GRANMA INTERNACIONAL DIGITAL

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PROCLAMATION
by the National Assembly of People's Power
of the Republic of Cuba

The National Assembly of People's Power of the Republic of Cuba proclaims that the economic blockade imposed by the United States of America on Cuba constitutes an act of genocide.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948, and was signed by the government of the United States of America on December 11, 1948 and by Cuba on December 28, 1949. It entered into force on January 12, 1951 and has been signed and ratified by 124 states. Article II of this Convention reads as follows:

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

It immediately goes on to include among these acts, in sub-paragraph (c), "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Article III stipulates that the following acts, among others, shall be punishable:

"(a) Genocide;"

"(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

"(e) Complicity in genocide."

It precisely states in Article IV:

"Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals."

Barely eight months after this Convention on genocide was approved in 1948, the United Nations passed the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, on August 12, 1949, during an international conference convened by the Swiss government. It was signed and ratified by the governments of the United States and Cuba, and entered into force on October 21, 1950. A total of 188 states are currently parties to this Convention.

Article 23 of said Convention provides: "Each High Contracting Party shall allow the free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores and objects necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians of another High Contracting Party, even if the latter is its adversary. It shall likewise permit the free passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases."

Additional Protocol I of this Convention specifically, precisely and categorically states, in Article 54, the "protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.

"1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.

"2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve our civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."

Thus, it is clear that a blockade on food, medicine and other objects indispensable to survival is not even permitted in times of war.

Leaving aside the countless pirate attacks perpetrated against our country, the dirty wars, the groups armed and supplied by the United States of America, the acts of economic sabotage and terrorism, the introduction of pests and diseases that have affected the lives of people, animals and plants, and the indirect or direct military invasions that have been carried out or have been on the verge of being launched, and limiting ourselves exclusively to the economic aspects of the US government's aggression against Cuba, it must be pointed out that the roots of this genocidal intent date back from before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959.

A secret U.S. document, declassified in 1991, reveals that on December 23, 1958, at a National Security Council meeting attended by President Dwight Eisenhower where the situation in Cuba was discussed, then CIA director Allen Dulles categorically stated: azos, who had taken over the management of the Cuban National Bank, a man well known and respected in U.S. government circles, announced that the former regime had embezzled or seized 424 million US dollars from the gold and dollar reserves that backed the Cuban peso.

Two months later, on April 19, the New York Times daily corroborated the report's claim about the theft of the funds that constituted the country's only reserves and noted that "much of it [was] flown overseas by Batista and his cronies."

The spoils of this colossal theft ended up in U.S. banks. Not a dime was returned to Cuba. The guilty parties were able to fully enjoy the benefits of these stolen funds with impunity and without exceptions.

In early February, a delegation from the Cuban National Bank traveled to the United States to make an extremely modest request for credits, in order to sustain the Cuban currency. A few days later, on February 12, the U.S. National Security Council decided to turn down the request. During the same meeting at which this decision was made, the CIA director stated that Cuba had become for Washington "the most worrisome" of the "trouble spots" in the continent.

A week after the National Security Council decision was made, while reiterating their refusal to comply with Cuba's desperate request, the US authorities noted that the financial difficulties facing Cuba "would tax the governing abilities of any of the best leaders, at least in this hemisphere."

Barely six weeks had passed since the triumph of the Revolution, and the economic warfare against Cuba had already been unleashed.

The Agrarian Reform Law passed on May 17, 1959 was aimed at providing food for the vast majority of our undernourished population, ensuring the survival to millions of people, and directly or indirectly creating jobs for a large percentage of the economically active population unemployed at the time. This law was an urgent and pressing necessity for the economic and social development of the Cuban nation, where major Cuban and foreign landholders owned estates of up to 150,000 hectares. In some cases the land was extensively exploited, while in others it was completely idle. The legislation established deferred compensation, to be paid out in reasonable and workable installments. There was no money available to do it in any other way. The Cuban law, as adopted by a non-industrialized country, was much less radical and more generous than that imposed on Japan by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur at the end of World War II.

In the case of Cuba, the United States demanded the impossible: a prompt, effective and full cash payment.

Even the U.S. ambassador to Cuba, in a recently declassified confidential message to his government had affirmed: "With respect to the provisions in the Agrarian Reform Law for payment of expropriated lands, the Embassy does not view these as a sign of anti-Americanism, but is inclined rather to accept as sincere the Cuban Government's defense of these provisions on the ground that it is not in a financial position now to make just, prompt and effective compensation and that for revolutionary reasons it cannot postpone agrarian reform until its finances improve."

A month after the enactment of the crucial Agrarian Reform Law, on June 24, the United States began to consider using more radical and lethal measures against our economy. At a meeting called by the State Department to study options for action against Cuba, it was put forth that "it behooved the US Government to take a very firm position forthwith against the law and its implementation," and that "the best way to achieve the necessary result was by economic pressure."

II PART