Mr. President,
Distinguished Heads of Delegations,
These are challenging times for all of us. The epidemiological crisis we are facing has shattered our civilized world and has revealed a truth: we need each other to overcome these obstacles, to act and to start building back.
The current international political order has demonstrated its inability to respond with efficiency and justice to the current health and socioeconomic crisis, which has also had a wide-ranging impact on culture. The experience of last year has laid bare the imminent need to join forces, seek creative solutions and implement comprehensive policies in which the priority is the human being rather than economic gain.
Cuba, in addition to the serious effects caused by the current crisis has had to face the application and tightening of the United States blockade, which considerably affects the living conditions of all Cubans, harms our cultural and scientific development, hinders concrete possibilities for expanding cooperation between our nations and causes human damage. In 2020 alone, the cultural sector in Cuba reported damages amounting to $14,463,300, as a consequence of this policy.
At the same time, we have had to deal with an exponential increase in the cultural and media war waged from Miami against our culture and especially our artists, many of whom have defended their right to meet the same destiny as their people.
We denounce in this context and in light of the current circumstances, the application of the blockade, and its marked extraterritorial nature, as well as the infamous inclusion of Cuba in the list of State sponsors of terrorism, and subversive actions that seek to destroy the political, economic and social order our nation has freely and sovereignly chosen.
In our country, the pandemic has challenged institutions to continue promoting art and expressions of cultural heritage among the broadest sectors of the public. As an example of the political priority given by the Cuban State to culture, our government has earmarked to date more than 300 million Cuban pesos of the State budget to protect the salaries of professional musicians and performing artists throughout the country, a measure that continues to be applied.
In view of these circumstances, during 2020 and so far in 2021, Cuba has been developing and consolidating a comprehensive approach to cultural work which includes the efficient use of new technologies and the design and implementation of manifold alternatives for the circulation of art and literature, aimed at encouraging the cultural use of free time, especially among adolescents and young people, and contributing to their education and entertainment.
In the future, once COVID-19 is over, the cultural life of our peoples will no longer be as we have known it until today, but on one hand it will require increasingly creative solutions for its realization and sustainability, and on the other hand, it will not be able to disregard its complement on the internet and social networks. The improvement and training at different levels for the organic articulation with new virtual scenarios is an inescapable challenge for all, but especially for developing countries deprived of vast resources, and in cases such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, segregated from large circulation circuits controlled by hegemonic cultural industries.
These are times of innovation and solidarity, of new global scenarios characterized by challenges that can only be addressed and reversed through international cooperation. Today, as never before, the quote of José Martí, our Apostle and National Hero, becomes a reality: “Unite, for this is the word of the world”.
Thank you.
