Cuba’s ambassador to France, Otto Vaillant, has expressed his gratitude for the solidarity shown to his country on French soil in the face of US aggression and denounced new threats from Washington.
Speaking via videoconference at the general assembly of the France-Cuba association, one of the oldest in the world dedicated to supporting the island, the diplomat acknowledged the decades of support provided by the organization, founded in 1961, and its various initiatives of political and material solidarity.
Vaillant emphasized the importance of international support at a time when the administration of President Donald Trump is intensifying the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against the Caribbean nation with suffocating measures, such as an oil embargo that has prevented the arrival of crude oil for more than three months.
This is a crime with a severe economic and social impact, he warned in his virtual exchange with delegates at the two-day meeting in the southern Occitan city of Agde.
The ambassador rejected the escalating hostility toward Cuba and the recurring threats from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to seek regime change, reiterated yesterday from Florida and Paris, respectively.
“Cuba does not want war, but it is preparing and will not kneel or renounce its independence.”
Thanks to technology, Vaillant answered questions about the reality on the island and the consequences of the blockade and its recent intensification.
Invited to the France Cuba general assembly, the embassy’s Political Affairs Officer, Ernesto González, also addressed the current situation in the Caribbean nation and the resilience of its people in the face of adversity.
For his part, Cuban doctor Sigifredo Montero shared his experiences with the more than 60 delegates in the fight for the health of his compatriots under the difficult conditions imposed by the US embargo and its intensification.
The doctor, who specializes in minimally invasive surgery, showed concrete examples of the contribution of solidarity, and in particular of the France-Cuba association, in helping to alleviate the shortages caused in the sector by the Washington blockade.
Montero mentioned performing more than 50 operations with barbed sutures and other techniques, a large number of them urological procedures.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
