Cuba answers slander with more solidarity
With another medical brigade departing, this time, to the Turks and Caicos, Cuba shares what we have, as a matter of principle. Without preaching, our actions speak for themselves and are understood by people of goodwill around the world

Nuria Barbosa Leónjune 16, 2020 10:06:18

Photo: Juvenal Balán
It is unlikely that an island country like the Turks and Caicos, barely visible on a world map, would make headlines in the corporate media. Even less so when the news involves Cuban solidarity, inconvenient for the powers that be, capitalist governments that consider healthcare just another commodity.

This tiny archipelago is home to a people who cannot escape the dangers of the pandemic and need help. They have requested it, and Cuba has stepped forward to provide it again, without calculating the cost, paying no attention to the mercenary slanders about our “enslaved” doctors who risk their lives to save others.

This time the brigade includes 20 doctors and nurses, departing for this small nation just as they have traveled to larger, well-known countries. Readers may recall that, when uncertainty about the new coronavirus was at its highpoint, the first Cuban medical brigades joining the COVID-19 battle around the world went to sister Caribbean nations.

This is what makes the U.S. government uncomfortable. The country where the pandemic has taken the most lives is leading the absurd campaign against our efforts, while the world, which is not blind, is proposing our Henry Reeve Contingent for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Organizations within the United States are raising the tone of the nomination, to promote an international campaign, supported by prestigious intellectuals, artists, political leaders and ordinary citizens from all over the world.

Notable supporters have already been enlisted: Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; Rafael Correa, former President of Ecuador; the actors Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo; writers Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky and Nancy Morejón; filmmakers Oliver Stone and Petra Costa; musician Tom Morello, and singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who join at more than 10,000 other signatories of petitions.

In a statement to Granma, Alicia Jrapko, U.S. coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity of the Peoples, co-chair of the National Network of Solidarity with Cuba, and promoter of the initiative, said: “We are infinitely grateful to Cuba for the wonderful solidarity and humanistic work they are doing around the world to help in this pandemic. We are ashamed of the attitude of the U.S. government, not only for its inhumane approach to the crisis within the country, but for the irresponsible attitude of continuing to blockade countries that are fighting to save lives, especially Cuba and Venezuela.”

Our solidarity is based on a principle that has become part of our national identity. Cuba shares what we have, not what we have left over. Without preaching, our actions speak for themselves and are understood by people of goodwill around the world. The departure of another brigade June 15, to a small island nation, is just one more example.