To be with Cuba today is to defend peace and the right of all peoples, no matter how small, to the full exercise of their sovereignty, affirms the appeal of Uneac to intellectuals and creators of the world

The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) has called upon all intellectuals and creators of the world to mobilise in defence of the Cuban cause.

«As Martí defined it in 1895, when writing about our duty in the Americas: ‘Whoever rises up today for Cuba, rises up for all time’,» reads the text, which has been shared this Monday by the influential Mexican newspaper La Jornada, and which can be subscribed to by writing to the email address oficina.presidencia@uneac.co.cu, with the subject: Cuba is not a threat.

The Island «resists and will resist this inhumane aggression, but it counts on the active solidarity of all honest, humanist men and women of good will in the world. It is about preventing a genocidal act and saving a heroic people whose only ‘crime and threat’ has been to defend their sovereignty,» the document assures.

«Cuba has never aggressed against any nation. Cuba exercises international solidarity even under conditions of extreme blockade. To be with Cuba today is to defend peace and the right of all peoples, no matter how small, to the full exercise of their sovereignty.»

The appeal explains that the country has struggled for centuries, first to conquer its independence and then to defend it unreservedly. Such immense resistance against the most powerful and predatory empire in human history has been achieved through the high sacrifice of its people. The conscious resistance of those of us who live in the archipelago is due to convictions and reasons learned long ago.

«José Martí, the great poet and patriot, defined our noble destiny in 1894: ‘In the heart of the Americas lie the Antilles, which would be, if enslaved, merely a bridgehead for the war of an imperial republic.’

«Cuba’s greatest wealth lies in its people. We possess no oil reserves or other highly coveted natural resources, but we have developed a human capital capable of moulding resilience through creativity and knowledge.

«Cuba does not foster terrorism although we have been victims of it. We love peace indissolubly linked to our independence. We have always desired to build a just and supportive society. We eliminated illiteracy and reduced infant and maternal mortality to levels similar to those of the developed world. We sent doctors and teachers to other nations when others only dropped bombs.

«We created vaccines that are distributed free of charge. We promote sport as a right of the people and we are the Spanish-speaking country that has won the greatest number of medals in the history of the Olympic Games.

«We have a comprehensive free system of art schools, where dancers, actors, painters, filmmakers, musicians… many of humble origin, have trained; they have generated a powerful artistic movement, recognised internationally.

«Since the revolutionary triumph of 1959, we have aspired to achieve the highest cultural level for our people. Fidel proved to us that illiteracy could be eliminated and that we must fight to eradicate, through a framework of laws and active vigilance, racism and discrimination in all their manifestations. We are advancing in the integration and defence of the rights of our women, who are already parliamentarians, managers, professionals on equal terms with men.

«We approved an advanced Family Code that protects love in its diverse ways of existing.

«Despite the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States since 1962, successively intensified, up to the asphyxiation implemented by the current US government, we do not renounce our dreams of prosperity, justice and peace.

«Resistance costs us and imposes great sacrifices on our people every day and involves facing with stoicism the cruelty of the extraterritorial measures of the US government.

«The empire says that Cuba represents a threat to its national security, which is ridiculous and implausible. It has decreed an oil blockade, with the consequent paralysis of hospitals, schools, industries, transport. They try to deprive our doctors of saving lives; they try to paralyse our free and universal education system, to plunge us into famine, into the lack of energy to guarantee access to drinking water, to cooking food; in short, they intend to slowly and bloodily extinguish a country.»