Fifty years ago, one of the most transcendental attempts by developing nations to continue fighting for decolonization took place; that is, the decisions approved by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) which allowed the emergence of NIEO and its action plan, said Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.

Thanks to the impetus of the G-77 and the Non-Aligned Movement (NOA), De Cossío recalled, norms and concrete actions to change the international economic relations, already termed as “unjust, inoperative and unsustainable”, were passed back in 1974.

Even though NIEO was originally featured by a reformist approach, the developed capitalist States sabotaged the initiative from its inception.

Under the US leadership, the developed countries consistently prevented the decisions necessary for its implementation from being reached, limiting the allocation of financial resources and the UN’s capacity for action, De Cossío added.

Since the mid-1980s and later with euphoria and disorientation caused by the collapse of socialism in Europe, neoliberal currents and policies managed to impose themselves with messianic dogmatism, which eroded the authority of NOEI and the conceptual and ideological awareness required for its implementation, he judged.

However, there is now a greater understanding of challenge and pressing need to change the unjust and inoperative rules and structures of the global economy, which are perpetuating and aggravating the global economic crisis.

These rules aggravate the conditions of subordination, dependence and underdevelopment for most of the countries of the global South and their respective peoples, with the consequent consequences of poverty, exploitation, exclusion and generalized misery, said Fernández de Cossío.

It is time to examine those transcendental decisions made in 1974 and to do so with a critical sense in order to build the possibility of a better world, considered the Cuban diplomat.

pll/npg/mjm