The U.S. government has much to learn from Cuba and is in no position to lecture anybody

ON June 4, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented her annual report on human trafficking for 2008, in which, for the sixth consecutive year, the United States government included Cuba among the countries it accuses of not making significant efforts to confront the alleged trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and described our country as a sexual tourism destination, among other serious and unfounded accusations.

For the first time, the imperial power also decided to include in this report several recommendations to the Cuban government as to how to confront the phenomenon.

At the same time, the report threatened sanctions against those countries accused of failing to meet the secretary of state’s requirements on the issue, denying them U.S. government aid, something which is of little relevance to Cuba, having been subjected for over 50 years to these and other measures, as part of the policy of blockade implemented so rigorously and cruelly in an attempt to defeat the Cuban people.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejects the contents of this new State Department report which denies and distorts Cuban realities in an effort to justify the U.S. government’s criminal blockade of, aggression and hostility against Cuba.

The report attempts to denigrate the social and moral work of the Cuban Revolution, in particular, the priority afforded women and children, broadly recognized on an international level. It also presumes to discredit the healthy and growing development of our tourist industry, to which the U.S. market has absolutely no access, and which that government is trying to undermine by all means in its reach.

The U.S. government, and in particular the Bush administration, which has consistently attacked the human rights of the Cuban people, has no moral basis or credibility for accusing Cuba and much less for presenting cynical recommendations as to what our country should do in this context.

Cuba does not recognize any value whatsoever in the content of the State Department report, conscious that, thanks only to the work of the Revolution and despite the policies of the United States, since 1959, we have been able to raise the social well-being of our population to unprecedented levels.

The attempt to disparage Cuba’s image and its tourist industry and ignore the policy developed by the Cuban government to prevent all types of social ills within this sector and severely punish those responsible for such reprehensible behavior, can only be explained by the U.S. government’s obsession with denying and attempting to stop anything that represents progress for our country, its economy or its society.

It was precisely the Revolution which eliminated forever the conditions that promoted sexual tourism and other related social ills that previously existed in our country and were exacerbated by the neocolonial domination imposed on Cuba until 1959 by Yankee imperialism.

The United States government has much to do within its own country to confront the rampant incidence there of prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor and trafficking in persons.

It is light years away from the guarantees Cuba provides its citizens, above all children, women and the elderly, in the areas of health, education, security and social well-being.

The U.S. government has much to learn from Cuba and is in no position to lecture anybody.