Homeland or Death

Homeland or Death

_Che Guevara

This is a prepared text of  Che Guevara at the UN General Assembly in 1964.

Mr. President ; Distinguished delegates:

 The delegation of Cuba to this assembly, first of all, is pleased to fulfill the agreeable duty of welcoming the addition of 3 new nations to the important number of those that discuss the problems of the world here. We therefore greet, in the persons of their presidents and prime ministers, the people of Zambia, Malawi and Malta, and express the hope that from the outset these countries will be added to the group of  Nonaligned countries that struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism.

In some cases, it is a blindness provoked by the hatred against revolution by the ruling classes of the Latin American countries. In others – and these are sadder and more deplorable – it is the product of the dazzling glitter of mammon. As is well know, after the tremendous commotion of the so-called Caribbean crisis, the United States undertook certain commitments with the Soviet Union. These culminated in the withdrawal of certain types of weapons that the continued acts of aggression of the United States—such as the mercenary attack at Playa Giron and threats of invasion against our homeland—had compelled us to install in Cuba as an act of legitimate and essential defense. 

The United States, furthermore, tried to get the UN to inspect our territory. But we emphatically refuse, since Cuba does not recognize the right of the united states, or of anyone else in the world, to determine the type of weapons of Cuba may have within its borders. In this connection, we would abide only by multilateral agreements, with equal  obligations for all the parties concerned. As Fidel Castro has said: “ So long as the concept of sovereignty exists as the prerogative of nations and of independent peoples, as a right of all peoples, we will not accept the exclusion of our people from that right.”

“ So long as the world is governed by these principles, so long as the world is governed by those concepts that have universal validity because they are universally accepted and recognized by the peoples, we will not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights, and we will renounce none of those rights.”

The Secretary – General of the United Nations, u Thant, understood our reasons. Nevertheless, the united states attempted to establish a new prerogative, an arbitrary and illegal one: that of violating the airspace of a small country. Hus, we see  flying over our country U-2 AIRCRAFT and other types of spy planes that, with complete impunity, fly over our airspace. We have made all the necessary warnings for the violations  of our airspace to cease, as well as for a halt to the provocations of the U.S.Navy against our sentry posts in the zone of Guantanamo, the buzzing by aircraft of our ships or the ships of other nationalities in international waters, the pirate attacks against ships sailing under different flags, and the infiltration of spies, saboteurs and weapons onto our island.

We want to build socialism. We have declared that we are supporters of those who strive for peace. We have declared ourselves to be within the group of Nonaligned countries, although we are Marxist-Leninists, because the Nonaligned countries, like ourselves, fight imperialism. We want peace. We want peace. This new will of a whole continent, of  Latin America, is made manifest in the cry proclaimed daily by our masses as the irrefutable expression of their decision to fight and to paralyze the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has the understanding and support of all the peoples of the world and especially of the socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union.

That cry is: Patria o muerte..!! [HOMELAND OR DEATH]