http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art10.htmlGRANMA
June 9, 2008
The U.S. Government Has Much to Learn from Cuba
and Is in No Position to Lecture Anybody
• Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
ON June 4, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented her annual
report on human trafficking for 2008, in which, for the sixth consecutive
year, the United States government included Cuba among the countries it
accuses of not making significant efforts to confront the alleged
trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation,
and described our country as a sexual tourism destination, among other
serious and unfounded accusations.
For the first time, the imperial power also decided to include in this
report several recommendations to the Cuban government as to how to confront
the phenomenon.
At the same time, the report threatened sanctions against those countries
accused of failing to meet the secretary of state’s requirements on the
issue, denying them U.S. government aid, something which is of little
relevance to Cuba, having been subjected for over 50 years to these and
other measures, as part of the policy of blockade implemented so rigorously
and cruelly in an attempt to defeat the Cuban people.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejects the contents of this
new State Department report which denies and distorts Cuban realities in an
effort to justify the U.S. government’s criminal blockade of, aggression and
hostility against Cuba.
The report attempts to denigrate the social and moral work of the Cuban
Revolution, in particular, the priority afforded women and children, broadly
recognized on an international level. It also presumes to discredit the
healthy and growing development of our tourist industry, to which the U.S.
market has absolutely no access, and which that government is trying to
undermine by all means in its reach.
The U.S. government, and in particular the Bush administration, which has
consistently attacked the human rights of the Cuban people, has no moral
basis or credibility for accusing Cuba and much less for presenting cynical
recommendations as to what our country should do in this context.
Cuba does not recognize any value whatsoever in the content of the State
Department report, conscious that, thanks only to the work of the Revolution
and despite the policies of the United States, since 1959, we have been able
to raise the social well-being of our population to unprecedented levels.
The attempt to disparage Cuba’s image and its tourist industry and ignore
the policy developed by the Cuban government to prevent all types of social
ills within this sector and severely punish those responsible for such
reprehensible behavior, can only be explained by the U.S. government’s
obsession with denying and attempting to stop anything that represents
progress for our country, its economy or its society.
It was precisely the Revolution which eliminated forever the conditions that
promoted sexual tourism and other related social ills that previously
existed in our country and were exacerbated by the neocolonial domination
imposed on Cuba until 1959 by Yankee imperialism.
The United States government has much to do within its own country to
confront the rampant incidence there of prostitution, sexual exploitation,
forced labor and trafficking in persons.
It is light years away from the guarantees Cuba provides its citizens, above
all children, women and the elderly, in the areas of health, education,
security and social well-being.
The U.S. government has much to learn from Cuba and is in no position to
lecture anybody.
Havana, June 8, 2008