A deceit currently being promoted by the US and British governments is that any western intervention into Libya is in order to defend human rights. As Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out in his statement to the UN Human Rights Council, these are not imperialism’s real concerns. The principle human right – the right to life – is denied by these same powers, whose invasions of countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan have left hundreds of thousands dead. Alongside that there is the well-established use by the US of torture at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, plus Britain’s involvement in the US abduction programme. That indicates the real view these states take on human rights.