Unity Against War: At the International Forum for Peace

Speech by member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of its Department of International Relations, Emilio Lozada García, at the the International Forum for Peace convened by the Communist Party of Spain in Madrid, September 25, 2026, translated from the Spanish.

Inauguration of the Peace Forum

Dear José Luis, Enrique, Marta, Gloria

Dear comrades present here,

It is an honor for the Communist Party of Cuba to participate in this International Forum for Peace, convened by the Communist Party of Spain, at a time of real and growing dangers for humanity.

World peace is gravely threatened.

We live in a time when wars are multiplying, when military spending squanders resources that should be allocated to health, education, housing and a dignified life, and when the international order is more and more shaped by the law of the strongest.

We are witnessing an irresponsible arms race, the expansion of aggressive military alliances, the militarisation of Europe and a nuclear risk that we thought had been overcome. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of people are suffering 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 that the Zionist regime of Israel is carrying out in the Gaza Strip. There can be no true peace as long as illegal sanctions are imposed, entire economies are blockaded, or coups are financed.

That’s why this forum must be a space to build a new culture of peace—one that doesn’t turn security into a commodity, doesn’t justify military interventions under false humanitarian pretenses, and refuses to stay silent 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 the use of force, to resolve differences through dialogue, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States.

Today that Zone of Peace is strongly threatened by the resurgence of the Monroe Doctrine, which the United States government has placed at the epicenter of its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean; with fascist puppet governments, with renewed military bases, interference, coups d'état, coercive sanctions and doctrines of domination. To defend it is to defend the peace of the whole world.

That Zone of Peace today faces another danger: the return of neoliberalism, which threatens the entire continent. Brutal austerities, privatizations, foreign debt, free trade agreements that plunder our resources. Neoliberalism is not just an economic recipe: it is a project of domination that deepens poverty, dispossesses peoples, and prepares the ground for intervention and war.

Dear Comrades,

We cannot renounce international law, the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. They must be rescued as an indispensable reference point for moving towards a world of peace, without wars of expansion, without cruel blockades, which collectively punish peoples by committing silent genocides, as is the case in Cuba.

For Europe, there is a historical responsibility. We cannot be spectators bearing witness to the increases in military spending, the installation of new bases, the complicity with NATO or the silence in the face of imperialist aggression. The European left, the peace movement, trade unions, feminist, environmentalist and youth groups have a lot to contribute. Peace is also built in squares, in universities, in workplaces and in the cooperation between peoples.

We invite all the progressive and left forces of Europe and the world to join in this task. We are not naïve: we know that the hegemonic powers will not voluntarily renounce their privileges. We know that imperialism does not end with good wishes. But we also know that history is written by the peoples when they rise up together. Peace is possible, and we have a historic responsibility to make it a reality.

Let this forum be a call for unity against warmongering. Let it be a space for meetings, frank debate and 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 united for peace, for life, for humanity!

Thank you very much.

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