Monthly Archives: June 2020

Cuban Medical Brigades

Without preaching, our actions speak for themselves

Cuba answers slander with more solidarity
With another medical brigade departing, this time, to the Turks and Caicos, Cuba shares what we have, as a matter of principle. Without preaching, our actions speak for themselves and are understood by people of goodwill around the world

Nuria Barbosa Leónjune 16, 2020 10:06:18

Photo: Juvenal Balán
It is unlikely that an island country like the Turks and Caicos, barely visible on a world map, would make headlines in the corporate media. Even less so when the news involves Cuban solidarity, inconvenient for the powers that be, capitalist governments that consider healthcare just another commodity.

This tiny archipelago is home to a people who cannot escape the dangers of the pandemic and need help. They have requested it, and Cuba has stepped forward to provide it again, without calculating the cost, paying no attention to the mercenary slanders about our “enslaved” doctors who risk their lives to save others.

This time the brigade includes 20 doctors and nurses, departing for this small nation just as they have traveled to larger, well-known countries. Readers may recall that, when uncertainty about the new coronavirus was at its highpoint, the first Cuban medical brigades joining the COVID-19 battle around the world went to sister Caribbean nations.

This is what makes the U.S. government uncomfortable. The country where the pandemic has taken the most lives is leading the absurd campaign against our efforts, while the world, which is not blind, is proposing our Henry Reeve Contingent for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Organizations within the United States are raising the tone of the nomination, to promote an international campaign, supported by prestigious intellectuals, artists, political leaders and ordinary citizens from all over the world.

Continue reading Without preaching, our actions speak for themselves →

Cuban President (ALBA-TCP)

President Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

These hard times motivate us to continue working united, with more cooperation and agreement
Remarks by Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba, during the high-level online conference of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP) to discuss the post-pandemic economy, June 10, 2020, Year 62 of the Revolution
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdejune 11, 2020 12:06:50

Photo: Estudios Revolución
(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic)
Dear President Nicolas Maduro Moros;
Distinguished heads of state and government;
Heads of delegations;
Esteemed economic authorities from Alliance countries and guests accompanying us:
I would like to begin by thanking brother President Nicolas Maduro Moros for convening this ALBA-TCP Economic Conference.
Urgently needed are the exchange of experiences and agreement on positions to confront together the effects of COVID-19, a pandemic that threatens to significantly deepen the multi-sectoral crisis suffered by our societies, particularly in the economic field.
Although a global impact is foreseen, no one disputes the fact that those who will suffer most from the consequences of the crisis are nations of the South, since the heavy burden of underdevelopment and debt is compounded by unilateral coercive measures to which some of us are subjected, in the context of an unjust international order, which compromises the sustainable development of our peoples.
Since the beginning of the year we have witnessed a painful type of global political economy.
Every ship to which ports have been closed; every plane that has not found a landing strip; every infected person who has been asked to pay for treatment; every financial speculation to gain advantage in obtaining medicines or protective wear that everyone needs; every unanswered request for help; every dead body without a marked grave – all tragedies that we have learned about through the most diverse means – is an expression of the self-interest and injustice of the economic models of a system whose sole purpose is to enrich minorities at the expense of the majority’s suffering.
Incredibly, the over-developed world, the one that steals talent and dazzles with the brilliance of sophisticated productions, has shown itself incapable of using its enormous resources to build a global front against a pandemic that can only be overcome with two forces within everyone’s reach: cooperation and solidarity.
In developed nations of the European Union, which have been terribly hit by the pandemic, many people speak of separation from the bloc because they feel that community integration has not worked during the emergency. What could be an added strength for economically strong countries has become a weakness in the perception of many citizens, due to fundamental ethical deficiencies.
Today we can clearly see the differences between governments that have defended and strengthened the state as a guarantor of social stability and those that, driven by neoliberal theories, have reduced its role, cutting social benefits, public health services and scientific research.
China, with its effective response to the epidemic in the world’s most populous country, and its contributions to the World Health Organization and other nations, has demonstrated the difference. Even those who speak contemptuously of a “Chinese virus” have been helped by the great nation’s practice of solidarity.
On the other hand, governments presumably very effective in integrating their markets, their finances, their troops and even in organizing extra-regional invasions, failed to coordinate efforts to save their own citizens.

Continue reading President Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez →

Cuban Medicine

You have shown the world the strength of Cuban medicine!

You have shown the world a truth that Cuba’s enemies have attempted to silence and distort: the strength of Cuban medicine!
Remarks by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba, during the remote reception of doctors from the Henry Reeve Contingent working in the Italian city of Crema, upon their arrival at Havana’s José Martí International Airport, June 8, 2020

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdejune 9, 2020 10:06:36

Photo: Estudios Revolución
(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic)

Dear compatriots, welcome to the homeland!

Just a few minutes ago, members of the task force that has been leading our actions to confront the pandemic concluded a meeting, and a group of compañeros have remained here, to participate in this remote reception, which we will make more intimate once you have completed the quarantine; but we did not want to violate protocols the country has established to avoid transmission of the pandemic.

We have with us Prime Minister Marrero; Vice President of the Republic, Salvador; Deputy Prime Minister Morales; the Ministers of Health and Foreign Trade, Portal and Malmierca, respectively; compañero Amado, Council of Ministers secretary; and Dr. Tania Margarita.

On behalf of the Army General, on behalf of our Party, our government and our people, we welcome you home.

Your return fills us with deep joy, because you are returning healthy, having accomplished the most humanitarian and noble of missions: saving lives.

After more than two months of intense, perilous work, we would like nothing more than to embrace you, one by one, to thank you for your heroic mission; but we can only attempt to touch your hearts today with words and say to you, with great emotion: Thank you! And we will meet again for another, closer reception.

You now face more challenging sacrifices: two more weeks of isolation, continuing to postpone the reunion with your loved ones.

I hope that, over all this time, you have felt the admiration, the affection and the pride our people express every time they applaud you.

You represent the victory of life over death, of solidarity over selfishness, of the socialist ideal over the myth of the market. With your noble gesture and your courageous disposition to defy death to save lives, you have shown the world a truth that the enemies of Cuba have attempted to silence and distort: the strength of Cuban medicine!

When you left Havana for Crema, we had many more questions than facts about the epidemic. The virus had only been testing our epidemiological response capacity for a few days, but we did have something very clear from the first news of the virus’s propagation: that the only way to overcome a pandemic is with the efforts of all.

The world is in urgent need of cooperation and solidarity, two resources of human willpower that Fidel taught us to cultivate, as fundamental principles of a Revolution in power.

The victorious return of this brigade of more than 50 persons, including medical and nursing staff, has great meaningful value, in the light of those principles. People in all latitudes, even in the developed world, have confidence in the professional and human quality of Cuba’s health workers.

You have upheld the truth, which imperial voices have attempted to hide, to undermine, to bury with lies and aggression in a huge, spurious, multi-million dollar campaign to discredit us with infamous attacks.

You are that just idea capable of stopping an army from the bottom of a cave, of which our Apostle José Martí spoke.

You, and the message of life you leave with the patients you saved, have made solidarity the in-thing again, when many believed the peoples’ tenderness was dead.

In the more than two months that you were away, the country remained attentive to every message you sent your relatives and friends. Here, you were applauded every night and, while our authorities followed your work closely, the people’s prayers were for your return, safe and sound, with your mission accomplished.

Professionals from almost all scientific and academic disciplines in our country have come together in a powerful network, from which strategies to confront the epidemic have emerged, studies of its evolution throughout the nation and protocols for care of the sick and vulnerable population, among other efforts, which we are proud to show you as proof that those who remained here also struggled to live up to the standard set by those who departed to “kiss the world,” as the lyrics go in “Valientes,” by the duo Buena Fe, which has become one of our anthems these days.

Only by pointing to the tireless work, under exceptional conditions, of people from all walks of life and this abundant talent, can we explain how we are winning the battle against the pandemic at a time when another terrible pandemic, that of blockade and economic war, is being mercilessly escalated by the most criminal, and most discredited, U.S. administration.

In these two and a half months, crucial for the world, but especially for a nation blockaded to a genocidal extreme, the United States denied us and prevented purchases of all kinds, did not share information or take action as established by international law in regards to a terrorist attack on our embassy in Washington and, taking cynicism to new heights, put Cuba on their list of nations that allegedly do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism. The U.S. government has acted with particular malice in the persecution of tankers from Venezuela, and imposed new sanctions against current and potential investors and Cuban institutions. There is not another notch in the belt they are tightening around Cuba.

It is not by chance that Cuban medical brigades, today defending life in 28 countries, bear the name of the U.S. citizen who did the most for Cuba: Henry Reeve, brigadier general of our Liberation Army and the permanent inspiration of those who, like Martí, “love Lincoln’s country as much as we fear Cutting’s.”

Witnessing the growing world clamor for our brigades to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize has filled us with healthy pride these days. With the mission you have completed, you have made a solid contribution to advancing this movement.

When the world becomes a more just and noble place, the entire Cuban health system will surely be rewarded for having made a reality of Marti’s principle, “Homeland is humanity,” to which Fidel, Raúl and the Centennial Generation devoted their greatest energy and efforts. We are their sons and daughters, and you, their continuators, who we welcome today.

Thank you again! Profoundly human works such as those you undertake every day honor the memory of Martí, Fidel and all Cuban revolutionaries. And they inspire our unwavering cry of: Homeland or Death! We will triumph!

Welcome to the homeland!

(Applause.)

The Cuban health system has made a reality of Marti’s principle, Photo: Ismael Francisco / Cubadebate

COVID-19 battle

COVID-19: Cuban science continues to launch new lines of research

COVID-19: Cuban science continues to launch new lines of research
Yesterday, June 4, President Miguel Díaz-Canel held his weekly meeting with scientists and experts directly involved in the COVID-19 battle, who reported that 460 investigations, studies, interventions and clinical trials related to the epidemic are currently underway

Leticia Martínezjune 5, 2020 09:06:03

Photo: Alberto Borrego
Yesterday, June 4, President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez held his weekly meeting with scientists and experts directly involved in the COVID-19 battle, at the Revolution Palace, a gathering he described as encouraging.

This meeting, he said, shows that Cuban science is efficiently supporting national efforts against the disease and “has not stopped, is not satisfied with results that have proven to be very important, but rather launches new lines of research, while contributions and results continue to be consolidated.”

As part of the agenda, Dr. Pedro Más Bermejo presented an analysis of the evolution of the Oxford index of active cases in a number of countries including Cuba, Costa Rica, Uruguay and New Zealand, which are among the best performers in the Americas and the world. According to this index, which evaluates the response of governments to the pandemic, Cuba currently maintains a score of 100, while the other nations included in the comparison scored 69.4, 66.7 and 36.1, respectively, after relaxing some of the measures adopted. Continue reading COVID-19: Cuban science continues to launch new lines of research →