[NYTr] Raul Roa Garcia: The dignity of a foreign minister Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 00:07:23 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Granma International - Jul 2, 2007 http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/julio/lun2/27roa.html Raul Roa Garcia: The dignity of a foreign minister July 6: 25th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest diplomats of the Revolution BY GILDA FARICAS RODRIGUEZ bGranma International staff writerb THINKING of him, onebs memory irremediably comes up with the same definition: the foreign minister of dignity. Because after the revolutionary triumph in 1959, RaC:l Roa GarcC-a was the man who defended Cuba in the most important world scenarios. For the enemies of the nascent Revolution headed by Fidel Castro, it was the moment to fall on the little rebel island with a whole arsenal of hostilities. But there shielding it was Roa, using fire in his voice and a sting in his words. During 16 years of foreign service (1959-1976), whether in the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations headquarters, his oratory cut through any conspiracy hatched by U.S. diplomats and their lackeys. That was the case in that August of 1960 in San JosC), Costa Rica. The mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion was closing in. The imminent aggression, funded by the CIA and with the go-ahead of the White House, was exposed to the OAS by RaC:l Roa. However, realizing that his warning went unheard, he notified the plenary of the withdrawal of the delegation that he was heading. "I am with my people and the peoples of our America are with my people," he thundered in the Assembly. On leaving, the Cuban officials were greeted by a huge crowd chanting slogans in favor of the island and against the U.S. attitude. Roa was always ready to stand up to the attacks of that irreconcilable and dangerous enemy of the Revolution. And also of other nations. The session of the UN General Assembly where the genocide of the Chilean people perpetrated by the coup dictator Augusto Pinochet is often recalled. After the Cuban diplomat had made his speech against those brutal acts, the representative of the Chilean Military Junta replied with defamatory and offensive remarks concerning Fidel. The first few attacks by the Pinochet representative were enough to have Roa leap to his feet to hit him while proffering a volley of truths. The Chilean ran for cover, while members calmed the foreign minister and the room was called to order. "The (Assembly) president affirmed in a shaky voice that such an action was unprecedented in the UN," RaC:l Roa wrote later. AN IRREPLACEABLE PIECE OF CUBA >From an early age, RaC:l Roa GarcC-a, who was born in Havana on April 18, 1907 and died in the same city on July 6, 1982, demonstrated his resolve in terms of defending the homeland. Son of a public employee and grandson of a MambC- lieutenant colonel (19th century liberation fighters), he always sought membership of left-wing movements. His revolutionary activities led to imprisonment and exile. He headed student struggles in the 1930bs, assumed and exalted the values of the thinking of JosC) MartC-, stood up to the dictatorship governments of Gerardo Machado and Fulgencia Batista, studied the significance of the Latin America battle against imperialism, and maintained close links with the 26th of July Movement. In parallel with his highly active political life he studied at university and in 1935 graduated with a Doctorate in Law. As a writer and a journalist, his work was no less profuse. His published works include Bufa subversive (Subversive Joke, 1935), Historia de Doctrinas Sociales (History of Social Doctrines, 1949), Quince aC1os despuC)s (Fifteen Years Later, 1959), Retorno a la alborada (Return to the Dawn, 1964), La Revolution del 30 se fue a bolina (The 30bs Revolution Failed) and El fuego en la semilla del surco (The Fire in the Seed of the Furrow), published posthumously in 1982. In 1959 and impelled by a new language that would be in keeping with the political challenges that the nascent revolutionary state was beginning to confront at international level, the former minister of state left his post for a mission of genuine diplomacy. So it was RaC:l Roabs privilege to introduce the new style of Cuban foreign relations to the world. The talent, sympathy and boldness with which the incipient foreign minister drew up his diplomatic functions did not take long to enrich his own revolutionary history. Recently, Ricardo AlarcC3n de Quesada, president of the Cuban Parliament, spoke of RaC:l Roabs legacy as a treasure of veritable wisdom, intellectual coherence and authentic militancy. Meanwhile, for Felipe PC)rez Roque, the current minister of foreign affairs, Roabs work made it impossible to isolate Cuba; that it now has the support of 158 UN nations; that it has defeated the blockade and opened up the islandbs way to its relations with Latin America and the rest of the world. As the eminent intellectual Cintio Vitier said, with the death of the foreign minister of dignity, we lost an irreplaceable piece of Cuba. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . 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