1360. Cuba Calls for Elimination of All Nuclear Weapons

By Cuban News Agency, March 20, 2014 

The world's first underwater nuclear explosion conducted by the United States near Bikin Atoll island in 1946.

HAVANA--Cuba called before the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU ) in Geneva , Switzerland for the total elimination of nuclear weapons and noted the decision of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States ( CELAC) to declare the region a zone of peace .

"The problems the world is facing today are very complex. We live moments in which climate change and the existence of nuclear weapons threaten the survival of our species," the vice president of the Cuban Parliament , Ana María Mari Machado, said during the 130th assembly of the IPU.

The Cuban deputy considered unacceptable to continue spending substantial resources on armaments and its further development, including nuclear, and not the promotion of the right to development of peoples, Prensa Latina news agency reported.

With excessive resources devoted to war we could combat the existing extreme poverty, feed the hungry and prevent the death of more than 11 million children that die each year from starvation and preventable diseases, she said.

Mari Machado stated that the promotion of peace, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development are the only way to secure the future.

The Vice President of the National Assembly of People's Power said that this spirit inspires CELAC, which seeks ways for development through solidarity and cooperation between peoples, in order to improve welfare.

She noted that at the recent summit of the bloc, held in Havana, it proclaimed the region as a zone of peace and made a commitment to further nuclear disarmament as a priority objective, and the contribution to general and complete disarmament.