Cuba will never become a second Iraq!

Statement by participants in the 3rd International Culture and Development Congress

THE warmongering leaders of Washington, flinging themselves into the irrational undertaking of imposing their rule throughout the world in the 21st century and the third millennium, continue to exercise their plans for the War Without End.

Still immersed in its campaign of destruction in Iraq that incited the repudiation of humanity, they are now aiming at a new target: the Independent Republic of Cuba, which they have not been able to conquer for over 40 years, despite having resorted to every possible provocation. The island is currently in the sights of Washington’s escalated negotiating away of the principle of sovereignty of nations and the self-determination of peoples.

Taking into account the difficulties that the aggressive superpower experienced with some of its European allies in the case of Iraq, it is now taking the trouble to subjugate them as the accomplices of its new conquests. It has decided to utilize Cuba as small change in order to overcome disagreements and jointly undertake a new colonization of all the countries rejecting the old slavery, by dressing it up in new pseudo-modern clothing.

The European Union governments, under the thumb of Bush and his gang, are now submissively obeying the superpower. In order to ingratiate themselves with it and participate in the plunder, they have approved the anti-Cuban attack, which could be a prelude to new aggressions calculated to produce a second Iraq.

Cuba will never become a second Iraq!

We are certain that the people of the earth, who represent humanity’s feelings in their purest essence, will take to the streets of the five continents as they did before the invasion of Iraq, to say in no uncertain terms: “No to war, yes to peace!”

Without any doubt the European Union’s decision does not interpret the will of this continent’s peoples, connected by so many links in terms of nations, and as part of a universal culture and a common humanity.

It is an extremely serious challenge for the world. The reply should be immediate and massive because, when all is said and done, it is about the destiny of human beings in this new millennium. The peoples yearn to be free and sovereign and to live as dignified and respectable human beings. They will rise to their feet and triumph.

Havana, June 12, 2003

Volodia Teitelboim, Thiago de Mello, Marcelino Dos Santos, Keith Ellis, Santiago García, Jaime Lozada, Raúl Pérez Torres and over 300 intellectuals attending the 3rd International Culture and Development Congress in Havana.