Dear brother and sisters,
It is an honor and a pleasure to have been invited to participate in this event. It is an extraordinary opportunity to know and learn more about the historical and cultural wealth of your people.
I was wondering what to tell you today, after everything that has been said in the last two years about Cuban medicine and scientists, whose attitudes honor and exalt the Homeland.
As we have done and will continue to do, I return to Fidel and his founding words.
On October 17, 1962, at a historic moment for Cuban medicine, and by extension for the Revolution and for internationalism, the Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences was inaugurated.
There, speaking with students and professors, Fidel, who we must evoke every time we talk about medicine and internationalism, announced what would be the most formidable training program for health specialists in the country and for cooperation with other nations.
He said: “…the Revolution today has strength and resources and organization and men —men! which is the most important thing— to begin a training plan for doctors in the quantities that are necessary. And not only many, but above all good; and not only good as doctors, but good as men and women, as patriots and as revolutionaries! And who says that the Revolution cannot do that? We are already able!”
This was expressed as early as October 1962, the fourth year of a Revolution, not only newly born, but also besieged and already plundered in its human resources, especially doctors.
Let us not forget that more than half of the health professionals who practiced in Cuba in 1959, emigrated in the first years having been summoned by the market. This is exactly the same old formula that the historical enemy of the Revolution now appeals to in order to fracture cooperation, in its attempt to put a price on the dignity of our professionals.
What they do not know is that the dignity of a people is not broken by breaking that of some individuals.
Those who think like this ignore the history of Cuban cooperation in this field, which will be 60 years old in 2023.
Precisely in that act of October 1962, Fidel announced the first internationalist mission of the Revolution, in the newly independent Algeria. The first of tens of thousands who, guided by principles of solidarity and humanism, took many of the best children of Cuba to remote places around the world for 59 years, places forgotten by the selective medical services of savage capitalism that it advocates and defends.
Cuban doctors have written a worthy, heroic, glorious and internationalist history, known and recognized by prestigious international organizations, among which the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization stand out.
Some of these missions are real feats, like the fight against Ebola in Africa, against cholera in Haiti; against the aftermath of natural disasters, such as those carried out by 26 brigades of the Henry Reeve International Contingent in Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Venezuela, among other countries, and also against blindness in Latin America and the Caribbean, through the brilliant initiative of mission Miracle.
The United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization qualify the Cuban medical collaboration as an example of good practice in triangular cooperation and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals.
In Cuba, life professionals are trained with an attitude contrary to mercantilist calculations. Altruism, generosity, the willingness to save lives without thinking of the cost is a fundamental principle in professional training.
We are deeply proud of each one of them, as well as of those who guarantee the health of the people, in what we could call the first combat front.
They are a symbol of the country that formed them and an example of the type of men and women we aspire to be in Cuban society, based on justice and humanism, and not on the law of the strongest.
I invite you to remember what Fidel said about the doctors trained in Cuba: “The most important thing will have to be their total dedication to the most noble and humane of trades: saving lives and preserving health. More than doctors, they will be jealous guardians of the most precious of the human being; apostles and creators of a more humane world”.
Dear friends,
Relations between our countries are historic and marked by strong ties and deep roots. I take this opportunity to convey a greeting from the Cuban people to the people of Grenada and the other countries of the Caribbean.
We appreciate the solidarity that we have always received from Grenada and other Caribbean countries in our struggle to achieve justice for our people and in the rejection of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade of the United States intended to suffocate the Cuban people.
Cuba will continue to resolutely promote solidarity, cooperation and integration to strengthen fraternal bonds among the nations belonging to the Caribbean region. In this sense, I am the bearer of my country’s will to deepen our friendship and cooperation.
Cuba has reached a high level in the scientific sphere, biotechnology, medical services, education, culture and sports, which we make available to Grenada. I appreciate the mutual willingness to continue the consolidation of bilateral relations. It is in our hands to continue working with passion and determination and we will dedicate all our effort to this purpose.
Foward ever! Backward never!
Thank you very much.
