Ernesto Che Guevara 

Colonialism is Doomed

Speech delivered before the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 
11, 1964
Havana, Ministry of External Relations, Information Department. 

 
The Cuban delegation to this assembly has pleasure, first of all, in fulfilling 
the pleasant duty of welcoming three new nations to the large number of nations 
whose representatives are discussing the problems of the world. We therefore 
greet through their Presidents and Prime Ministers the people of Zambia, Malawi, 
and Malta, and express the hope that from the outset these countries will be 
added to the group of non-aligned countries which struggle against imperialism, 
colonialism, and neocolonialism.
We also wish to convey our congratulations to the President of this assembly 
whose elevation to so high a post is of special significance since it reflects 
this new historic stage of resounding triumphs for the peoples of Africa, until 
recently subject to the colonial system of imperialism, and who, today, for the 
great part in the legitimate exercise of self-determination, have become 
citizens of sovereign states. The last hour of colonialism has struck, and 
millions of inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Latin American rise to meet a new 
life, and assert their unrestricted right to self-determination and to the 
independent development of their nations. 
We wish you, Mr President, the greatest success in the tasks entrusted to you by 
member states. 
Cuba comes here to state its position on the most important controversial issues 
and will do so with the full sense of responsibility which the use of this 
rostrum implies, while at the same time responding to the unavoidable duty of 
speaking out, clearly and frankly. 
We should like to see this assembly shake itself out of complacency and move 
forward. We should like to see the committees begin their work and not stop at 
the first confrontation. Imperialism wishes to convert this meeting into an 
aimless oratorical tournament, instead of using it to solve the grave problems 
of the world. We must prevent their doing so. This assembly should not be 
remembered in the future only by the number nineteen which identifies it. We 
feel that we have the right and the obligation to try to make this meeting 
effective because our country is a constant point of friction; one of the places 
where the principles supporting the rights of small nations to sovereignty are 
tested day by day, minute by minute; and at the same time our country is one of 
the barricades of freedom in the world, situated a few steps away from United 
States imperialism, to show with its actions, its daily example, that peoples 
can liberate themselves, can keep themselves free, in the existing conditions of 
the world. 
Of course, there is now a socialist camp which becomes stronger day by day and 
has more powerful weapons of struggle. But additional conditions are required 
for survival: the maintenance of internal cohesion, faith in one's destiny, and 
the irreversible decision to fight to the death for the defense of one's country 
and revolution. These conditions exist in Cuba. 
Of all the burning problems to be dealt with by this assembly, one which has 
special significance for us and whose solution we feel must be sought first, so 
as to leave no doubt in the minds of anyone, is that of peaceful coexistence 
among states with different economic and social Systems. Much progress has been 
made in the world in this field. But imperialism, particularly United States 
imperialism, has tried to make the world believe that peaceful coexistence is 
the exclusive right of the great powers on earth. We repeat what our President 
said in Cairo, and which later took shape in the Declaration of the Second 
Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries: that there 
cannot be peaceful coexistence only among the powerful if we are to ensure world 
peace. Peaceful coexistence must be practiced by all states, independent of 
size, of the previous historic relations that linked them, and of the problems 
that may arise among some of them at a given moment." 
At present the type of peaceful coexistence to which we aspire does not exist in 
many cases. The kingdom of Cambodia, merely because it maintained a neutral 
attitude and did not submit to the machinations of United States imperialism, 
has been subjected to all kinds of treacherous and brutal attacks from the 
Yankee bases in South Vietnam. 
Laos, a divided country, has also been the object of imperialist aggression of 
every kind. The conventions concluded at Geneva have been violated, its peoples 
have been massacred from the air, and part of its territory is in constant 
danger from cowardly attacks by imperialist forces. 
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which knows of the histories of aggressions 
as few people on earth, once again bas seen its frontier violated, its 
installations attacked by enemy bomber and fighter planes, its naval posts 
attacked by the United States warships violating territorial waters. 
At this moment, there hangs over the Democratic Republic of Vietnam the threat 
that the United States warmongers may openly extend to its territory the war 
that, for many years, they have been waging against the people of South Vietnam. 
The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China have given serious warning 
to the United States. Not only the peace of the world is in danger in this 
situation, but also the lives of millions of human beings in this part of Asia 
are being constantly threatened and subjected to the whim of the United States 
invader. 
Peaceful coexistence has also been put to the test in a brutal manner in Cyprus, 
due to pressures from the Turkish Government and NATO, compelling the people and 
the government of Cyprus to make a firm and heroic stand in defense of their 
sovereignty. 
In all these parts of the world imperialism attempts to impose its version of 
what coexistence should be. It is the oppressed peoples in alliance with the 
socialist camp which must show them the meaning of true coexistence, and it is 
the obligation of the United Nations to support them. 
We must also say that it is not only in relations between sovereign states that 
the concept of peaceful coexistence must be clearly defined. As Marxists we have 
maintained that peaceful coexistence among nations does not encompass 
coexistence between the exploiters and the exploited, the oppressor and the 
oppressed. 
Furthermore, a principle proclaimed by this Organization is that of the right to 
full independence of all forms of colonial oppression. That is why we express 
our solidarity with the colonial peoples of so-called Portuguese Guinea, Angola, 
and Mozambique, who have been massacred for the crime of demanding their 
freedom, and we are prepared to help them to the extent of our ability in 
accordance with the Cairo Declaration. 
We express our solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and its great leader, 
Pedro Albizu Campos, who has been set free in another act of hypocrisy, at the 
age of seventy-two, after spending a lifetime in jail, now paralytic and almost 
without the ability to speak. Albizu Campos is a symbol of the still unredeemed 
but indomitable America. Years and years of prison, almost unbearable pressures 
in jail, mental torture, solitude, total isolation from his people and his 
family, the insolence of the conqueror and lackeys in the land of his birth - 
nothing at all broke his will. The delegation of Cuba, on behalf of its people, 
pays a tribute of admiration and gratitude to a patriot who bestows honor upon 
America. 
The North Americans, for many years, have tried to convert Puerto Rico into a 
reflection of hybrid culture - the Spanish language with an English inflection, 
the Spanish language with hinges on its backbone, the better to bend before the 
United States soldier. Puerto Rican soldiers have been used as cannon-fodder in 
imperialist wars, as in Korea, and even been made to fire at their own brothers, 
as in the massacre perpetrated by the United States Army a few months ago 
against the helpless people of Panamane of the most recent diabolical acts 
carried out by Yankee imperialism. Yet despite that terrible attack against its 
will and its historic destiny, the people of Puerto Rico have preserved their 
culture, their Latin character, their national feelings, which in themselves 
give proof of the implacable will for independence that exists among the masses 
on the Latin American island. 
We must also point out that the principle of peaceful coexistence does not imply 
a mockery of the will of the peoples, as is happening in the case of so-called 
British Guiana, where the government of Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan has been the 
victim of every kind of pressure and maneuver, while the achievement of 
independence has been delayed by the search for methods that would allow for the 
flouting of the will of the people while ensuring the docility of a Government 
different from the present one, put in by underhanded tactics, and then to grant 
an important "freedom" to this piece of American soil. Whatever roads Guiana may 
be compelled to follow to obtain independence, the moral and militant support of 
Cuba goes to its people. 
Furthermore, we must point out that the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique 
have been fighting for a long time for their autonomy without obtaining it. This 
state of affairs must not continue. 
Once again we raise our voice to put the world on guard against what is 
happening in South Africa. The brutal policy of apartheid is being carried out 
before the eyes of the whole world. The peoples of Africa are being compelled to 
tolerate in that continent the concept, still official, of the superiority of 
one race over another and in the name of that racial superiority the murder of 
people with impunity. Can the United Nations do nothing to prevent this? I 
should like specifically to refer to the painful case of the Congo, unique in 
the history of the modern world, which shows how, with absolute impunity, with 
the most insolent cynicism, the rights of peoples can be flouted. The prodigious 
wealth of the Congo, which the imperialist nations wish to maintain under their 
control, is the direct reason for this. In his speech on his first visit to the 
United Nations, our comrade Fidel Castro said that the whole problem of 
coexistence among peoples was reduced to the undue appropriation of another's 
wealth. He said, "When this philosophy of despoilment disappears, the philosophy 
of war will have disappeared." 
The philosophy of despoilment not only has not ceased, but rather it is stronger 
than ever, and that is why those who used the name of the United Nations to 
commit the murder of Lumumba, today, in the name of the defense of the white 
race, are assassinating thousands of Congolese. How can one forget how the hope 
that Patrice Lumumba placed in the United Nations was betrayed? How can one 
forget the machinations and maneuvers which followed in the wake of the 
occupation of that country by United Nations troops under whose auspices the 
assassins of this great African patriot acted with impunity? How can we forget 
that he who flouted the authority of the United Nations in the Congo, and not 
exactly for patriotic reasons, but rather by virtue of conflicts between 
imperialists, was Moise Tshombe, who initiated the secession in Katanga with 
Belgian support? And how can one justify, how can one explain, that at the end 
of all the United Nations activities there, Tshombe, dislodged from Katanga, 
returned as lord and master of the Congo? Who can deny the abject role that the 
imperialists compelled the United Nations to play? 
To sum up, dramatic mobilizations were made to avoid the secession of Katanga, 
but today that same Katanga is in power! The wealth of the Congo is in 
imperialist hands and the expenses must be paid by honest nations. The merchants 
of war certainly do good business. That is why the government of Cuba supports 
the just attitude of the Soviet Union in refusing to pay the expenses of this 
crime. 
And as if this were not enough, we now have flung in our faces recent events 
which have filled the world with horror and indignation. Who are the 
perpetrators? Belgian paratroopers transported by United States planes, who took 
off from British bases. We remember as if it were yesterday that we saw a small 
country in Europe, a civilized and industrious country, the kingdom of Belgium, 
invaded by the hordes of Hitler. We learned with bitterness that these people 
were being massacred by the German imperialists, and our sympathy and affection 
went out to them. But the other side of the imperialist coin many did not then 
perceive. Perhaps the sons of Belgian patriots who died defending their country 
are now assassinating thousands of Congolese in the name of the white race, just 
as they suffered under the German heel because their blood was not purely Aryan. 
But the scales have fallen from our eyes and they now open upon new horizons, 
and we can see what yesterday, in our conditions of colonial servitude, we could 
not observe - that "Western civilization" disguises under its showy front a 
scene of hyenas and jackals. That is the only name that can be applied to those 
who have gone to fulfill "humanitarian" tasks in the Congo. Bloodthirsty 
butchers who feed on helpless people! That is what imperialism does to men; that 
is what marks the "white" imperialists. 
The free men of the world must be prepared to avenge the crime committed in the 
Congo. It is possible that many of those soldiers who were converted into 
"supermen" by imperialist machinery, believe in good faith that they are 
defending the rights of a superior race, but in this assembly those peoples 
whose skins are darkened by a different sun, colored by different pigments, 
constitute the majority, and they fully and clearly understand that the 
difference between men does not lie in the color of their skins, but in the 
ownership of the means of production and in the relationship of production. 
The Cuban delegation extends greetings to the peoples of Southern Rhodesia and 
Southwest Africa, oppressed by white colonialist minorities, to the peoples of 
Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, French Somaliland, the Arabs of Palestine, 
Aden, and the Protectorates, Oman, and to all peoples in conflict with 
imperialism and colonialism; and we reaffirm our support. 
I express also the hope that there will be a just solution to the conflict 
facing our sister republic of Indonesia in its relations with Malaysia. 
One of the essential items before this conference is general and complete 
disarmament. We express our support of general and complete disarmament. 
Furthermore, we advocate the complete destruction of thermonuclear devices and 
the holding of a conference of all the nations of the world toward the 
fulfillment of this aspiration of all people. In his statement before this 
assembly, our Prime Minister said that arms races have always led to war. There 
are new atomic powers in the world, and the possibilities of a confrontation are 
grave. 
We feel that a conference is necessary to obtain the total destruction of 
thermonuclear weapons and as a first step, the total prohibition of tests. At 
the same time there must be clearly established the obligation of all states to 
respect the present frontiers of other states and to refrain from indulging in 
any aggression even with conventional weapons. 
In adding our voice to that of all peoples of the world who plead for general 
and complete disarmament, the destruction of all atomic arsenals, the complete 
cessation of thermonuclear devices and atomic tests of any kinds, we feel it 
necessary to stress, furthermore, that the territorial integrity of nations must 
be respected and the armed hand of imperialism, no less dangerous with 
conventional weapons, must be held back. Those who murdered thousands of 
defenseless citizens in the Congo did not use the atomic weapons. They used 
conventional weapons, and it was these conventional weapons, used by 
imperialists, which caused so many deaths. 
Even if the measures advocated here were to become effective, thus making it 
unnecessary to say the following, we must still point out that we cannot adhere 
to any regional pact for denuclearization so long as the United States maintains 
aggressive bases on our territory, in Puerto Rico and in Panama, and in other 
American states where it feels it has the right to station them without any 
restrictions on conventional or nuclear weapons. 
However, we feel we must be able to provide for our own defense in the light of 
the recent resolution of the Organization of American States against Cuba, which 
on the basis of the Treaty of Rio might permit aggression. 
If such a conference to which we have just referred should achieve all these 
objectives - which unfortunately, would be rather difficult to do - it would be 
one of the most important developments in the history of mankind. To ensure 
this, the People's Republic of China must be represented, and that is why such a 
conference must be held. But it would be much simpler for the peoples of the 
world to recognize the undeniable truth that the People's Republic of China 
exists, that its rulers are the only representatives of the Chinese people, and 
to give it the place it deserves, which is, at present, usurped by a clique who 
control the province of Taiwan with United States aid. 
The problem of the representation of China in the United Nations cannot, in any 
way, be considered as a case of a new admission to the organization, but rather 
as the restitution of their legitimate rights to the people of the People's 
Republic of China. 
We repudiate strongly the concept of "two Chinas." The Chiang Kai-shek clique of 
Taiwan cannot remain in the United Nations. It must be expelled and the 
legitimate representative of the Chinese people put in. 
We warn, also, against the insistence of the United States Government on 
presenting the problem of the legitimate representation of China in the United 
Nations as an "important question" so as to require a two-thirds majority of 
members present and voting. 
The admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations is, in 
fact, an important question for the entire world, but not for the mechanics of 
the United Nations where it must constitute a mere question of procedure. 
Thus will justice be done, but almost as important as attaining justice would be 
the fact that it would be demonstrated, once and for all, that this august 
Assembly uses its eyes to see with, its ears to hear with, and its tongue to 
speak with; and has definite standards in making its decisions. 
The proliferation of atomic weapons among the member States of NATO, and 
especially the possession of these devices of mass destruction by the Federal 
Republic of Germany, would make the possibility of an agreement on disarmament 
even more remote, and linked to such an agreement is the problem of the peaceful 
reunification of Germany. So long as there is no clear understanding, the 
existence of two Germanies must be recognized: that of the Democratic Republic 
of Germany and the Federal Republic. The German problem can only be solved with 
the direct participation of the Democratic Republic of Germany with full rights 
in negotiations. 
We shall touch lightly on the questions of economic development and 
international trade which take up a good part of the agenda. In this year, 1964, 
the Conference of Geneva was held, where a multitude of matters related to these 
aspects of international relations was dealt with. The warnings and forecasts of 
our delegation were clearly confirmed to the misfortune of the economically 
dependent countries. 
We wish only to point out that insofar as Cuba is concerned, the United States 
of America has not implemented the explicit recommendations of that conference, 
and recently the United States Government also prohibited the sale of medicine 
to Cuba, thus divesting itself once and for all, of the mask of humanitarianism 
with which it attempted to disguise the aggressive nature of its blockade 
against the people of Cuba. 
Furthermore, we once more state that these colonial machinations, which impede 
the development of the peoples, are not only expressed in political relations. 
The so-called deterioration of the terms of trade is nothing less than the 
result of the unequal exchange between countries producing raw materials and 
industrial countries which dominate markets and impose a false justice on an 
inequitable exchange of values. 
So long as the economically dependent peoples do not free themselves from the 
capitalist markets, and as a bloc with the socialist countries, impose new terms 
of trade between the exploited and the exploiters, there will be no sound 
economic development, and in certain cases there will be retrogression, in which 
the weak countries will fall under the political domination of imperialists and 
colonialists. 
Finally, it must be made clear that in the area of the Caribbean, maneuvers and 
preparations for aggression against Cuba are taking place; off the coast of 
Nicaragua above all, in Costa Rica, in the Panama Canal Zone, in the Vieques 
Islands of Puerto Rico, in Florida, and possibly in other parts of the territory 
of the United States, and also, perhaps, in Honduras, Cuban mercenaries are 
training, as well as mercenaries of other nationalities, with a purpose that 
cannot be peaceful. 
After an open scandal, the government of Costa Rica, it is said, has ordered the 
elimination of all training fields for Cuban exiles in that country. No one 
knows whether this attitude is sincere, or whether it it simply a maneuver, 
because the mercenaries training there were about to commit some offense. We 
hope that full cognizance will be taken of the actual existence of those bases 
for aggression, which we denounced long ago, and that the world will think about 
the international responsibility of the government of a country which authorizes 
and facilitates the training of mercenaries to attack Cuba. 
We must point out that news of the training of mercenaries at different places 
in the Caribbean and the participation of the United States Government in such 
acts is news that appears openly in United States newspapers. We know of no 
Latin American voice that has been lifted officially in protest against this. 
This shows the cynicism with which the United States moves its pawns. 
The shrewd foreign ministers of the OAS had eyes to "see" Cuban emblems and find 
"irrefutable proof" in the Yankee weapons in Venezuela, but do not see the 
preparations for aggression in the United States, just as they did not hear the 
voice of President Kennedy, who explicitly declared himself to be the aggressor 
against Cuba at Playa Giron. In some cases it is a blindness provoked by the 
hatred of the ruling classes of the Latin American people against our 
revolution; in others, and these are even more deplorable, it is the result of 
the blinding light of Mammon. 
As everyone knows, after the terrible upheaval called the "Caribbean crisis," 
the United States undertook certain given commitments with the Soviet Union 
which culminated in the withdrawal of certain types of weapons that the 
continued aggressions of that country - such as the mercenary attack against 
Playa Giron and threats of invasion against our country - had compelled us to 
install in Cuba as a legitimate act of defense. 
The Americans claimed, furthermore, that the United Nations should inspect our 
territory, which we refused and refuse emphatically since Cuba does not 
recognize the right of the United States, or of anyone else in the world, to 
determine what type of weapons Cuba may maintain within its borders. 
In this connection, we would only abide by multilateral agreements, with equal 
obligations for all the parties concerned. Fidel Castro declared that "so long 
as the concept of sovereignty exists as the prerogative of nations and of 
independent peoples, and as a right of all peoples, we shall not accept the 
exclusion of our people from that right; so long as the world is governed by 
these principles, so long as the world is governed by those concepts which have 
universal validity because they are universally accepted by peoples, we shall 
not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights and we shall 
renounce none of those rights." 
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, understood our reasons. 
Nevertheless, the United States presumed to establish a new prerogative, an 
arbitrary and illegal one; that of violating the air space of any small country. 
Thus, we see flying over our country U-2 aircraft and other types of espionage 
apparatus which fly over our airspace with impunity. We have issued all the 
necessary warnings for the cessation of the violation of our airspace as well as 
the provocations of the American navy against our sentry posts in the zone of 
Guantanamo, the "buzzing" by aircraft over our ships or ships of other 
nationalities in international waters, the piratical attacks against ships 
sailing under different flags, and the infiltration of spies, saboteurs and 
weapons in our island. 
We want to build socialism; we have declared ourselves partisans of those who 
strive for peace; we have declared ourselves as falling within the group of 
non-aligned countries, although we are Marxist-Leninists, because the 
non-aligned countries, like ourselves, fight imperialism. We want peace; we want 
to build a better life for our people, and that is why we avoid answering, so 
far as possible, the planned provocations of the Yankee. But we know the 
mentality of United States rulers; they want to make us pay a very high price 
for that peace. We reply that price cannot go beyond the bounds of dignity. 
And Cuba reaffirms once again the right to maintain on its territory the weapons 
it wishes and its refusal to recognize the right of any power on earth - no 
matter how powerful - to violate our soil, our territorial waters, or our 
airspace. 
If, in any assembly, Cuba assumes obligations of a collecfive nature, it will 
fulfill them to the letter. So long as this does not happen, Cuba maintains all 
its rights, just as any other nation. 
In the face of the demands of imperialism our Prime Minister posed the five 
necessary points for the existence of a sound peace in the Caribbean. They are 
as follows: 
Cessation of the economic blockade and all economic and trade pressure by the 
United States in all parts of the world against our country. 
Cessation of all subversive activities, launching and landing of weapons, and 
explosives by air and sea, organization of mercenary invasions, infiltration of 
spies and saboteurs, all of which acts are carried out from the territory of the 
United States and some accomplice countries. 
Cessation of piratical attacks carried out from existing bases in the United 
States and Puerto Rico. 
Cessation of all the violations of our airspace and our territorial waters by 
aircraft and warships of the United States. 
Withdrawal from the Guantanamo naval base and restitution of the Cuban territory 
occupied by the United States. 
None of these fundamental demands has been met, and our forces are still being 
provoked from the naval base at Guantanamo. That base has become a nest of 
thieves and the point from which they are introduced into our territory. 
We would bore this assembly were we to give a detailed account of the large 
number of provocations of all kinds. Suffice it to say that including the first 
day of December, the number amounts to 1,323 in 1964 alone. The list covers 
minor provocations such as violation of the dividing line, launching of objects 
from the territory controlled by the North Americans, tbe commission of acts of 
sexual exhibitionism by North Americans of both sexes, verbal insults, others 
which are graver such as shooting off small-caliber weapons, the manipulation of 
weapons directed against our territory and offenses against our national emblem. 
The more serious provocations are those of crossing the dividing line and 
starting fires in installations on the Cuban side, seventy-eight rifle shots 
this year and the death of Ramon Lopez Pena, a soldier, from two shots fired 
from the United States post three and a half kilometers from the coast on the 
northern boundary. 
This grave provocation took place at 19:07 hours on July 19, 1964, and our Prime 
Minister publicly stated on July 26 that if the event were to recur, he would 
give orders for our troops to repel the aggression. At the same time orders were 
given for the withdrawal of the advance line of Cuban forces to positions 
farther away from the dividing line and construction of the necessary housing. 
One thousand three hundred and twenty-three provocations in 340 days amount to 
approximately four per day. Only a perfectly disciplined army with a morale such 
as ours could resist so many hostile acts without losing its self-control. 
Forty-seven countries which met at the Second Conference of Heads of State or 
Government of the nonaligned countries at Cairo unanimously agreed that: 
"Noting with concern that foreign military bases are, in practice, a means of 
bringing pressure on nations and retarding their emancipation and development, 
based on their own ideological, political, economic and cultural 
ideas...declares its full support to the countries which are seeking to secure 
the evacuation of foreign bases on their territory and calls upon all States 
maintaining troops and bases in other countries to remove them forthwith.
The Conference considers that the maintenance at Guantanamo (Cuba) of a military 
base of the United States of America, in defiance of the will of the Government 
and people of Cuba and in defiance of the provisions embodied in the Declaration 
of the Belgrade Conference, constitutes a violation of Cuba's sovereignty and 
territorial integrity. 
Noting that the Cuban Government expresses its readiness to settle its dispute 
over the base at Guantanamo with the United States on an equal footing, the 
Conference urges the United States Government to negotiate the evacuation of 
their base with the Cuban Government".
The government of the United States has not responded to the above request of 
the Cairo Conference and presumes to maintain indefinitely its occupation by 
force of a piece of our territory from which it carries out acts of aggression 
such as those we mentioned earlier.
The Organization of American States - also called by some people the United 
States Ministry of Colonies - condemned us vigorously, although it had excluded 
us from its midst, and ordered its members to break off diplomatic and trade 
relations with Cuba. The OAS authorized aggression against our country at any 
time and under any pretext and violated the most fundamental international laws, 
completely disregarding the United Nations. Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico 
opposed that measure, and the government of the United States of Mexico refused 
to comply with the sanctions that had been approved. Since then we have no 
relations with any Latin American countries other than Mexico; thus the 
imperialists have carried out one of the stages preliminary to a plan of direct 
aggression. 
We want to point out once again that our concern over Latin America is based on 
the ties that link us; the language we speak, our culture, and the common master 
we shared. But we have no other reason for desiring the liberation of Latin 
America from the colonial yoke of the United States. If any of the Latin 
American countries here decides to [resume relations it must be on the] basis of 
equality and not with the assumption that it is a gift to our government that we 
be recognized as a free country in the world, because we won the recognition of 
our freedom with our blood in the days of our struggles for liberation. We 
acquired it with our blood in the defense of our shores against Yankee invasion. 
Although we reject any attempt to attribute to us interference in the internal 
affairs of other countries, we cannot deny that we sympathize with those people 
who strive for their freedom, and we must fulfill the obligation of our 
government and people to state clearly and categorically to the world that we 
morally support and feel as one with people everywhere who struggle to make a 
reality of the rights of full sovereignty proclaimed in the United Nations 
Charter. 
It is the United States of America which intervenes. It has done so throughout 
the history of America. Since the end of the last century Cuba has known very 
well the truth of the matter; but it is known, too, by Venezuela, Nicaragua, 
Central America in general, Mexico, Haiti, and Santo Domingo. In recent years, 
besides our peoples, Panama has also known direct aggression, when the marines 
of the Canal opened fire against the defenseless people; Santo Domingo, whose 
coast was violated by the Yankee fleet to avoid an outbreak of the righteous 
fury of the people after the death of Trujillo; and Colombia, whose capital was 
taken by assault as a result of a rebellion provoked by the assassination of 
Gaitan. 
There are masked interventions through military missions which participate in 
internal repression, organizing forces designed for that purpose in many 
countries, and also in coups d'etat which have been so frequently repeated on 
the American continent during the past few years. Specifically, United States 
forces took part in the repression of the peoples of Venezuela, Colombia, and 
Guatemala, who carry on an arined struggle for their freedom. In Venezuela not 
only do the Americans advise the army and the police, but they also direct acts 
of genocide from the air against the peasant population in vast rebel-held 
areas, and the United States companies established there exert pressures of 
every kind to increase direct interference. 
The imperialists are preparing to repress the peoples of America and are setting 
up an "international" [network] of crime. The United States interfered in 
America while invoking the "defense of free institutions". The time will come 
when this assembly will acquire greater maturity and demand guarantees from the 
United States Government for the lives of the Negro and Latin American 
population who reside in that country, most of whom are native-born or 
naturalized United States citizens. 
How can they presume to be the "guardians of liberty" when they kill their own 
children and discriminate daily against people because of the color of their 
skin; when they not only free the murderers of colored people, but even protect 
them, while punishing the colored population because they demand their 
legitimate rights as free men? We understand that today the assembly is not in a 
position to ask for explanations of these acts, but it must be clearly 
established that the government of the United States is not the champion of 
freedom, but rather the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression of the 
peoples of the world, and of a large part of its own population. 
To the equivocating language with which some delegates have painted the case of 
Cuba and the Organization of American States, we reply with blunt words, that 
the governments pay for their treason. 
Cuba, a free and sovereign state, with no chains binding it to anyone, with no 
foreign investments on its territory, with no proconsuls orienting its policy, 
can speak proudly in this assembly, proving the justice of the phrase by which 
we will always be known, "Free Territory of America". 
Our example will bear fruit in our continent, as it is already doing to a 
certain extent already in Guatemala, Colombia, and Venezuela. The imperialists 
no longer have to deal with a small enemy, a contemptible force, since the 
people are no longer isolated. 
As laid down in the Second Declaration of Havana: 
"No people of Latin America is weak, because it is part of a family of 200 
million brothers beset by the same miseries, who harbor the same feelings, have 
the same enemy, while they all dream of the same better destiny and have the 
support of all honest men and women in the world.
Future history will be written by the hungry masses of Indians, of landless 
peasants, of exploited workers; it will be written by the progressive masses, by 
the honest and brilliant intellectuals who abound in our unfortunate lands of 
Latin America, by the struggle of the masses and of ideas; an epic that will be 
carried forward by our peoples who have been ill-treated and despised by 
imperialism, our peoples who have until now gone unrecognized but who are 
awakening. We were considered an impotent and submissive flock; but now they are 
afraid of that flock, a gigantic flock of 200 million Latin Americans, which is 
sounding a warning note to the Yankee monopolist capitalists. 
The hour of vindication, the hour it chose for itself, is now striking from one 
end to the other of the continent. That anonymous mass, that colored America, 
sombre, adamant, which sings throughout the continent the same sad, mournful 
song; now that mass is beginning definitely to enter into its own history, it is 
beginning to write it with its blood, to suffer and to die for it. Because now, 
in the fields, and in the mountains of America, in its plains and in its 
forests, in the solitude, and in the bustle of cities, on the shores of the 
great oceans and rivers, it is beginning to shape a world full of quickening 
hearts, who are ready to die for what is theirs, to conquer their rights which 
have been flouted for almost 500 years. History will have to tell the story of 
the poor of America, of the exploited of Latin America, who have decided to 
begin to write for themselves, forever, their own odyssey. We see them already 
walking along those roads, on foot, day after day, in long and endless marches, 
hundreds of kilometers, until they reach the ruling "Olympus" and wrest back 
their rights. We see them armed with stones, with sticks, with machetes, here, 
there, everywhere, daily occupying their lands, and taking root in the land that 
is theirs and defending it with their lives; we see them carrying banners, their 
banners running in the wind in the mountains and on the plains. And that wave of 
heightening fury, of just demands, of rights that have been flouted, is rising 
throughout Latin America, and no one can stem that tide; it will grow day by day 
because it is made up of the great multitude in every respect, those who with 
their work create the riches of the earth, and turn the wheel of history, those 
who are now awakening from their long, stupefying sleep. 
For this great humanity has said "enough" and has started to move forward. And 
their march, the march of giants, cannot stop, will not stop until they have 
conquered their true independence, for which many have already died, and not 
uselessly. In any event, those who die will die like those in Cuba, at Playa 
Giron; they will die for their never-to-be-renounced, their only true 
independence."
This new will of a whole continent, America, shows itself in the cry proclaimed 
daily by our masses as the irrefutable expression of their decision to fight, to 
grasp and deter the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has the 
understanding and support of all the peoples of the world and especially of the 
socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union.
That cry is: "Our country or death." 
 

Spoken: December 11, 1964 (Havana, Cuba) 
Translated: Official OAS translation