Díaz-Canel: May Cuban foreign policy continue to be a diplomacy of “Homeland or Death!”
Speech by Cuba’s President at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 60th anniversary commemoration

Author: Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
december 27, 2019 16:12:42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: José Manuel Correa

Speech by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba, at the commemoration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 60th anniversary, held in the Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry’s Universal Hall, December 23, 2019, Year 61 of the Revolution

(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic)

Compañero José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee;

Compañero Esteban Lazo Hernández, Political Bureau member and President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State;

Compañero Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Political Bureau member and Minister of Foreign Affairs;

Admired and beloved founders and officials of long standing;

Compañeras and compañeros:

I am pleased to assume the duty of speaking to you on the day that the 60th anniversary of Cuban revolutionary diplomacy is officially celebrated. Congratulations! (Applause)

We are united with Minrex by close ties and a history full of reasons to be proud of being Cuban, which began well before December 23, 1959.

Revolutionary diplomacy is, without a doubt, a well established fact, which has shone in the ideas and voice of Fidel since the initial days of the victory and his first trips abroad. In Caracas, barely 23 days after the triumph of the Revolution, the young leader was already talking about the need for Latin American integration:

“…How long are we going to be defenseless pieces of a continent whose liberator conceived as something more dignified, greater? How long are Latin Americans going to be living in this petty, ridiculous atmosphere? How long are we going to remain divided? How long are we going to be victims of powerful interests that attack all of our peoples? When are we going to raise the great slogan of union? The slogan of unity within nations is raised; why is the slogan of unity of nations not also raised?

In Washington, only four months after descending from the mountains, his ethics and defense of national sovereignty, his call for a relationship of equals impressed journalists, when he told them that if they were accustomed to seeing representatives of other governments come to ask for money, he was not. And he clarified: I come only to attempt to reach a better understanding with the U.S. people. We need better relations between Cuba and the United States.

Just a few days later, in Buenos Aires, at the meeting of the 21, he proposed a principle that you have emphasized a great deal on this anniversary of Minrex: the diplomacy of the people. He improvised a speech there that no veteran of another governments represented could surpass: “I am a new man here at this type of meeting; we are, moreover, in our homeland, a new government and perhaps that is why we are also bringing fresh ideas and beliefs from the people, since we still feel like the people, we speak here as a people, and as a people living an exceptional moment in its history, as a people full of confidence in our own destiny. I come to speak here, with the confidence of the people and with the frankness of the people.” Continue reading Speech by Cuba’s President at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 60th anniversary →