- In my Reflection of January 14, two days after the catastrophe
in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring sister nation, I wrote:
"In the area of healthcare and others the Haitian people has
received the cooperation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded
country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare workers are helping the
Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227
of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400
young Haitians have been graduated as medical doctors in our country. They
will now work alongside the reinforcement that traveled there yesterday
to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to one thousand doctors
and healthcare personnel can be mobilized without any special effort; and
most are already there willing to cooperate with any other State that wishes
to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured."
-
- "The head of our medical brigade has informed that
'the situation is difficult but we are already saving lives.'"
-
- Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health professionals
have started to work nonstop in the few facilities that were able to stand,
in tents, and out in the parks or open-air spaces, since the population
feared new aftershocks.
-
- The situation was far more serious than was originally
thought. Tens of thousands of injured were clamoring for help in
the streets of Port-au-Prince; innumerable persons laid, dead or alive,
under the rubbled clay or adobe used in the construction of the houses
where the overwhelming majority of the population lived. Buildings, even
the most solid, collapsed. Besides, it was necessary to look for
the Haitian doctors who had graduated at the Latin American Medicine School
throughout all the destroyed neighborhoods. Many of them were affected,
either directly or indirectly, by the tragedy.
-
- Some UN officials were trapped in their dormitories and
tens of lives were lost, including the lives of several chiefs of MINUSTAH,
a UN contingent. The fate of hundreds of other members of its staff
was unknown.
-
- Haiti's Presidential Palace crumbled. Many public
facilities, including several hospitals, were left in ruins.
-
- The catastrophe shocked the whole world, which was able
to see what was going on through the images aired by the main international
TV networks. Governments from everywhere in the planet announced
they would be sending rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other
resources.
-
- In conformity with the position publicly announced by
Cuba, medical staff from different countries namely Spain, Mexico,
and Colombia, among others - worked very hard alongside our doctors at
the facilities they had improvised. Organizations such as PAHO and
other friendly countries like Venezuela and other nations supplied medicines
and other resources. The impeccable behavior of Cuban professionals
and their leaders was absolutely void of chauvinism and remained out of
the limelight.
-
- Cuba, just as it had done under similar circumstances,
when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the city of New Orleans
and the lives of thousands of American citizens were in danger, offered
to send a full medical brigade to cooperate with the people of the United
States, a country that, as is well known, has vast resources. But
at that moment what was needed were trained and well- equipped doctors
to save lives. Given New Orleans geographical location, more than one thousand
doctors of the "Henry Reeve" contingent mobilized and readied
to leave for that city at any time of the day or the night, carrying with
them the necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our
mind that the President of that nation would reject the offer and let a
number of Americans that could have been saved to die. The mistake
made by that government was perhaps the inability to understand that the
people of Cuba do not see in the American people an
- enemy; it does not blame it for the aggressions our homeland
has suffered.
-
- Nor was that government capable of understanding that
our country does not need to beg for favors or forgiveness of those who,
for half a century now, have been trying, to no avail, to bring us to our
knees.
-
- Our country, also in the case of Haiti, immediately responded
to the US authorities requests to fly over the eastern part
of Cuba as well as other facilities they needed to deliver assistance,
as quickly as possible, to the American and Haitian citizens who had been
affected by the earthquake.
-
- Such have been the principles characterizing the ethical
behavior of our people. Together with its equanimity and firmness,
these have been the ever-present features of our foreign policy. And
this is known only too well by whoever have been our adversaries in the
international arena.
-
- Cuba will firmly stand by the opinion that the tragedy
that has taken place in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere,
is a challenge to the richest and more powerful countries of the world.
-
- Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and
imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti's slavery and subsequent
poverty were imposed from abroad. That terrible earthquake occurred
after the Copenhagen Summit, where the most elemental rights of 192 UN
member States were trampled upon.
-
- In the aftermath of the tragedy, a competition has unleashed
in Haiti to hastily and illegally adopt boys and girls. UNICEF has
been forced to adopt preventive measures against the uprooting of many
children, which will deprive their close relatives from their rights.
-
- There are more than one hundred thousand deadly victims.
A high number of citizens have lost their arms or legs, or have suffered
fractures requiring rehabilitation that would enable them to work or manage
their own.
-
- Eighty per cent of the country needs to be rebuilt. Haiti
requires an economy that is developed enough to meet its needs according
to its productive capacity. The reconstruction of Europe or Japan,
which was based on the productive capacity and the technical level of the
population, was a relatively simple task as compared to the effort that
needs to be made in Haiti. There, as well as in most of Africa and
elsewhere in the Third World, it is indispensable to create the conditions
for a sustainable development. In only forty years time, humanity
will be made of more than nine billion inhabitants, and right now is faced
with the challenge of a climate change that scientists accept as an inescapable
reality.
-
- In the midst of the Haitian tragedy, without anybody
knowing how and why, thousands of US marines, 82nd Airborne Division troops
and other military forces have occupied Haiti. Worse still is the
fact that neither the United Nations Organization nor the US government
have offered an explanation to the world's public opinion about this relocation
of troops.
-
- Several governments have complained that their aircraft
have not been allowed to land in order to deliver the human and technical
resources that have been sent to Haiti.
-
- Some countries, for their part, have announced they would
be sending an additional number of troops and military equipment. In
my view, such events will complicate and create chaos in international
cooperation, which is already in itself complex. It is necessary
to seriously discuss this issue. The UN should be entrusted with
the leading role it deserves in these so delicate matters.
-
- Our country is accomplishing a strictly humanitarian
mission. To the extent of its possibilities, it will contribute the
human and material resources at its disposal. The will of our people,
who takes pride in its medical doctors and cooperation workers
who provide vital services, is huge, and will rise to the occasion.
-
- Any significant cooperation that is offered to our country
will not be rejected, but its acceptance will fully depend on the importance
and transcendence of the assistance that is requested from the human resources
of our homeland.
-
- It is only fair to state that, up until this moment,
our modest aircrafts and the important human resources that Cuba has made
available to the Haitian people have arrived at their destination without
any difficulty whatsoever.
-
- Fidel Castro Ruz
- January 23, 2010
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