Cuban Vice-President Says US Tramples Charters And Laws It Wrote

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
February 17, 2005

An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon
The US Tramples the Charters and Laws It Wrote
By SAUL LANDAU

Editors' Note: This is the second of a three part interview Saul Landau conducted in Havana last month with Ricardo Alarcon Quesada Cuba's Vice President and President of its National Assembly.

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Landau: In 1945, the US wrote the Nuremburg laws prohibiting aggressive war and also drafted the UN and OAS charters that prohibit intervention. How do you explain US behavior, initiating those laws and then violating them?

Alarcon: The US wrote all those important documents that became the foundation of the international order when it was the most important power in the world. Now that the world has been undergoing change those documents have become obstacles to US interests. At the same time, US officials try to manipulate these documents, like the Human Rights Covenants. If you listen to US officials, they are fulfilling a mission of spreading human rights throughout the world. The ideals of freedom and democracy are in the UN charter, but together with the principle of nonintervention, prohibition of war.

Those exercising power were not happy with what happened. The reality problem is a serious one. Psychiatrists help those who have trouble dealing with reality. If you do not acknowledge reality you may be suffering from a serious disturbance. I sometimes feel that some American politicians need professional help to remember that they conceived the UN and its structure. Some American politicians now refer to the UN as something to ignore or despise. Do they forget that it was a US creation? To weaken or break this organization, which is what Bush did, was a terrible thing. The UN does not exist any more because of what happened in Iraq. This is a very serious problem. It is not true that it will reconstruct itself on new bases.

I don't want to sound rude, but that is exactly what Hitler did. He was angry with the League of Nations, with reality, after WWI. During the period between the two world wars, Germany became the European superpower, economically, technologically, militarily.

When Hitler set the goal of conquering Europe in the mid 1930s, his dream matched the reality of Europe more than who Bush seeks to conquer the entire world with the current level of US power. Hitler's irrational dream was more rational than the discourse you hear now from American leaders. Hitler made a very big mistake, trying to conquer the USSR. Stalin committed many crimes. He was a dictator, but the Soviet people stopped Hitler. It was the same mistake that Napoleon made, to try to conquer the East. If he had remained the master of western and central Europe maybe he would have continued to hold power. But he overextended himself.


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Saul Landau teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University, where he is the director of Digital Media Programs and International Outreach, and is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. His new book is The Business of America.


http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02172005.html

[Benson]

1. I don't look to Cuba for Political or Human Rights advice.

Did this VP say this before or after the cuban librarians were jailed for the crime of free speech?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Killing the messenger?

Or, do you have any comments on what he said?

[DrWeird]

3. I hope you aren't an American.

Because that would make you a hypocrite for criticising other counties' human rights violations.

[Benson]

4. Let Cuba free the librarians, then I might listen.

1)Yes, I am an American.
2) No, I'm not a hypocrite.
3) I have every right to comment on Cuban human rights abuses. Its not like people are floating over to the cuban's people's paradise. No people are DYING to get away from castro!

Please point to the American Librarians who were jailed on free speech crimes.

DU is fully operational, no democrats have been rounded up. No liberal forums have been shut down. We can rant and rave all we want.
My speech is free. no restrictions on me.

[DrWeird]

5. Let the Americans free their prisoners in Cuba.

And end all the other human rights violations, then it won't be hypocritical for Americans to criticize other countries human rights violations.

[RuleofLaw]

7. Do you have a link to these people you speak of?

[Itsthetruth]

6. Bush Shouldn't Lecture Cubans On Democracy

I just don't buy the right-wing smear campaigns against Cuba by the Bush government. Cuba perhaps has the best human rights record of any country in Latin America. It certainly is not a dictatorship along the lines of regimes in the Middle East and many other places in the world that Bush supports .... from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia.

I don't think the Bush government is in any position to lecture Cuban's on democracy and civil liberties.

If someone disagrees with the opinions of the Cuban Vice-President please speak up! But, let's remain civil and not engage in name calling or other nonsense of that type. OK?

[LeaderlessResistance]

8. Comments On Cuba

When traveling in Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, you will notice people selling and wearing the ubiquitous (omnipresent) Ernesto "Che" Guevara t-shirts. Many people seem to like him and not like the IMF or World Bank. I saw so many people with the t-shirt icon on, so many that I bought and then read Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson.

Don't like Communism, but really liked the book. I think Che would of made a great college professor.

[Padraig18]

9. A human rights lecture from the CUBAN VP?

Sweet sufferin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

:eyes:

[Itsthetruth]

10. Yes

Yes. I would like to see him debate George Bush on that and other questions. He would leave old George in the dust.

Cuba's record on human rights is certainly better than Bush's.

Keep an open mind and take a look at these websites to get more balanced news and information on Cuba. That's the only way you can find out more about life in Cuba and the positions of the Cuban government and leaders.

Granma International/English Edition Government Newspaper

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html

Prensa Latina/Latin American News Agency In Cuba

http://www.plenglish.com/

[Itsthetruth]

11. 1st Part Interview Link

Here's the link to the first part of the three part interview with Cuba's Vice-President.

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02122005.html

RICARDO ALARCON
Vice-President Of Cuba
President of Cuba National Assembly