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Brazil’s ‘More Doctors‘ program,”

U.S. government escalates campaign against Cuban international medical cooperation

U.S. government escalates campaign against Cuban international medical cooperation
Declaration from Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denouncing the dishonest campaign the U.S. government has conducted since 2019 to discredit Cuba’s international medical cooperation; exert pressure on the governments that have requested it and deprive peoples of these health services

MINREXoctober 1, 2020 11:10:21

Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus
The Cuban people and the international community are aware of the dishonest campaign the United States government has conducted since 2019 to discredit Cuba’s international medical cooperation; exert pressure on the governments that have requested it and deprive peoples of these health services.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba denounces that, as part of this offensive, the U.S. government has exerted pressure and coercion on the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Under the threat of cancelling its financial contribution, the United States, the principal contributor to the PAHO budget, has forced the Secretariat of the organization to accept what is called “an external audit of PAHO’s role in Brazil’s ‘More Doctors‘ program,” which involved the participation of thousands of Cuban professionals, at the express request of the Workers’ Party’s popular government. This program has been the target of to the most flagrant defamation campaign launched by the United States and the current Brazilian government.

The alleged concerns of the United States regarding Cuba’s cooperation, particularly in relation to the ‘More Doctors‘ program, are neither legitimate or worthy of further consideration by PAHO. The ‘More Doctors’ program, which has been evaluated several times previously with positive results, was established by virtue of a tripartite agreement between the Cuban government, the then Brazilian government and PAHO. Thanks to this program, from August 2013 through November 2018, Cuban doctors in Brazil assisted 113,000,359 patients in more than 3,600 municipalities and provided permanent health coverage to 60 million Brazilians. Thanks to this program, primary health care was expanded; access to health care and services increased; health indicators improved and hospital admissions decreased due to the preventive work carried out by Cuban doctors.

The level of satisfaction and acceptance among patients, doctors and the program’s managers was high. According to a survey made by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), 95 per cent of patients reported that they were pleased or very pleased with the program. Continue reading U.S. government escalates campaign against Cuban international medical cooperation →

2020 Cuba United Nations

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez presentation to the United Nations

Our people, who take pride in our history and are committed to the ideals and achievements of the Revolution, will resist and triumph
The attempts at imposing neocolonial domination on Our America by publicly declaring the present value of the Monroe Doctrine contravene the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace

Granmaseptember 22, 2020 14:09:49

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez Photo: Estudios Revolución
Mr. Secretary General,

Mr. President,

A global pandemic has changed everyday life drastically. From one day to the next, millions of people are infected and thousands die, even though life expectancy is longer thanks to development. Hospital systems with high-level services have collapsed and the health systems of poor countries are affected by their chronic lack of capacity. Drastic quarantines are turning the most populated cities into deserted areas. Social life is non-existent except on digital networks. Theaters, nightclubs, galleries and even schools are closed or on limited schedules.

Our borders have been closed, our economies are shrinking and our reserves are dwindling. Life is experiencing a radical redesigning of age-old ways and uncertainty is replacing certainty. Even close friends cannot recognize each other due to the masks that protect us from contagion. Everything is changing.

As well as finding a solution to the pandemic, the democratization of this indispensable Organization is urgently needed, to effectively meet the needs and aspirations of all peoples.

The longed-for right of humanity to live in peace and security, with justice and freedom, the basis for unity among nations, is constantly under threat.

Over 1.9 trillion dollars are being squandered today in a senseless arms race promoted by the aggressive, war-mongering policies of imperialism, whose leader is the present U.S. government, which is responsible for 38 percent of global military expenditures.

We are referring to an extremely aggressive, morally corrupt regime that dismisses and attacks multilateralism, uses financial coercion in its relations with the UN system agencies and that, showing unprecedented arrogance, has withdrawn from the World Health Organization, UNESCO and the Human Rights Council. Continue reading Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez presentation to the United Nations →

Blockade of Cuba

No One here surrenders

A message for promoters of the blockade: No one here surrenders
Trump has extended for another year the Trading with the Enemy Act that sustains the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The siege is tightened and the harassment stepped up, the maliciousness and perversity continue.

Raúl Antonio Capoteseptember 17, 2020 10:09:31

Trump has extended for another year the Trading with the Enemy Act that sustains the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The siege is tightened and the harassment stepped up, the maliciousness and perversity continue. A cruel, inhuman blockade. But no one here surrenders, responded President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel, via Twitter, quoting Comandante Juan Almeida Bosque.

As has occurred every year since the 1960s, this 2020 the U.S. President reactivated the legislation originally enacted on October 6, 1917, which allows the chief executive to restrict trade and impose economic sanctions on nations the government considers “hostile.”

A presidential memorandum to the secretaries of State and the Treasury, published September 9 on the White House website, stated, “I hereby determine that the continuation of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba for 1 year is in the national interest of the United States.”

According to the news agency Prensa Latina, Donald Trump also expanded his powers to have greater freedom of action in enforcing sanctions and issuing permits for specific individual transactions.

The Trading with the Enemy Act is an instrument regulating the activity of the U.S. executive branch, approved by Congress more than 100 years ago, currently only applicable to Cuba, although China, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and Vietnam have also been subjected to its provisions in the past.

In 1977, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act restricted the President’s authority to impose sanctions based on protecting national security, while the Trading with the Enemy Act continued in effect for Cuba, even though the White House has never declared a national emergency related to our country.

This body of law is part of the legal scaffolding sustaining the economic, commercial, financial blockade of Cuba, that includes other legislation like the Foreign Assistance Act (1961), the Export Administration Act (1979), the Torricelli Act (1992), the Helms-Burton (1996) and the Export Administration Regulations Act (1979).

The blockade is an act of genocide against our people, meant to create scarcity, material shortages, and the interruption of public services, to generate discontent and dissatisfaction, with the goal of blaming the Revolution for the chaos – conduct than can only be described as cynical and immoral.

Human Rights

The United States is the world’s major violator of human rights

The United States is the world’s major violator of human rights
“The United States is the world’s major violator of human rights,” stated Jorge Valero, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Walkiria Juanes Sánchez september 3, 2020 11:09:44

“The United States is the world’s major violator of human rights,” stated Jorge Valero, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

As part of a series of conferences on global governance and development, entitled “The challenges and common problems of humanity at the current

time,” the diplomat recalled that amidst the worsening pandemic, the United States announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It is ironic that the imperialist government made this decision just when the strengthening of this organization was most needed,” he noted.

In terms of security and disarmament, he denounced the U.S. decision to renounce its commitment to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and emphasized, “Trump has also stated that the Reduction of Strategic Arms Treaty (Start) will not be extended,” the only agreement on nuclear weapons currently in effect.

Valero insisted that multi-lateralism is the path to peace and emphasized that this is the focus promoted by the “Bolivarian, Chavista government, looking to construct an international structure that unites states in brotherhood and foments shared responsibility in international affairs.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in his comments during the leaders meeting on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Sao Paulo Forum condemned the illegal U.S. blockade that has systematically violated the human rights of Cubans for over 60 years.

He sharply criticized the imperialists’ outrageous treatment of migrant families, “particularly boys and girls, mistreated, abused in a kind of cage, depriving human beings of dignity and their most elemental rights.”

Before the UN General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla denounced the United States as the world’s principal violator of human rights, a pattern repeated systematically, massively and flagrantly.

During a meeting held November 1, 2019, to present the proposed UN resolution entitled: “The necessity of putting an end to the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba,” Rodríguez recalled that there were 2.3 million persons incarcerated in the United States, where 10.5 arrests a year are made, and that prisoners continue to be held illicitly and indefinitely at the illegal U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo.

“More than a million of their citizens sleep in the street; 28.5 lack medical insurance; women earn approximately 85% of what men do; and accusations of sexual harassment are common.”

On a global level, Rodríguez noted, the U.S. government has signed only 30% instruments of international law and does not recognize the right to peace or development, not even the rights of boys and girls.