvels did the Revolution find when it came to power in Cuba? First of
all the Revolution found that 600,000 able Cubans were unemployed -- as
many, proportionately, as were unemployed in the United States at the time
of the great depression which shook this country and which almost created a
catastrophy in the United States. That was our permanent unemployment.
Three million out of a population of somewhat over 6,000,000 did not have
electric lights and did not enjoy the advantages and comforts of
electricity. Three and a half million out of a total of slightly more than
6,000,000 lived in huts, shacks and slums, without the slightest sanitary
facilities. In the cities, rents took almost one third of family incomes.
Electricity rates and rents were among the highest in the world.
Thirty-seven and one half percent of our population were illiterate; 70
per cent of the rural children had no teachers; 2 per cent of population,
that is, 100,000 persons out of a total of more than 6,000,000 suffered
from tuberculosis. Ninety-five per cent of the children in rural areas
were affected by parasites, and the infant mortality rate was therefore
very high, just the opposite of the average life span.

On the other hand, 85 per cent of the small farmers were paying rents
for the use of land to the tune of almost 30 per cent of their income,
while 1 1/2 percent of the landowners controlled 46 per cent of the total
area of the nation. Of course, the proportion of hospital beds to the
number of inhabitants of the country was ridiculous, when compared with
countries that only have halfway decent medical services.

Public utilities, electricity and telephone services all belonged to
the United States monopolies. A major portion of the banking business, of
the importing business and the oil refineries, the greater part of the
sugar production, the best land in Cuba, and the most important industries
in all fields belonged to American companies. The balance of payments in
the last ten years, from 1950 to 1960, had been favorable to the United
States with regard to Cuba to the extent of one thousand million dollars.

This is without taking in to account the hundreds of millions of
dollars that were extraeted from the treasury of the country by the corrupt
officials of the tyranny and were later deposited in United States or
European Banks.

One thousand million dollars in ten years. This poor and
underdeveloped Caribbean country, with 600,000 unemployed, was contributing
greatly to the economic development of the most highly industrialized
country in the world.

That was the situation we found, and it is probably not foreign to many
of the countries represented in this Assembly, because, when all is said
and done, what we have said about Cuba is like a diagnostic x-ray
applicable to many of the countries represented here.

What alternative was there for the Revolutionary Government? To betray
the people? Of course, as far as the President of the United States is
concerned, we have betrayed our people, but it would certainly not have
been considered so, if, instead of the Revolutionary Government being true
to its people, it had been loyal to the big American monopolies that
exploited the economy of our country. At least, let note be taken here of
the wonders the Revolution found when it came to power. They were no more
and no less than the usual wonder of imperialism, which are in themselves
the wonders of the free world as far as we, the colonies, are concerned!

We surely cannot be blamed if there were 600,000 unemployed in Cuba and
37.5 per cent of the population were illiterate. We surely cannot be held
responsible if 2 per cent of the population suffered from tuberculosis and
95 per cent were affected by parasites. Until that moment none of us had
anything to do with the destiny of our country; until that moment, those
who had something to do with the destiny of our country were the rulers who
served the interests of the monopolies; until that moment, monopolies had
been in control of our country. Did anyone hinder them? No one. Did
anyone trouble them? No one. They were able to do their work, and there
we found the result of their work.

What was the state of our reserved when the tyrant Batista came to
power. There was $500,000,000 in our national reserve, a goodly sum to
have invested in the industrial development of the country. When the
Revolution came to power there was only $70,000,000 in our reserves.

Was there any concern for the industrial development of our country?
No. That is why we are astonished and amazed when we hear of the
extraordinary concern shown by the United States Government for the Fate of
the countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia. We cannot overcome our
amazement, because after fifty years we have the result of their concern
before our eyes.

What has the Revolutionary Government done? What crime has the
Revolutionary Government committed to deserve the treatment we have
received here, and the powerful enemies that events have shown us we have?

Did problems with the United States Government arise from the first
moments? No. It is perhaps that when we reached power we were imbued with
the purpose of getting into international trouble? No. No Revolutionary
government wants international trouble when it comes to power. What a
revolutionary government wants to do is concentrate its efforts on solving
its own problems; what it wants to do is carry out a program for the
people, as is the desire of all governments that are interested in the
progress of their country.

The first unfriendly act perpetrated by the Government of the United
States was to throw open its doors to a gang of murders who had left our
country covered with blood. Men who had murdered hundreds of defenseless
peasants, who for many years never tired of torturing prisoners, who killed
right and left -- were received in this country with open arms. To us,
this was amazing. Why this unfriendly act on the part of the Government of
the United States towards Cuba? Why this act of hostility? At that time
we could not quite understand; now we see the reason clearly. Was that the
proper policy as regards relations between the United States and Cuba?
Certainly not, because we were the injured party, inasmuch as the Batista
regime remained in power with the help of tanks, planes and arms furnished
by the Government of the United States; the Batista regime remained in
power thanks to the use of an army whose officers were trained by a
military mission sent by the United States Government; and we trust that no
official of the United States will dare to deny that truth.

Even when the Rebel Army arrived in Havana, the American military
mission was in the most important military camp of the city. That was a
broken army, an army that had been defeated and had surrendered. We could
very well have considered those foreign officers as prisoners of war, since
they had been there helping and training the enemies of the people.
However, we did not do so. We merely asked the members of that military
mission to return to their country, because after all, we did not need
their lessons; their pupils had been defeated.

I have with me a document. Do not be surprised as its appearance, for
it is a torn document. It is an old military pact, by virtue of which the
Batista tyranny received generous assistance from the Government of the
United States. And it is quite important to know the contents of Article 2
of this Agreement:

"The Government of the Republic of Cuba commits itself to make
efficient use of the assistance it receives from the United States,
pursuant to the present agreement, in order to carry out the plans of
defense accepted by both Governments, pursuant to which the two Governments
will take part in missions which are important for the defense of the
Western Hemisphere, and, unless permission is previously obtained from the
Government of the United States of America ..."

-- I repeat:

"and unless permission is previously obtained from the Government of
the United States, such assistance will not be dedicated to other ends than
those for which such assistance has been granted."

That assistance was used to combat the Cuban revolutionaries; it was
therefore approved by the Government of the United States. And even when,
some months before the war was over, an embargo on arms for Batista was put
into effect, after more than six years of military help, once the arms
embargo had been solemnly declared, the Rebel Army had proof, documentary
proof, that the forces of the tyranny had been supplied with 300 rockets to
be fired from planes.

When our comrades living in this country laid these documents before
the public opinion of the United States, the Government of the United
States found no other explanation than to say that we were wrong, that they
had not sent new supplies to the army of the tyranny, but had just changed
some rockets that could not be used in their planes for another type of
rocket that could -- and, by the way, they were fired at us while we were
in the mountains. I must say that this is a unique way of explaining a
contradiction when it can be neither justified nor explained. According to
the United States, then, this was not military assistance; it was probably
some sort of '"technical assistance."

Why, then, if all this existed and was a cause of resentment for our
people ... because everybody knows, even the most innocent and guileless,
that with the revolution that has taken place in military equipment, those
weapons from the last war have became throughly obsolete for a modern war.

Fifty tanks of armoured cars and a few outmoded aircraft cannot defend
a continent, much less a hemisphere. But on the other hand they are good
enough to oppress unarmed peoples. They are good for what they are used
for: to intimidate people and to defend monopolies. That is why these
hemisphere defense pacts might better be described as "defense pacts for
the protection of United States monopolies."

And so the Revolutionary Government began to take the first steps. The
first thing it did was to lower the rents paid by families by fifty per
cent, a just measure, since, as I said earlier, there were families paying
up to one third of their income. The people had been the victim of housing
speculation, and city lots had also been the subject of speculation at the
expense of the entire Cuban people. But when the Revolutionary Government
reduced the rents by fifty per cent, there were, of course, a few
individuals who became upset, the few who owned those apartment buildings,
but the people rushed into the streets rejoicing, as they would in any
country, even here in New York, if rents were reduced by fifty per cent.
But this was no problem to the monopolies. Some American monopolies owned
large buildings, but they were relatively few in number.

Then another law was passed, a law cancelling the concessions which had
been granted by the tyranny of Batista to the Telephone Company, an
American monopoly. Taking advantage of the fact our people were
defenseless, they had obtained valuable concessions. The Revolutionary
Government then cancelled these concessions and re-established normal
prices for telephone services. Thus began the first conflict with the
American monopolies.

The third measure was the reduction of electricity rates, which were
the highest in the world. Then followed the second conflict with the
American monopolies. We were beginning to appear communist; they were
beginning to daub us in red because we had clashed head on with the
interests of the United States monopolies.

Then followed the next law, an essential and inevitable law for our
country, and a law which sooner or later will have to be adopted by all
countries of the world, at least by those which have not yet adopted it:
the Agrarian Reform Law. Of course, in theory everybody agrees with the
Agrarian Reform Law. Nobody will deny the need for it unless he is a fool.
No one can deny that agrarian reform is one of the essential conditions for
the economic development of the country. In Cuba, even the big landowners
agreed about the agrarian reform -- only they wanted their own kind of
reform, such as the one defended by many theoreticians; a reform which
would not harm their interests, and above all, one which would not be put
into effect as long as it could be avoided. This is something that is well
known to the economic bodies of the United Nations, something nobody even
cares to discuss any more. In my country it was absolutely necessary:
more than 200,000 peasant families lived in the countryside without land on
which to grow essential food crops.

Without an agrarian reform, our country would have been unable to take
that step; we made an agrarian reform. Was it a radical agrarian reform?
We think not. It was a reform adjusted to the needs of our development,
and in keeping with our own possibilities of agricultural development. In
other words, was an agrarian reform which was to solve the problems of the
landless peasants, the problem of supplying basic foodstuffs, the problem
of rural unemployment, and which was to end, once and for all, the ghastly
poverty which existed in the countryside of our native land.

And that is where the first major difficulty arose. In the neighboring
Republic of Guatemala a similar case had occurred. And I honestly warn my
colleagues of Latin America, Africa and Asia; whenever you set out to make
a just agrarian reform, you must be ready to face s similar situation,
especially if the best and largest tracts of land are owned by American
monopolies, as was the case in Cuba. (OVATION)

It is quite possible that we may later be accused of giving bad advice
in this Assembly. It is not our intention to disturb anybody's sleep. We
are simply stating the facts, although the facts are sufficient to disturb
everybody's sleep.

Then the problem of payment arose. Notes from the State Department
rained on our Government. They never asked about our problems, not even
out of sheer pity, or because of the great responsibility they had in
creating such problems. They never asked us how many died of starvation in
our country, or how many were suffering from tuberculosis, or how many were
unemployed. No, they never asked about that. A sympathetic attitude
towards our needs? Certainly not. All talks by the representatives of the
Government of the United States centered upon the Telephone Co., the
Electric Co., and the land owned by American Companies.

How could we solve the problem of payment? Of course, the first
question that should have been asked was what we were going to pay with,
rather than how. Can you gentlemen conceive of a poor underdeveloped
country, with 600,000 unemployed and such a large number of illiterates and
sick people, a country whose reserves have been exhausted, and which has
contributed to the economy of a powerful country with one thousand million
dollars in ten years -- can you conceive of this country having the means
to pay for the land affected by the Agrarian Reform Law, or the means to
pay for it in the terms demanded?

What were the State Department aspirations regarding their affected
interests? They wanted prompt, efficient and just payment. Do you
understand that language? "Prompt, efficient, and just payment." That
means, "pay now, in dollars, and whatever we ask for our land." (APPLAUSE)

We were not 100 per cent communist yet (LAUGHS) We were just becoming
slightly pink. We did not confiscate land; we simply proposed to pay for it
in twenty years, and in the only way in which we could pay for it: in
bonds, which would mature in twenty years at 4 1/2 per cent, or amortized
yearly.

How could we pay for the land in dollars, and the amount they asked for
it? It was absurd. Anyone can readily understand that, under those
circumstances, we had to choose between making the agrarian reform, and not
making it. If we choose not to make it, the dreadful economic situation of
our country would last indefinitely. If we decided to make it, we exposed
ourselves to the hatred of the Government of the powerful neighbor of the
north.

We decided to go on with the agrarian reform. Of course, the limits
set to latifundia in Cuba would amaze a representative of the Netherlands,
for example, or of any country of Europe, because of their extent. The
maximum amount of land set forth in the Agrarian Reform Law is 400 hectares
(988 acres). In Europe, 40 hectares is practically a lati-fundium; in
Cuba, where there were American monopolies that had up to 200,000 hectares
-- I repeat, in case someone thinks he has heard wrong, 200,000 hectares --
an agrarian reform law reducing the maximum limit to 400 hectares was
inadmissible.

But the truth is that in our country it was not only the land that was
the property of the agrarian monopolies. The largest and most important
mines were also owned by those monopolies. Cuba produces, for example, a
great deal of nickel. All of the nickel was exploited by American
interests, and under the tyranny of Batista, an American company, the Moa
Bay, had obtained such a juicy concession that in a mere five years -- mark
my words, in a mere five years -- it intended amortizing an investment of
$120,000,000. A $120,000,000 investment amortized in five years!

And who had given the Moa Bay company this concession through the
intervention of the Government of the United States? Quite simply, the
tyrannical government of Fulgencio Batista, which was there to defend the
interests of the monopolies. And this is an absolutely true fact. Exempt
from all taxes what were those companies going to leave for the Cubans?
The empty, worked out mines, the impoverished land, and not the slightest
contribution to the economic development of our country.

And so the Revolutionary Government passed a mining law which forced
those monopolies to pay a 25 per cent tax on the exportation of minerals.
The attitude of the Revolutionary Government already had been too bold. It
had clashed with the interests of the international electric trusts; it
had clashed with the interests of the international telephone trusts; it
had clashed with the interests of the mining trusts; it had clashed with
the interests of the United Fruit Co; and it had in effect, clashed with
the most powerful interests of the United States, which, as you know, are
very closely linked with each other. And that was more than the Government
of the United States -- or rather, the representatives of the United States
monopolies -- could possibly tolerate.

Then began a new period of harassment of the Revolution. Can anyone who
objectively analyzes the facts? Who is willing to think honestly, not as
the UP or the AP tell him, to think with his head and to draw conclusions
from his own reasoning and the facts without prejudice, sincerely and
honestly -- would anyone who does this consider that things which the
Revolutionary Government did were such as to demand the destruction of the
Cuban Revolution? No. But the interests affected by the Cuban Revolution
were not concerned about the Cuban case; they were not being ruined by the
measures of the Cuban Revolutionary Government. That was not the problem.
The problem lay in the fact that those very interests owned the wealth and
the natural resources of the greater part of the peoples of the world.

The attitude of the Cuban Revolution therefore had to be punished.
Punitive actions of all sorts -- even the destruction of those insolent
people -- had to follow the audacity of the Revolutionary Government.

On our honor, we swear that up to that moment we had not had the
opportunity even to exchange letters with the distinguished Prime Minister
of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. That is to say that when, for the
North American press and the international news agencies that supply
information to the world, Cuba was already a Communist Government, a red
peril ninety miles from the United States with a Government dominated by
Communists, the Revolutionary Government had not even had the opportunity
of establishing diplomatic and commercial relations with the Soviet Union.

But hysteria can go to any length; hysteria is capable of making the
most unlikely and absurd claims. Of course, let no one think for a moment
that we are going to intone a mea culpa here. There will be no mea culpa.
We do not have to ask anyone's pardon. What we have done, we have done
consciously, and above all, fully convinced of our right to do it.
(PROLONGED APPLAUSE)

Then came the threats against our sugar quota, imperialism's cheap
philosophy of showing generosity, egoistical and exploiting generosity; and
they began showing kindness towards Cuba, declaring that they were paying
us a preferential price for sugar, which amounted to a subsidy to Cuban
sugar -- a sugar which was not so sweet for Cubans, since we were not the
owners of the best sugar-producing land, nor the owners of the largest
sugar mills. Furthermore, in that affirmation lay hidden the true history
of Cuban sugar, of the sacrifices which had been imposed upon my country
during the periods when it was economically attacked.

However when quotas were established, our participation was reduced to
28 per cent, and the advantages which that law had granted us, the very few
advantages which that law had granted us, were gradually taken away in
successive laws, and, of course the colony depended on the colonial power.
The economy of the colony had been organized by the colonial power.

The colony had to be subjected to the colonial power, and if the colony
took measures to free itself from the colonial powers that country would
take measures to crush the colony. Conscious of the subordination of our
economy to their market, the Government of the United States began to issue
a series of warnings that our quota would be reduced further, and at the
same time, other activities were taking place in the United States of
America: the activities of counterrevolutionaries.

One afternoon an airplane coming from the north flew over one of the
sugar refineries and dropped a bomb. This was a strange and unheard-of
event, but we knew full well where that plane came from. On another
afternoon another plane flew over our sugar cane fields and dropped a few
incendiary bombs. These events which began sporadically continued
systematically.

One afternoon, when a number of American tourist agents were visiting
Cuba in response to an effort made by the Revolutionary Government to
promote tourism as one of the sources of national income, a plane
manufactured in the United States, of the type used in the Second World
War, flew over our capital dropping pamphlets and grenades. Of course,
some anti-aircraft guns went into action. The result was more than forty
victims, between the grenades dropped by the plane and the anti-aircraft
fire, because, as you know, some of the projectiles explode upon contacting
any object. As I said, the result was more than forty victims. There were
little girls on the street with their entrails torn out, old men and women
wantonly killed. Was this the first time it had happened in our country?
No. Children, old men and old women, young men and women, had often been
killed in the villages of Cuba by American bombs supplied to the tyrant
Batista. One one occasion, eighty workers died when a mysterious explosion
-- too mysterious -- took place in the harbor of Havana, the explosion of a
ship carrying Belgian weapons which had arrived in our country, after many
efforts by the United States Government to prevent the Belgian Government
from selling arms to us.

Dozens of victims of war; eighty families orphaned by the explosions.
Forty victims as a result of an airplane that brazenly flew over our
territory. The authorities of the United States Government denied the fact
that these planes came from American territory, but the plane was now
safely in a hangar in this country. When one of our magazines published a
photograph of it, the United States authorities seized the plane. A
version of the affair was issued to the effect that this was not very
important, and that these victims had not died because of the bombs, but
because of the anti-aircraft fire. Those responsible for this crime, those
who had caused these deaths were wandering about peacefully in the United
States, where they were not even prevented from committing further acts of
aggression.

May I take this opportunity of telling His Excellency the
Representative of the United States that there are many mothers in Cuba
still awaiting his telegrams of condolence for their children murdered by
the bombs of the United States (APPLAUSE).

Planes kept coming and going. But as far as they were concerned, there
was no evidence. Frankly, we don't know how they define the word
evidence. The plane was there, photographed and captured, and yet we were
told the plane did not drop any bombs. It is not known how the United
States authorities were so well informed.

Planes continued to fly over our territory dropping incendiary bombs.
Millions and millions of pesos were lost in the burning fields of sugar
cane. Many humble people of Cuba, who saw property destroyed, property
that was now truly their own, suffered burns in the struggle against those
persistent and tenacious bombings by pirate planes.

And then one day, while dropping a bomb on one of our sugar mills, a
plane exploded in mid air and the Revolutionary Government was able to
collect what was left of the pilot, who by the way, was an American. In
his documents were found, proof as to the place where the plane had taken
off from. On its way to Cuba, the plane had flown between two United States
military bases. This was a matter that could not be denied any longer: the
planes took off from the United States. Confronted with irrefutable
evidence the United States Government gave an explanation to the Cuban
Government. Its conduct in this case was not the same as in connection
with the U-2. When it was proved that the planes were taking off from the
United States, the Government of the United States did not proclaim its
right to burn over sugar cane fields. The United States Government
apologized and said it was sorry. We were lucky, after all, because after
the U - 2 incident the United States Government did not even apologize, it
proclaimed its right to carry out flights over Soviet territory. Bad luck
for the Soviets! (APPLAUSE).

But we do not have too many anti-aircraft batteries, and the planes
went on flying and bombing us until the harvest was over. When there was
no more sugar cane, the bombing stopped. We were the only country in the
world which had gone through a thing like this, although I do recall that
at the time of his visit to Cuba, President Sukarno told us that this was
not the case, for they, too, had had certain problems with American planes
flying over their territory.

But the truth is that in this peaceful hemisphere at least, we were a
country that, without being at war with anyone, had to stand the constant
attack of pirate planes. And could those planes come in and out of United
States territory unmolested? It has been stated that the defenses of the
world they call "free" are impregnable. If this is the case, how is it
that planes, not supersonic planes, but light planes with a velocity of
barely 150 miles per hour, how is it that these planes are able to fly in
and out of United States territory undetected.

The air raids ended, and then came economic aggression. What was one of
the arguments wielded by the enemies of the agrarian reform? They said
that the agrarian reform would bring chaos to agricultural production, that
production would diminish considerably, and that the Government of the
United States was concerned because Cuba might not be able to fulfill her
commitments to the American market. The first argument -- and it is
appropriate that at least the new delegations in the General Assembly
should become familiar with some of the arguments, because some day they
may have to answer similar arguments -- the first argument was that the
agrarian reform meant the ruin of the country. This was not the case. If
this had been so, and agricultural production had deceased, the American
Government would not have felt the need to carry on its economic
aggression.

Did they sincerely believe in what they said when they stated that the
agrarian reform would cause a drop in production? Perhaps they did.
Surely it is logical for each one to believe what his mind has been
conditioned to believe. It is quite possible they may have felt that
without the all-powerful monopolist companies, we Cubans would be unable to
produce sugar. perhaps they were even sure we would ruin the country. And
of course, if the Revolution had ruined the country, then the United States
would not have had to attack us; it would have left us alone, and the
United States Government would have appeared as a good and honourable
government, and we as people who ruined our own Nation, and as a great
example that Revolutions should not be made because they ruin countries.
Fortunately, that was not the case. There is proof that revolutions do not
ruin countries, and that proof has just been furnished by the Government of
the United States. Among other things, it has been proved that revolutions
do not ruin countries, and that imperialist governments do try to ruin
countries.

Cuba had not been ruined; she therefore had to be ruined. Cuba needed
new markets for its products, and we would honestly ask any delegation
present if it does not want its country to sell what it produces and its
export to increase. We wanted our exports to increase, and this is what all
countries wish; this must be a universal law. Only egotistical interests
can oppose the universal interest in trade and commercial exchange, which
surely is one of the most ancient aspirations and needs of mankind.

We wanted to sell our products and went in search of new markets. We
signed a trade treaty with the Soviet Union, according to which we would
sell one million tons of sugar and would purchase a certain amount of
Soviet products or articles. Surely no one can say that this is an
incorrect procedure. There may be some who would not do such a thing
because it might displease certain intersts. We really did not have to ask
permission from the State Department in order to sign a trade treaty with
the Soviet Union, because we considered ourselves, and we continue to
consider ourselves and we will always consider ourselves, a truly
independent and free country.

When the amount of sugar in stock began to diminish stimulating our
economy, we received the hard blow: at the request of the executive power
of the United States, Congress passed a law empowering the President or
Executive power to reduce the import quotas for Cuban sugar to whatever
limits might deem appropriate. The economic weapon was wielded against our
Revolution. The justification for that attitude had already been prepared
by publicity experts; the campaign had been on for a long time. You know
perfectly well that in this country monopolies and publicity are one and
the same thing. The economic weapon was wielded, our sugar quota was
suddenly cut by about one million tons -- sugar that had already been
produced and prepared for the American market -- in order to deprive our
country of resources for its development, and thus reduce it to a state of
impotence, with the natural political consequences. Such measures were
expressly banned by Regional International Law. Economic aggression, as
all Latin American delegates here know, is expressly condemned by Regional
International Law. However, the Government of the United States violated
that law, wielded its economic weapon, and cut our sugar quota by about one
million tons. They could do it.

What was Cuba's defense when confronted by that reality? It could
appeal to the United Nations. It could turn to the United Nations, in
order to denounce political and economic aggressions, the air attacks of
the pirate planes, besides the constant interference of the Government of
the United States in the political affairs of our country and the
subversive campaigns it carries out against the Revolutionary Government of
Cuba.

So we turned to the United Nations. The United Nations had power to
deal with these matters. The United Nations is, within the hierarchy of
international organizations, the highest authority. The United Nations'
authority is even above that of the OAS. And besides, we were interested
in bringing the problem to the United Nations, because we know quite well
the situation the economy of Latin America finds itself in; because we
understand the state of dependence of the economy of Latin America in
relation to the United States. The United Nations knew of the affair, it
requested the OAS to make an investigation, and the OAS met. Very well.
And what was to be expected? That the OAS would protect the country; that
the OAS would condemn the political aggression against Cuba, and above all
that would condemn the economic aggression against our country. That
should have been expected. But after all, we were a small people of the
Latin American community of nations. We were just another victim. And we
were neither the first or the last, because Mexico had already been
attacked more than once militarily. In one way they tore away from Mexico
a great part of its territory, and on that occasion the heroic sons of
Mexico leaped to their death from the Castle of Chapultepec enwrapped in
the Mexican flag rather than surrender. These were the heroic sons of
Mexico (APPLAUSE).

And that was not the only aggression. That was not the only time that
American infantry forces trod upon Mexican soil. Nicaragua was invaded and
for seven long years was heroically defended by Ceasar Augusto Sandino.
Cuba suffered intervention more than once, and so did Haiti and Santo
Domingo. Guatemala also suffered intervention. Who among you could
honestly deny the intervention of the United Fruit Co. and the State
Department of the United States when the legitimate government of Guatemala
was overthrown? I understand fully well that there may be some who
consider it their official duty to be discreet on this matter, and who
may even be willing to come here and deny this, but in their consciences
they know we are simply stating the truth.

Cuba was not the first victim of aggression; Cuba was not the first
country to be in danger of aggression. In this hemisphere everyone knows
that the Government of the United States has always imposed its own law --
the law of the strongest, in virtue of which they have destroyed Puerto
Rican nationhood and have imposed their domination on that friendly country
-- law in accordance with which they seized and held the Panama Canal.

This was nothing new, our country should have been defended, but it was
never defended. Why? Let us get to the bottom of this matter, without
merely studying the from. If we stick to the dead letter of the law, then
we are protected; if we abide by reality, we have no protection whatsoever,
because reality imposes itself on the law set forth in international codes,
and that reality is, that a small nation attacked by a powerful country did
not have any defense and was not defended.

With all due respect to this organization, I must state here that, that
is why the people, our people, the people of Cuba, who have learned much
and are quite up to the role they are laying, to the heroic struggle they
are conducting ... our people who have learned in the school of
international events, know that in the last instance, when their rights
have been denied and aggressive forces are marshalled against them, they
still have the supreme and heroic resource of resisting when their rights
are not protected by either the OAS or the UN (OVATION).

That is why we, the small countries, do not yet feel too sure that our
rights will be preserved; that is why we, the small countries, whenever we
decide to become free, know that we become free at our own risk. In truth,
when people are united and are defending a just right, they can trust their
own energies. We are not, as we have been pictured, a mere group of men
governing the country. We are a whole people governing a country -- a
whole people firmly united, with a great revolutionary consciousness,
defending its rights. And this should be known by the enemies of the
revolution and of Cuba, because if they ignore this fact, they will be
making a regretable error.

These are the circumstances in which the revolutionary process has
taken place in our country; that is how we found the country, and why
difficulties have arisen. And yet the Cuban Revolution is changing what
was yesterday a land without hope, a land of poverty and illiteracy, into
one of the most advanced and developed countries in this Continent.

The Revolutionary Government, in but twenty months, has created 10,000
new schools. In this brief period it has doubled the number of rural
schools that had been created in fifty years. Cuba is today, the first
country of America that has met all its school needs, that has a teacher in
the farthest corners of the mountains.

In this brief period of time, the Revolutionary Government has built
5,000 houses in the rural and urban areas. Fifty new towns are being built
at this moment. The most important military fortresses today house tens of
thousands of students, and, in the coming year, our people intend to fight
the great battle against illiteracy, with the ambitious goal of teaching
every single inhabitant of the country to read and write in one year, and,
with that end in mind, organizations of teachers, students and workers,
that is, the entire people, are preparing themselves for an intensive
campaign, and Cuba will be the first country of America which, after a few
months, will be able to say it does not have one single illiterate.

Our people are receiving today the assistance of hundreds of doctors
who have been sent to the fields to fight against illnesses and parasitic
ailments, and improve the sanitary conditions of the nation.

In another aspect, in the preservation of our natural resources, we can
also point with pride to the fact that in only one year, in the most
ambitious plan for the conservation of natural resources being carried out
on this continent, including the United States of America and Canada, we
have planted nearly fifty million timber-yielding trees.

Youths who were unemployed, who did not attend school, have been
organized by the Revolutionary Government and are today being gainfully
and usefully employed by the country, and at the same time being prepared
for productive work.

Agricultural production in our country has been able to perform an
almost unique feat, an increase in production from the very beginning. From
the very start we were able to increase agricultural production. Why? In
the first place, because the Revolutionary Government turned more than
10,000 agricultural workers, who formerly paid rent, to owners of their
land, at the same time maintaining large-scale production through
co-operatives. In other words production was maintained through
co-operatives, thanks to which we have been able to apply the most modern
technical methods to our agricultural production, causing a marked increase
in that production.

And all this social welfare work -- teachers, housing, and hospitals --
has been carried out without sacrificing the resources that we have
earmarked for development. At this very moment the Revolutionary Government
is carrying out a program of industrialization of the country, and the
first plants are already being built.

We have utilized the resources of our country in a rational manner.
Formerly, for instance, thirty-five million dollars worth of cars were
imported into Cuba, and only five million dollars worth of tractors. A
country which is mainly agricultural imported seven times more cars than
tractors. We have changed this around, and we are now importing seven
times more tractors than cars.
*PG*

Close to five hundred million dollars was recovered from the
politicians who had enriched themselves during the tyranny of Batista --
close to five hundred million dollars in cash and other assets was the
total we were able to recover from the corrupt politicians who had been
sucking the blood of our country for seven years. It is the correct
investment of these assets which enables the Revolutionary Government,
while at the same time developing plans for industrialization and for the
development of agriculture, to build houses, schools, to send teachers to
the farthest corners of the country, and to give medical assistance to
everyone -- in other words, to carry out a true program of social
development.

At the Bogota meeting, as you know, the Government of the United States
proposed a plan. Was it a plan for economic development? No. It was a
plan for social development. What is understood by this? Well, it was a
plan for building houses, building schools, and building roads. But does
this settle the problem at all? How can there be a solution to the social
problems without a plan for economic development? Do they want to make
fools of the Latin American countries? What are families going to live on
when they inhabit those houses, if those houses are really built? What
shoes, what clothes are they going to wear, and what food are children
going toe at when they attend those school? Is it not known that, when a
family does not have clothes or shoes for the children, the children are
not sent to schools? With what means are they going to pay the teachers
and the doctors? How are they going to pay for the medicine? Do you want
a good way of saving medicine? Improve the nutrition of the people, and
when they eat well you will not have to spend money on hospitals.
Therefore, in view of the tremendous reality of undevelopment, the
Government of the United States now comes out with a plan for social
development. Of course, it is stimulating to observe the United States
concerning itself with some of the problems of Latin America. Thus far
they had not concerned themselves at all. What a coincidence that, they
are not worried about those problems! And the fact that this concern
emerged after the Cuban Revolution will probably be labelled by them as
purely coincidental.

Thus far, the monopolies have certainly not cared very much, except
about exploiting the underdeveloped countries. But comes the Cuban
Revolution and suddenly the monopolists are worrying, and while they attack
us economically trying to crush us, they offer aims to the countries of
Latin America. The countries of Latin America are offered, not the
resources for development that Latin America needs, but resources for
social development--houses for men who have no work, schools where
children will not go, and hospitals that would not be necessary if there
were enough food to eat (APPLAUSE).

After all, although some of my Latin American colleagues may feel it
their duty to be discreet at the United Nations, they should all welcome a
revolution such as the Cuban Revolution which at any rate has forced the
monopolists to return at least a small part of what they have been
extracting from the natural resources and the sweat of the Latin American
peoples (APPLAUSE).

Although we are not included in that aid we are not worried about that;
we do not get angry about things like that, because we have been settling
those same problems of schools and housing and so on for quite some time.
But perhaps there may be some of you who feel we are using this rostrum to
make propaganda, because the President of the United Nations has said that
some come here for propaganda purposes. And, of course, all of my
colleagues in the United Nations have a standing invitation to visit Cuba.
We do not close, our doors to any one, now do we confine anyone. Any of my
colleagues in this assembly can fision Cuba whenever he wishes, in order to
see with his own eyes what is going on. You know the chapter in the Bible
that speaks of St. Thomas, who had to see in order to believe I think it
was St. Thomas.

And, after all, we can invite any newspapermen, and any member of any
delegation, to visit Cuba and see what a nation is capable of doing with
its own resources, when they are used with honesty and reason. But we are
not only solving our housing and school problems, we are solving our
development problems as well, because without the solution of the problems
of development there can be no settlement of the social problems
themselves.

Why is the United States Government unwilling to talk of development?
It is very simple: because the Government of the United States does not
want to oppose the monopolies, and the monopolies require natural resources
and markets for the investment of their capital. That is where the great
contradiction lies. That is why the real solution to this problem is not
sought. That is why planning for the development of underdeveloped
countries with public funds is not done.

It is good that this be stated frankly, because, after all, we the
underdeveloped countries, are a majority in this Assembly -- in case anyone
is unaware of this fact -- and we are witnesses to what is going on in the
underdeveloped countries.

Yet, the true solution of the problem is not sought, and much is said
about the participation of private capital. Of course, this means markets
for the investment of surplus capital, like the investment that was
amortized in five years.

The government of the United States cannot propose a plan for public
investment, because this would divorce it from the very reason for being
the Government of the United States, namely the American monopolies.

Let us not beat about the bush, the reason no real economic plan is
being promoted is simply this: to preserve our lands in Latin America,
Africa, and Asia for the investment of surplus capital.

Thus far we have referred to the problems of my own country and the
reason why those problems have not been solved. Is it perhaps because we
did not want to solve them? No. The Government of Cuba has always been
ready to discuss its problems with the Government of the United States, but
the Government of the United States has not been ready to discuss its
problems with Cuba, and it must have its reasons for not doing so.

The Government of the United States doe not deign to discuss its
differences with the small country of Cuba.

What hope can the people of Cuba maintain for the solution of these
problems? the facts that we have been able to note here so far conspire
against the solution of these problems, and the United Nations should
seriously take this into account, because the people and the Government of
Cuba are justifiably concerned at the aggressive turn in the policy of the
United States with regard to Cuba, and it is proper that we should be well
informed.

In the first place, the Government of the United States considers it
has the right to promote and encourage subversion in our country. The
Government of the United States is promoting the organization of subversive
movements against the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, and we wish to
denounce this fact in this General Assembly; we also wish to denounce
specifically the fact that, for ins