Díaz-Canel stressed that, “It is necessary to remove the international barriers that have hindered access to knowledge by developing countries and their use of such determining factors for economic and social progress.”

We were able to offer to the world the solidarity that Washington did not give to the Cuban people with our medical brigades, in the worst moments of the pandemic.

We are pleased that Cuba was able to successfully develop three homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, as well as immunize its pediatric population as of two years of age and vaccinate more than 90 percent of Cubans, in spite of the blockade.

As is known, the government of Cuba has expressed its willingness to move towards a better understanding with the government of the United States and to foster civilized and cooperative relations, based on mutual respect and without prejudice to the sovereignty of the United States.

We will continue to promote and facilitate the broadest possible ties with numerous sectors of this country that want to get closer to Cuba.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder called the WSJ report “inaccurate” during a June 8 briefing. “We are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station,” said Ryder, adding that “the relationship that those two countries share is something that we continuously monitor.” (thehill.com, June 8)

White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby then denied the WSJ story. “I’ve seen that press report. It’s not accurate,” Kirby told MSNBC. (June 8) How the media and the politicians handled the false report illustrated how the U.S. ruling class and its political system is geared to moving toward confrontation and war.

Show solidarity with the workers of Cuba and all of the people who have suffered for literally no reason and join us in demanding an end to the blockade.

Batista wanted Haydée Santamaría to divulge Fidel’s whereabouts. To force her to speak, the torturers showed her her brother’s eyes and Boris’ dismembered genitalia. This grotesque act of intimidation, however, did not break her revolutionary strength. She defied her own torturers and remained silent. “If you did that to them, and they didn’t talk, much less will I.”

Santamaría wrote to her mother from prison: “Abel will always be with us. Cuba exists, and Fidel is alive to build the Cuba that Abel wanted.” She said, “Abel is not dead, for to die for your country is to live.”

[…]

Santamaría’s political convictions were based on experience, not just theory or pure logic. She saw that it was not enough to change one politician for another, that it became necessary to change systems in order to change humans. “Changeover had to be total. Then it had to be ours, absolutely ours. . . . For me, to be a Communist does not mean only joining a party; it means having an attitude towards life.”

The most important concept underlying mental health services in Cuba is the strength of the relationship between mental health care and Cuban society as a whole. Mental health care is completely integrated into Cuban society. The orientation of health care in general is preventive, through education and frequent contact, so that potential health problems are spotted early before they become serious. Psychologists and other mental health workers are included.

Teams make regular visits to people in their sector, focusing especially on high-risk groups, such as children from birth to four years old, the elderly, people with diabetes and people with high blood pressure — all as part of an exercise of preventive medicine.

Since March 13, Cuban banks have been accepting the Mir card issued in Russia, which allows cash withdrawals by converting rubles into Cuban pesos and favors transactions by tourists or businessmen from the Eurasian nation on the island.

Since March 13, Cuban banks have been accepting the MIR card, issued in Russia, which allows making cash withdrawals by converting rubles into Cuban pesos, and which favors transactions by tourists or businessmen from the Eurasian nation on the island. This payment system defies the criminal blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than six decades, because it establishes links between financial organizations of the two countries, including third parties that use these gateways. The Russian agency Sputnik recently quoted the Russian ambassador to Havana, Andrei Guskov, who put forward these arguments and added that the implementation of this system should have a positive effect on the increase in the flow of Russian tourists to the island. Likewise, Professor Luis René Fernández Tabío, researcher at the Center for Research on International Economy of the University of Havana, said that "it is a contribution to the balance of payments, and with it the country can import goods and services from the Eurasian nation," in addition to protecting the bilateral link from the negative impact of the blockade. For Fernández Tabío it is also a window that contributes to break the direct and indirect effects of the economic war applied against Russia through Western sanctions, which prohibit the import and export of goods, services and technology. The Cuban expert explained that the MIR payment system constitutes a step outside the Swift system, and could favor the incorporation of Cuba to a method of transactions at the moment it becomes generalized, either within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) or other alternative mechanisms created to escape the predominance of the dollar and its entire system of unilateral coercive economic measures, illegal from any point of view and violators of human rights.

In a March 2020 talk to the National Network on Cuba, University of Glasgow lecturer Dr. Helen Yaffe stated that Cuba initiated biotechnology five years before the first capitalist biotech company was established. Dr. Yaffe explained that Cuban biotech was nonprofit — based on collaboration, not competition — and is tied to their education system.

“Cuba bet on biotechnology very early, opening the first research manufacturing facility in the country in 1981,” said Agustín Lage, founder and former director of BioCubaFarma’s Center of Molecular Immunology. “Those early steps set the stage for the sector’s current performance in Cuba — supplying over 60% of the country’s essential medicines list, exporting to more than 40 countries, registering innovative products, showing tangible impact in public health and owning more than 2,000 patent filings worldwide.”

Havana, March 14 (ACN) The director of Mexico’s Institute of Social Security Zoe Robledo announce on Tuesday the increase in the hiring of Cuban doctors.

During a press conference given on Tuesday by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Robledo explained that the number of Cuban doctors to Mexico will double the nearly 600 specialists already working in that country, according to PL news agency.

In May 2022, Cuba and Mexico signed a health accord including the training of medical professionals, research, vaccines, drugs and the hiring of Cuban doctors by Mexico.

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 14 (ACN) Cuban authorities and institutions congratulate today the country's media workers, on the occasion of the Press Day, which evokes the creation of the newspaper Patria, considered a paradigm of revolutionary journalism.

Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, stressed that the national press, with ethics and truth as principles, honors every day the publication founded on March 14, 1892 by national hero Jose Marti.

On Twitter, the president wished happy day to the press professionals, and said that in Cuba that profession fights against inefficiency and brakes to development, while recognizing the effort and results.

Meanwhile, the President of the National Assembly of People's Power, Esteban Lazo, highlighted in his congratulations the loyalty of the press workers to Marti's legacy and their dedication to the homeland and the Cuban people.

For his part, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on the same social network that the professionals of the press sector exercise their work with passion and honor.

The journalists' guild closes today the day of celebrations for its day, with the closing of the 2nd International Colloquium Patria, the presentation of the Jose Marti and Juan Gualberto Gomez National Journalism Awards, and a political-cultural event on the steps of the University of Havana.

March 11-12, Fordham University, NYC

International US-Cuba Normalization Conference

An International Conference on US-Cuba Normalization will be held next weekend, March 11-12. The conference is an in-person event at Fordham University in New York City, but the Plenary sessions will also livestreamed. Pre-registration for the conference for in-person and virtual attendance is required, and can be done here.

The conference is packed with events:

Saturday, March 11:

• 9:15-11:45 am: Cuba solidarity short film festival
• 12:00 pm: Plenary session, featuring a keynote presentation by Noemi Rabaza Fernandez, First Vice-President, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and a presentation on prospects for removing Cuba from the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list
• 2:00-3:30 pm: Concurrent panels
• Cuba and the African diaspora, featuring presentations by Ambassador Yuri Gala Lopez – Deputy Permanent Representative, Cuban UN Mission and Professor Kenia Serrano, Dean of Preparatory School of Languages, University of Havana, Coordinator, Cuba in Africa Oral History Project
• Women's Rights in Cuba today, featuring three panelists from the Federacíon de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC)
• Cuba and Youth Solidarity
• Cuba and the Labor Movement
• 4:00-5:30: Concurrent panels
• Organizing the movement in the streets
• Resolutions and legislative outreach
• Solidarity travel
• 8:00-9:30 pm: Public rally featuring a message from the Cuban Ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera

Sunday, March 12

• 9:30 am: Special film presentation
• 11:00-2:00 pm: Closing plenary

Full details about the conference and all the speakers can be found on the conference website.

(Message courtesy of an email from the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee.)