Cuban doctors en route for South Africa
The Confederation for Democracy and Socialism, an alliance of five groups based in Senegal, has released the following call for an end to the 59-year-old blockade maintained by the United States against Cuba. Translation from the original French by Ameth Lô (GRILA).
“Cuba is a firm and reliable friend of Africa and Africans,” note the Senegalese socialists. “When the World Health Organization called for cooperation, Cuba, as always, was among the first countries to step forward.” Cuba has sent its specialized medical brigades to combat the Covid-19 virus in ten African countries.
For the original French text, see Afriques en Lutte.
Confederation for Democracy and Socialism (CDS)
Coference of Leaders: Declaration
End the US Blockade Against Cuba
End the American embargo against Cuba, imposed on 3 February 1962!
That is the demand raised by the Confederation for Democracy and Socialism (CDS), made up of the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (Authentic) (AJ/PADS/A), National Awareness for a New Order (CNNO), the Democratic League (LD), the Senegal Party for Labour and Independence (PIT-S), the Union for Democracy and Federalism/Mboolo Mi (UDF/MM), the Rally of African Workers-Senegal/Pencoo Reew.
The US economic, financial, and commercial embargo against Cuba has changed into a blockade heightened by economic war. The blockade, which responded to national expropriation of US companies, is the most extended experienced in the present era.
Cuban medical brigade in South Africa
Throughout history, the United States has always sought to make Cuba its hinterland. We must bear in mind that the US always insisted on its right to supervise the course of this large neighbouring island. Five years after Cuba’s independence, the Platt Amendment of 1902 granted the US naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda. From 1902 to 1959, without letup, the US treated the island as its conquered territory.
Ever since the fall of the dictator Batista and the onset of the Cuban revolution, led by Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuba has remained a bone in the throat of business circles and the US government. The May 1959 nationalizations and subsequent progressive laws served to unleash military reprisals and economic sanctions against this sovereign country that sought merely to regain its full independence.
This blockade represents an attempt to achieve by other means what the armed attack and landing at the Bay of Pigs was unable to obtain in April 1961. Unafraid of seeming ridiculous, the United States – despite the blockade – is now Cuba’s most important source of foodstuffs.
The CDS maintains that every sovereign state, regardless of geographical location, has the right to maintain mutually beneficial relations with any country of its choice. What is more, the CDS stresses that no country has the right to choose the partners of another country. On the contrary, the sovereignty of every country must be respected, along with the authority of its legitimately established political system.
The CDS believes, now as before, that the senseless, archaic, illegal, and morally indefensible blockade maintained by the United States against Cuba will obstruct this country’s efforts to achieve full development. But the blockade will inevitably fail, because the Cuban people continue to stand together in support of its freely chosen leadership. Meanwhile, Cuba continues to suffer, in dignity, the impact of a blockade that is not so much an embargo as an economic war.
Meanwhile, despite all obstacles, Cuba – the Great Island –continues as before to assist other countries to achieve their development goals. In other words, despite the blockade, Cuba responds to requests for aid, with steadily increasing solidarity. Since 1963, more than 400,000 Cuban health specialists have worked in 164 countries, in every continent. Even more, 35,613 health professionals from 138 countries have been trained in Cuba without charge.
This shows that Cuba views cooperation as a means of contributing to peoples’ development, to their economic and social wellbeing. The Cubans believe that solidarity flows from the Revolution’s humanist essence and is directed to all the world’s peoples.
That is why, at the very peak of the present health crisis, Cuban medical brigades are combatting Covid-19 in 35 countries, located in every continent.
In Africa, Cuba has sent its specialized medical brigades to Togo, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Angola, São Tomé et Principe, Cape Verde, Kenya, Guinée Conakry, Guinée Bissau, and Sierra Leone. Cuba stands with Africa today just as it did during the Ebola epidemic of 2014. At that time, when the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) called for cooperation, Cuba, as always, was among the first countries to step forward.
Cuba is a firm and reliable friend of Africa and Africans, just as it is of all peoples struggling for their dignity and for increased solidarity and respect in inter-state relations.
This economic war against the Great Island, an impregnable citadel of the struggle against injustice, depersonalization, and dehumanization, has been condemned by 27 resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and by a chorus of voices around the world. It must absolutely end now.
The CDS has gathered on 13 August 2020 on the 94th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro Ruz, four days after the 46th anniversary of the establishment of Senegal’s diplomatic relations with Cuba. The CDS will spare no effort to strengthen these relations. The CDS calls with insistence for an end to the US blockade against Cuba, so that the country may more fully play its part in the concert of nations.
Dakar, August 13, 2020
Endorsed by Confederation for Democracy and Socialism (CDS): African Party for Democracy and Socialism (Authentic) (AJ/PADS/A), National Awareness for a New Order (CNNO), the Democratic League (LD), the Senegal Party for Labour and Independence (PIT-S), the Union for Democracy and Federalism/Mboolo Mi (UDF/MM), the Rally of African Workers-Senegal/Pencoo Reew.