By Hedelberto López Blanch *
It would be very difficult to summarize in a few lines the enormous amount of unpaid humanitarian aid, in the health sector alone, that Cuba has provided to more than one hundred nations around the world.
The practice of the Cuban Revolution since 1959 has been that, if a major natural disaster occurs anywhere in the world, the government and its people have been ready to provide urgent assistance without regard for the social regime or the system in place in the affected territory.
Examples abound: Medical brigades went to provide aid to the Chilean people when they suffered the earthquakes of 1960 and 1971; In Peru in 1970, Cuba sent not only medical assistance but also blood donated by 100,000 Cubans, and later, brigades of Cuban construction workers built 15 hospitals.
In 1963, a medical brigade from the island arrived in Algeria to provide support to the newly liberated country, from which almost all foreign personnel, who had previously provided inadequate care to the population, had departed.
After the 1972 earthquake, and despite the fact that the Nicaraguan dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, supported by the United States, reigned in that nation, Cuba immediately sent blood, medical personnel and medicines.
Cuban humanitarian aid has extended to many other nations, such as Vietnam; Central America during the floods of the 1980s; and Pakistan after the 1996 earthquake, where Cuba arrived with medical personnel, medicines, supplies, and orthopedic equipment. The People’s Republic of China and most African countries have also received medical assistance. In Venezuela, Brazil and Nicaragua, to name a few other nations, tens of thousands of healthcare personnel have worked.
The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), which opened its doors in September 1999, has trained and graduated more than 12,000 foreign doctors from some fifty countries, including the United States.
The decisive contribution of the Cuban government and people to the liberation of several African countries and the subsequent elimination of apartheid on that continent, for which more than 2,000 of their sons and daughters gave their lives, is undeniable.
And given all this humanitarian and solidarity-based policy that Cuba has implemented with numerous countries around the world without asking for anything in return, we might ask ourselves: Will governments around the world allow a genocide to be committed against Cuba, as is being carried out by the aggressive and inhumane policy implemented by the United States empire against the island?
Will the United States, with its convicted president Donald Trump and the mythomaniacal Secretary of State Marco Rubio, continue pressuring various countries not to send oil to Cuba?
How long will powerful nations and friendly countries like Russia, China, Brazil, Mexico, Algeria, Angola and others continue to obey Washington’s genocidal and unjust actions?
Can’t they all agree to send precious oil to Cuba, which is suffering one of the most ruthless wars waged by a declining but extremely aggressive empire?
In a recent speech during the July 26th celebrations, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stated:
“The State Department officials, experts in drafting sanctions, making lists, and inventing pretexts, are a modern version of the drafters of edicts and military proclamations who were so feared and hated in the dark times of the Middle Ages or during the Nazi occupations in World War II.” As if the rest of the world were their colony, they dictate how things should be done under threats of punishment or aggression.
“We denounce those who designed this policy of suffocation, those who implement it and sustain it, as they are responsible for the suffering of the Cuban people. We also denounce those who remain silent and tolerate the excesses of the emboldened, fascist, far-right in the United States, which lies, steals, kills, and pretends to be the arbiter of all destinies.”
Díaz-Canel then emphasized: “The United States blockade only works because of the complicity of those who fear the power of Washington more than the judgment of history. This is a new call to the conscience of the world: Do not become complicit in another genocide.”
And with a resounding statement, he concluded: “Every time a part of the world remains silent in the face of aggression against Cuba, international law is weakened. Every time a government accepts the illegitimate sanctions of the United States, the principle of non-intervention is eroded. Every time a company is pressured to abandon its investments in Cuba, and others hesitate to invest for fear of reprisals, the economic dictatorship of a single power is strengthened. Before it was Gaza, Lebanon, Iran; today it is Cuba. Tomorrow it could be any other nation.”
And this commentator asks in conclusion: Will some nations of the world decide to free themselves from fear, unite and defy the genocidal war of the United States against Cuba?
(*) Hedelberto López Blanch is a renowned Cuban journalist. He writes for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones. He is the author of “Cuban Emigration to the United States,” “Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa,” and “Miami, Dirty Money,” among others.
[ SOURCE: RESUMEN LATINOAMERICANO Y DEL TERCER MUNDO CUBA / EN RESUMEN ]
