Fidel Castro Gabriel García Márquez

The Fidel Castro I know: Gabriel García Márquez

The Fidel Castro I know
The Nobel Prize for Literature winner offers his observations of a good friend
Author: Gabriel García Márquez | internet@granma.cu
august 30, 2019 14:08:04

f0025417

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Granma Archives

His devotion to words. His power of seduction. He looks for problems wherever they may be. The impetus of inspiration is characteristic of his style. Books reflect very well the breadth of his tastes. He quit smoking to have the moral authority to fight smoking. He likes to prepare cooking recipes with a kind of scientific fervor. He stays in excellent physical condition with several hours of daily workouts and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Iron discipline. The power of his imagination prepares him for the unexpected. Learning to rest is as important as learning to work.
Tired of conversing, he rests while talking. He writes well and likes to. The greatest stimulus in his life is the emotion of taking a risk. The podium of an improvising orator seems to be his perfect habitat. Always beginning with an almost inaudible voice, with an uncertain course, but taking advantage of any flash to gain ground, inch by inch, until he delivers a blow and seizes the audience. It is this inspiration, the state of irresistible and dazzling grace, which only those who have not had the glory of living it deny. He is anti-dogmatic par excellence.
José Martí is his number one author and he has a talent for incorporating his ideals into the bloodstream of a Marxist revolution. The essence of his own thinking lies in the certainty that working with the people is fundamentally being concerned with individuals.

Continue reading The Fidel Castro I know: Gabriel García Márquez →

U.S. obstruction of Cuban Medical Cooperation

The U.S. government allocates millions of dollars to obstruct Cuban medical cooperation

The U.S. government allocates millions of dollars to obstruct Cuban medical cooperation
Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Digital news staffaugust 29, 2019 14:08:28

f0025413

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: MINREX
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces and strongly condemns the United States government’s recent aggression against Cuba through a USAID program to finance projects and seek information to discredit and sabotage Cuba’s international health care cooperation in dozens of countries, benefitting millions of people. This plan joins the disgraceful pressure exerted on several governments to hamper Cuban cooperation, and previous attempts with the same purpose such as the special “parole” program meant to rob human resources trained in Cuba.

The core of this immoral slander is the totally unfounded allegation that Cuba is involved in the trafficking of persons and practices slavery, attempting to denigrate the meritorious work done voluntarily, over a long period of our history, by hundreds of thousands of Cuban health professionals and technicians in many countries, especially in the Third World.

This is an attack on bilateral programs and inter-governmental cooperation projects, all legitimately established by the Cuban government and those of dozens of countries, adhering to United Nations guidelines regarding South-South cooperation and meeting health standards sovereignly defined by the governments involved.

This is an attack against acts of solidarity that have been recognized by the international community and praised specifically by the highest authorities in the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.

These lies reveal the base morality of the U.S government and politicians dedicated to the business of aggression against Cuba. The campaign is funded with millions of dollars and enjoys the complicity of several mass media outlets, in particular, unscrupulous reporters who sacrifice their supposed impartiality and objectivity to serve the political interests of the U.S. government.

For decades and today, in nations with unfavorable economic conditions, this cooperation has been, and is, provided as a gesture of solidarity, with costs covered practically in their totality by Cuba. Likewise, in line with United Nations conceptions on cooperation between developing nations, services are offered in several countries on the basis of complementarity and partial compensation.

This exchange is completely fair and legitimate among developing countries, many of which have natural riches, economies, and industrial development greater than Cuba’s, but lack the human resources our state has been able to create – disinterested, humanist professionals willing to work under the most difficult conditions, on their own free will; and a conception of health care coverage that years of experience have allowed us to construct.

Cuban technicians and professionals who participate in these programs do so absolutely freely and voluntarily. During the fulfillment of their missions, they continue to receive their full salaries and additionally receive a stipend in the destination country, along with other forms of compensation.

In those cases in which Cuba receives compensation for the cooperation provided, these collaborators are meritoriously making a highly valuable, fair, and totally legitimate contribution to the financing, sustainability, and development of our massive, free healthcare system that is accessible to each and every Cuban, as well as cooperation programs that are carried out in many parts of the world.

Access to health care is a human right and the United States is committing a crime when it attempts to deny or obstruct its provision for political reasons or as an act of aggression.

Havana, August 29, 2019

Cuban Women

Mother Cuba

Mother Cuba
The Federation of Cuban Women, which has placed Cuban women in the center of the Revolution, today celebrates its 59th anniversary. Granma presents a tribute to all women, and to Cuba

Leslie Díaz Monserrataugust 23, 2019 08:08:30
If Cuba were a woman, she would be called Mariana, like the strong mother who forged warrior children.

If Cuba were a woman, she would wear a long dress with white and blue stripes and a star on her chest.

If Cuba were a woman, she would enchant, not with her silhouette of a Caribbean queen, but with the strength of her character, with her courage.

Her colors would be the green of the fields, the blue of the sea that caresses them, the red of the blood of her people in the wars of independence.

She brought freedom to life in a difficult, prolonged birth. Then she gave birth to the Revolution and cradled it in her arms. She has born valuable men and women, tireless fighters.

She dresses every day with palms, and although small, does not know the word fear. A good while ago, she learned to fight giants.

Her life has not been easy. She has been obliged to resist, impose herself, like the great women who could not abide oppressive norms and decided to fight.

Having her as a mother gives us infinite pride. We are all brothers and sisters of a single people.

Yes, Cuba must be a woman and thus, within the beauty that surrounds her, her loving children contemplate her proudly. Continue reading Mother Cuba →

Cuba Venezuela Solidarity

Full text of Cuban President’s speech at the Sao Paulo Forum in Caracas

Full text of Cuban President’s speech at the Sao Paulo Forum in Caracas
There is no better forum than this to reaffirm that Cuba will never renounce or betray its principles or Venezuela
Author: Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
august 2, 2019 15:08:37

There are no mysteries or conspiracies, no plans of aggression or intervention, nor have there ever been in the almost 30 years of the Sao Paulo Forum.

mail-14

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Estudios Revolución
Speech by Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of Cuba´s Councils of State and Ministers, during the closing of the XXV Sao Paulo Forum, in Venezuela, July 28, 2019, Year 61 of the Revolution
(Council of State transcript / GI translation)
Compañero Nicolás Maduro Moros, brother President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela;
Compañeras and compañeros of the Bolivarian Revolutions leadership;
Compañera Mónica Valente;
Latin American and Caribbean leaders, and those from other parts of the world joining us;
Compañeras and compañeros:
Allow me to devote my first words to Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, Cuba´s great friend, son of the Americas who today turns 65 in eternity. (Applause)
Our Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, who loved him dearly and was one of the first to recognize his qualities as a leader, referring to the appearance of an extraordinary politician like Chávez in our suffering region, placed him next to Bolívar and Martí in the battle for the destiny of the Greater Homeland. Fidel said:
“For a long time now I have held […] the deepest conviction that, when the crisis comes, leaders emerge. This is how Bolivar emerged when the occupation of Spain by Napoleon occurred and a foreign king was imposed, creating the conditions conducive to the independence of the Spanish colonies in this hemisphere. This is how Martí emerged, when the auspicious hour arrived for the outbreak of the independence revolution in Cuba. This is how Chavez emerged, when the terrible social and human situation in Venezuela and Latin America determined that the time to fight for our second and true independence had arrived.”
Bolívar, Martí, Fidel, Chávez, what do these men have in common, who, whenever we are called upon to think, we feel obliged to quote and draw from their respective legacies? Our America, Martí would answer, who named it this way to clearly distinguish ours from imperial America that despised us and who despises us more now, as evidenced by the huge wall projected on the southern border, the atrocious mistreatment of migrants, the Helms -Burton, the Nica Act, financial persecution and the arbitrary imposition of tariffs on countries in the region, the suspension of development aid, the blockade and the dirty war against Cuba and Venezuela, among other malicious acts that know no limits. Continue reading Full text of Cuban President’s speech at the Sao Paulo Forum in Caracas →