Cuba Socialista, September 25,2026 —
Speech by Emilio Lozada García, member of the Central Committee and head of its Department of International Relations, at the opening of the Forum for Peace.
Dear colleagues present here:
It is an honor for the Communist Party of Cuba to participate in this International Peace Forum, convened by the Communist Party of Spain, at a time of growing and real dangers to humanity.
World peace is gravely threatened.
We live in an era where wars are multiplying, where military spending squanders resources that should be allocated to health, education, housing and a decent life, and where the international order is increasingly governed by the law of the strongest.
We are witnessing an irresponsible arms race, the expansion of aggressive military alliances, the militarization of Europe, and a nuclear threat we thought we had overcome. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of people suffer from hunger, poverty, forced migration, and the climate crisis.
The Communist Party of Cuba maintains that there can be no peace for a few while others suffer genocide like the one the Zionist regime of Israel is carrying out in the Gaza Strip. There can be no true peace while illegal sanctions are imposed, entire economies are blockaded, or coups d’état are financed.
That is why this forum must be a space to build a new culture of peace: one that does not commodify security, that does not legitimize military interventions with false humanitarian flags, that does not accept complicit silence in the face of genocide or aggression.
Dear colleagues:
The Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, adopted in Havana in 2014, was a sovereign decision of our peoples: to renounce the use and threat of force, to resolve differences through dialogue, and to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.
Today, this Zone of Peace is seriously threatened by the resurgence of the Monroe Doctrine, which the United States government has placed at the center of its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean; with fascist-leaning puppet governments, renewed military bases, interference, coups d’état, coercive sanctions, and doctrines of domination. Defending it is defending the peace of the entire world.
This Zone of Peace now faces another danger: the return of neoliberalism, which threatens the entire continent. Brutal adjustments, privatizations, external debt, and free trade agreements that plunder our resources. Neoliberalism is not just an economic recipe: it is a project of domination that deepens poverty, dispossesses people, and paves the way for intervention and war.
Dear comrades:
We cannot renounce International Law, the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We must reclaim them as an indispensable reference point for moving towards a world of peace, without wars of expansion, without cruel blockades that collectively punish peoples by committing silent genocides, as is the case of Cuba.
Europe bears a historical responsibility. We cannot stand idly by as military spending increases, new bases are established, complicity with NATO persists, or silence prevails in the face of imperialist aggression. The European left, the peace movement, trade unions, feminist, environmental, and youth groups all have much to contribute. Peace is also built in public squares, universities, workplaces, and through cooperation between peoples.
We invite all left-wing and progressive forces in Europe and around the world to join us in this endeavor. We are not naive: we know that hegemonic powers will not willingly relinquish their privileges. We know that imperialism cannot be stopped by good intentions. But we also know that history is written by the people when they rise up united. Peace is possible, and we have the historical responsibility to make it a reality.
May this forum be a unified call against warmongering. May it be a space for encounter, for frank debate, and for concrete commitments. May no one leave here empty-handed, but with clear tasks: to denounce war, to demand disarmament, to defend the sovereignty of peoples, and to build bridges of solidarity.
Let us move forward together for peace, for life, for humanity!
Thank you so much.
