Lima, Peru
May 2008
Your Excellency,
Poverty, inequality and exclusion are the offspring of a world order
based on greed and selfishness. Only solidarity and justice, within
our societies and between countries, can lead to the inclusion of
peoples in a just order.
Today=92s international order does not answer to the interests of the
peoples of the world. It is our duty to change it.
The hunger, illiteracy, unemployment and poor health suffered by
hundreds of millions of people are incompatible with the aim of
building a better world, where the rights of all are fully respected.
The principle of sovereignty cannot be sacrificed in the name of an
order that consolidates the hegemony of an aggressive superpower. A
handful of industrialized nations cannot be permitted to continue to
squander resources as scandalously as they do today, while trampling
on the right to life and development of thousands of millions of human
beings.
The gold, silver and riches which were the fruit of our peoples=92 sweat
and blood financed the construction of the opulent palaces in the
North=92s metropolis, palaces which remind us, each day, that the
wellbeing of some was built on the profound suffering of others. And
the worst thing of all is that, five hundred years later, the
situation has not only persisted, but worsened.
Underdevelopment and poverty are the consequences of the conquest,
colonization and slavery, of neo=97colonialism and imperial domination
and of today's egotistical and exclusivist order, which polarizes the
world into luxurious squandering and extreme poverty.
What Latin America and the Caribbean live today is the opposite of the
unjust privileges that allow the United States and the members of the
European Union to engage in irrational patterns of consumption.
Europe still has a chance to show that it is truly interested in
relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. Europe still has a
chance to assume its responsibilities and to make an im****tant
contribution to the creation of an equitable and fair world. Europe
must assume its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
modestly and without dogmas, in a fraternal and respectful manner.
Europe is in a position to assume the impact of decisions that could
be decisive to the development of Latin America and the Caribbean,
without enduring major economic and social repercussions.
The European Union should set an example and cancel the foreign debt
of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This debt has
already been collected several times over.
The European Union should begin to reduce and ultimately eliminate its
costly agricultural subsidies, which increase prices and affect
producers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
So called partner****p agreements cannot continue to be governed by
unacceptable conditions and requirements that ignore the needs of our
peoples.
If the European Union devoted 10 % of the money it destines each year
to military spending to the construction of social projects in Latin
America and the Caribbean, at least 30 billion dollars a year could be
used to build schools and hospitals in our region.
If the European Union honoured its commitment to allocate 0.7 % of its
Gross Domestic Product to Official Aid for Development, the countries
of Latin America and the Caribbean could benefit from a part of the 40
billion additional euros this would mean.
Cuba presents these arguments with the authority of a blockaded
country with scant resources, a country that has shared what little it
has with its Latin American and Caribbean brothers.
Today, more than 34,000 of Cuba=92s best health specialists are working
abroad to save lives, in 27 countries around Latin America and the
Caribbean. More than one million blind or visually impaired people
from 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have been
operated on, free of charge, by Cuba, in the last 4 years.
Nearly 15,000 students from 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries
have graduated from Cuban centres of learning and universities. Cuba
has not retained one talent and an additional 26,000 students, nearly
23,000 of whom are studying medicine, currently pursue studies in
Cuba.
With Cuba=92s aid, over 3,000,000 illiterates have been taught to read
and write in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last 5 years.
What we still need to create a world where solidarity and real justice
for all prevails is political will. Cuba's modest example proves this.
This is our respectful, though clear and direct, message to the
governments of the European Union.
Thank you very much.
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