Almost four months after a similar operation, a foreign ship carrying crude oil docked on Tuesday at one of Cuba’s ports, ranking among the day’s top news stories due to the symbolic value of solidarity and the challenge to an imperial blockade that punishes an entire people.
When the emperor of modern times said: “Not one more drop of oil for Cuba,” and signed an Executive Order in January to try to legitimize the illegality of his will, many chose not to challenge him. It was the longest night for the rebellious island.
Cuba felt the pressure, but did not yield to it or blackmail. It sought domestic options with its heavy crude oil to sustain minimal energy production, and from abroad, friends helped accelerate the project to change the energy matrix with “unblockable” renewable sources, like the sun.
But without fuel, ensuring a country’s vitality is impossible. Friends and adversaries alike know this. It’s genocide, plain and simple. Thousands of people await surgery; some are dying while waiting for the minimum conditions to perform that medical procedure. More clearly: waiting for stability in energy supplies to resolve their ailments.
Among this group of patients are hundreds of children, for whom the greatest blackout is the postponement of their dreams of growing up, studying, playing, and smiling in good health.
These children’s “dream killers” are killing themselves with this ideology of hatred that won’t get very far, because just causes defend themselves and always find support in humanity, however dark the times may be.
Now a ship has arrived from Russia with 100,000 tons of crude oil. Their voyage has been one of the most publicized, and every nautical mile left an indelible mark on the ocean, like an aquatic highway of solidarity, humanism, and commitment to life, along which other vessels with similar motivations may travel.
The Russian friends were not intimidated, and Cuba is grateful for their sovereign gesture. An entire nation united in spirit this Tuesday, where the sea and land meet, to applaud the commitment to life of a vessel laden not so much with oil, but with hope, love, and the certainty that Cuba is not, and will not be, alone.
And it renews our faith in a Martí-inspired idea that illuminates noble and just causes: “Whoever rises up with Cuba today, rises up for all time.”
IMAGE CREDIT: Norland Rosendo González | Photo: Granma Newspaper Website
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]
