The Cuban president has condemned the attempts to destabilize Venezuela.
President Raul Castro has repeated Cuba’s support for the Venezuelan government as it faces “an unconventional war” led by “imperialism” and the country’s “oligarchy” in a bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro with a coup.
During a speech marking the end of the Cuban Congress’s extraordinary session, Castro condemned the opposition violence initiated in April on the streets of Caracas and other cities as “fascists actions.”
He mentioned the videos showing several young Venezuelans being burnt alive during anti-Maduro protests.
“Pastors for Peace has always embraced the commitment of Cuban leaders to put the welfare of their people first,” Gail Walker, the director of the organization said.
The 48th contingent of the United States-Cuba Friendship Caravan, organized by Pastors for Peace, arrived in Havana yesterday to deliver a symbolic donation of important drugs and medical supplies, as well as demand the end of the “economic, political, and cultural embargo.”
The group traveled through 50 cities in the United States to do solidarity work and speak on the realities of the ongoing embargo, promoting the normalization of relations between the two countries.
The most recent caravan has traveled in the context of a renewed wave of U.S. aggression toward Cuba, as the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has rolled back several gains made in recent years toward normalization, and has heightened anti-Cuba rhetoric.
On Friday the visiting group, mostly from the United States, is paying tribute in Havana to the founder of Pastors for Peace, Reverend Lucius Walker. Reverend Walker, who died in 2010 is considered by many in both Cuba and in the United States to be a tireless fighter in defense of Cuba’s revolution and against U.S. aggression.
On the third day of meetings by the National Assembly of People’s Power work commissions, deputies reaffirmed their support and solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution, and the Venezuelan people and government led by Nicolás Maduro
Syria and Cuba “are in the same trench fighting against imperialism and Zionism,” said hospital director Brigadier General Ghassan Haddad.
A delegation of the Cuban embassy in Syria, led by business manager Pablo Ginarte, visited the Yussef Azmeh military hospital in the Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria on Thursday.
Hospital director Brigadier General Ghassan Haddad said that despite Western sanctions, military hospitals in Syria remain operational. He explained that numerous injured people were treated at the hospital between 2013 and 2015, adding that seven cases of military personnel injured by chemical attacks and toxic gases perpetrated by terrorist groups around Damascus were also treated.
“For Syrians, it is World War III,” said Haddad, who spent four years receiving medical training at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He also lamented how depressed he felt when he saw several young men whose bones were destroyed by bombs and bullets from heavy weaponry.
One of those wounded by a bomb, 20-year-old Ali Ibrahim, recalled that he and seven other soldiers attempted to defuse a bomb in a Damascus building during heavy fighting. However, the bomb “blew up and one of us was killed and all the others wounded.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury will publish new regulations regarding Cuba on September 15, reported the U.S.-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, July 10 Continue reading →
The Cuban Parliament’s International Relations Commission issued a statement this July 11, as deputies meet to discuss the nation’s development in the lead up to the Ninth Period of Ordinary Sessions of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP)
Cuban deputies to debate almost 80 issues in parliamentary session
From this Monday, July 10, Cuban deputies will gather to debate a total of 79 issues relating to the country’s socio-economic situation, prior to the Ninth Period of Ordinary Sessions of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, to begin July 14
The Ninth Period of Ordinary Sessions of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power is due to begin July 14.
From this Monday, July 10, Cuban deputies will gather to debate a total of 79 issues relating to the country’s socio-economic situation, prior to the Ninth Period of Ordinary Sessions of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, to begin July 14.
Gathered in 10 work commissions in Havana’s International Conference Center, the parliamentarians will analyze high-priority topics, such as the updating of the Cuban economic and social model of socialist development.
A Cuban internationalist doctor heading a medical center in Miranda talks about the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution which, despite facing a non-conventional war, continues to resist
Venezuela.— The heat was stifling at the Manguito Siete High-Tech Medical Center (CAT), in Paz Castillo municipality, located in the western part of this state. But it was also very peaceful. At this facility designed by the Bolivarian Revolution to conduct important tests on patients who require a speedy diagnosis, Dr. Rogelio Enrique Suárez González, a 50-year-old general practitioner, welcomed us alongside his colleagues.
Rogelio, from the province of Camagüey, heads this group of Cuban collaborators, here to share their invaluable knowledge. He has many memories to share regarding his various internationalist missions. This is his second time in Venezuela, and between 2006 and 2008 he worked in a Miracle Mission clinic in Honduras, the first inaugurated by Cuba in that Central American country.
As Rogelio explained, in Honduras he was shocked by the difficulty in accessing health services, and the number of children living in extreme poverty, unable to attend school. “One thinks a great deal about what our Revolution has done for health and education. It is an aspect that further motivates us regarding our duty to preserve the beautiful things that we have.”
However, his time in the Central American country also proved to be a wonderful experience: many people with cataracts, whose vision was poor or severely impaired, recovered their sight. This miracle was provided free of charge for all those in need.
Up to 70 Honduran patients per day were served by this mission. In two years, more than 5,000 surgeries were performed. Rogelio noted that many of the patients whose vision was restored maintain contact with their doctors.
This is your second experience in Venezuela, what does this stage mean?
We have arrived here at a very important, intense time. The Bolivarian Revolution endures, experiencing many changes since the death of Comandante Hugo Chávez. We are here to maintain what he and Comandante en Jefe Fidel created through the Cuba-Venezuela Agreement in the field of health.
The centers in which we work are located where the population most needs them. We are called on, together with Venezuelans, to help residents recover their health. We have to care for children, the most vulnerable, follow pregnancies. Thus, with the passage of time, solidarity is strengthened, and the gratitude of all the people treated increases.
Have you always worked in the CAT?
I started in a doctor’s office. It was a magnificent stage because I was in direct contact with patients, day after day. It was like returning to the roots, to the beautiful role of the family doctor. It was very good to sense the appreciation of the patients who were thoroughly examined. We treated people in need even outside working hours.
In Cuba, for most of my professional life, I had headed polyclinics. Someone who knows me saw me here in the doctor’s office, and proposed that I come to lead the CAT, and I have been carrying out this task for more than 30 months.
Is there a particular story you recall from your time at the local doctor’s office?
I can’t forget a nephrotic syndrome patient, whom we diagnosed as such and began to follow. We helped him as much as possible, but he needed more specialized treatment in other health institutions in the country. At that point his condition began to worsen, but fortunately he is alive. He has been receiving hemodialysis for two years now. He is extremely grateful to us and to the Cuban Revolution. If he had not been diagnosed in time, he would not have survived. We also restored his vision.
You’ve made many friends here, right?
Many thank you constantly. Every time we need help they reach out to us, be it in everyday life or at work. That is the solidarity that inspires Cuban medicine, which has no borders and makes no distinction between human beings.
Each of our collaborators in the land of Bolivar does great work…
Definitely. In the end, when you are working in any of the health structures that Venezuela has, the work is as a team; we are all cogs in a machine, and for it to work perfectly, we must all make the maximum effort in the area we are responsible for, so that the patient, when he leaves, does so satisfied with the response, with the service we offer.
Honduras left its mark on you. What will you take way from your experience in Venezuela?
First, a greater commitment to Cuba and to Fidel’s ideas, which translates into a commitment to maintain all the achievements of our Revolution, including Public Health. This is no easy task because there will be increasing challenges for our Revolution.
The other thing that marks us is that we have helped to form new generations of revolutionaries. In all the places where we have been, we have also taught, which has helped many professionals grow, including us. Wherever we go, we must leave behind people to continue the work we started.
On July 5, the European Parliament endorsed a legislative resolution for the provisional implementation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Cuba, signed on December 12, 2016; which aims to promote the development of diplomatic and economic relations between the bloc and Caribbean nation.
The agrement was approved by parliamentarians with 567 votes in favor, 61 against, and 31 abstentions, which according to analysts, shows broad support within the EU for rapprochement between the island and the bloc, which has also expressed its opposition to the current United States Cuba policy following changes announced in mid-June by President Donald Trump.
Speaking to the press, researcher Anna Ayuso, from the Barcelona-based International Information and Documentation Center, noted that with the signing of the agreement, Europe – unlike the U.S. – is taking advantage of the opportunity to develop economic relations with Cuba.
The new pact puts an end to the so-called “Common Position” adopted by the bloc in 1996, and rejected by Havana due to its unilateral, interventionist, selective, and discriminatory character.
