Raul Castro’s First UN Speech Offers Little Goodwill Towards US
(CNSNews.com) – Any expectation that the Obama administration’s historic outreach to Cuba would bring a different tone from President Raul Castro was quickly dispelled when, in his first-ever speech at the United Nations, the communist leader criticized U.S. and Western policies from Latin America to Eastern Europe to the Middle East.
When he eventually got around to the restoration of relations with the United States – more than halfway through his 17-minute speech – Castro expressed no goodwill, but simply underlined Cuba’s conditions for normalization, including an end to the 55-year-old embargo.
“After 56 years in which the Cuban people put up a heroic and selfless resistance, diplomatic relations have been re-established between Cuba and the United States of America,” he said. “Now a long and complex process begins towards the normalization of relations.”
“But this will only be achieved with the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba; the return to our country of the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base; the cessation of radio and TV broadcasts and of subversive and destabilizing programs against the island; and when our people are compensation for the human and economic damages they still endure.”
As long as the embargo endures, Castro added, Cuba will continue to present an annual draft resolution at the U.N. condemning it.
(The resolution each year passes by an overwhelming margin – last year’s vote was 188-2, with only the U.S. and Israel voting no. Obama has called on Congress to lift the embargo, and the Associated Press reported [1] last week that the administration was considering an unprecedented abstention rather than voting against the measure this year.)
Earlier in the speech Castro did a tour around the region, voicing “solidarity” with the leftist leaders in Venezuela and Ecuador in the face of “destabilization” efforts (he did not accuse the U.S. by name, but the implication was clear); calling for Puerto Rico’s independence from the U.S. “after more than a century of colonial domination”; supporting slavery reparation for Caribbean nations; and backing Argentina in its sovereignty dispute with Britain over the Falkland (Malvinas) islands.
Looking further afield, he slammed NATO for its eastward expansion in Europe and for Western sanctions against Russia. The measures were imposed after Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, which went unmentioned by Castro.
He also “demand[ed] the end of external interference” in Syria – although without saying whether that demand extended to the involvement of Russia and Iran, both allies of Cuba.
As for the refugees from warzones and other migrants flooding Europe, Castro blamed the crisis on Western interference in the Middle East, along with poverty in Africa.
“This is a direct result of the destabilization actions promoted and executed by NATO in countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as of poverty and underdevelopment prevailing in countries of the African continent,” he said.
“The European Union should take up full and immediate responsibility for the human crisis that it helped to generate.”
Castro also voiced “strong support” for Palestinian claims to eastern Jerusalem and an independent state, and welcomed the nuclear deal with Iran as evidence “that engagement and negotiations are the only effective tools to settle disputes.”
More broadly, he criticized colonialism and imperialism, called for an end to “unilateralism” at the United Nations, and said the world body must be reformed and democratized, “to bring it closer to the peoples.”
Castro concluded by saying Cuba could always be depended upon to “raise its voice against injustice, inequality, underdevelopment, discrimination and manipulation, and for the establishment of a more equitable and fair international order.”
The end of the speech brought sustained applause, and a standing ovation from several Latin American delegations.
In his address to the U.N. earlier in the day, President Obama said the U.S. continues to have differences with the Cuban government, and “will continue to stand up for human rights.”
“But we address these issues through diplomatic relations, and increased commerce, and people-to-people ties,” he continued.
“As these contacts yield progress, I’m confident that our Congress will inevitably lift an embargo that should not be in place anymore,” Obama said, drawing applause.
“Change won’t come overnight to Cuba, but I’m confident that openness, not coercion, will support the reforms and better the life the Cuban people deserve, just as I believe that Cuba will find its success if it pursues cooperation with other nations.”
Obama and Castro are due to meet in New York on Tuesday, for what will be only their second substantive meeting.
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