Speech by Vera Polycarpou, Head of International Relations Bureau of AKEL, Member of the Central Committee at the solidarity event outside the Cuban Embassy

 

THE STREETS BELONG TO THE REVOLUTION!

WE STAND WITH THE CUBAN PEOPLE – STOP THE BLOCKADE – STOP THE INTERVENTIONS!

14th July 2021

Last Sunday, all of a sudden the international media started talking about Cuba and showing images of supposedly mass demonstrations for “freedom”, “against the dictatorship”. What was it? It was the culmination of the relentless and longstanding attempt to overthrow the Revolution of the Cuban people, to stop the path of development chosen by that people.

With the victory of the Revolution in 1959, the Cuban people breathed freedom and dignity, driving out all types of oppressors – mainly businessmen and the Mafia underworld from the United States – who were looting and siphoning off every resource in the country.

Despite all the  immense difficulties and hardship, the constant attempts at all kinds of interference in the country’s internal affairs, Cuba has managed to stand on its own feet and become a source of inspiration and pillar of support for the struggling peoples of our world. Left with only 6,000 doctors for the whole island, it trained doctors and scientists who not only covered the entire population of almost 11 million Cubans, but who were the first to help Italy when it was the first to be struck by the Covid-19 pandemic. Cubans were the first to respond to the World Health Organization’s call to fight Ebola in West Africa.  And they were the first in Latin America to create vaccines against Covid-19.

Today Cuba is going through the most difficult phase since the outbreak of the pandemic and all the time before, it was able to keep the spread and mortality at very low levels. A few days ago there were 7,000 cases and 47 deaths recorded, while since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 1,500 deaths.

To date, 84% of the population has been vaccinated with one dose, 25% with two doses and 17% with three doses.  The aim is to vaccinate the whole population – from young children with a pediatric vaccine and the elderly with a specific vaccine – by the autumn.

But do you know what the problem is?

What’s holding back the pace of mass vaccination?

It is the lack of syringes.  Yes! – The lack of this small but essential tool!

But why?

Because the economic trade and financial blockade imposed by the US on Cuba 62 years ago prevents it! Yes, it is preventing it because of the sanctions the US imposes on companies that do business with Cuba, wherever they may come from.  This criminal blockade is not only continuing, but is getting tougher. Their aim has always been to overthrow the Revolution by creating discontent through the economic strangulation of Cuba. In the conditions of the pandemic, the US government has imposed 243 more measures that are hitting the daily lives of the Cuban people hard.

This is precisely why we say that a blockade is criminal. It is for this reason that 184 UN member states voted at the General Assembly on 23 June 2021, for the 28th year, against the blockade – but Mr. Biden, “the champion of democracy” does not want to listen…

Yes, in Cuba there are currently very serious shortages of fuel and electricity, of medicines – down to painkillers and antibiotics, of parts, of food.  Yes, the Cuban people are living through difficult times.  But let us be very clear about WHY this is happening.

Certainly some things could be done better. But 62 years of blockade have cost Cuba 147 billion 853 million dollars. And yet in Cuba no one dies on the streets, no child sleeps hungry, and infant mortality is the lowest in the Americas.  Because the Revolution was made for the people!

After 18 months of the pandemic the economy of almost all developed (and not only) countries has been hit hard. The tourism sector in Cuba, which is key to its economy, was also hit hard – and we here in Cyprus are fully aware of the impact that this sector has on our economy.

It is precisely in these conditions that the climax of the anti-revolutionary operation was sought. An operation that is part of an overall plan to destabilize and create chaos in Latin America and the Caribbean – the most recent example being, the assassination of the President of Haiti, an island just a short distance to the south-east of Cuba.  Beginning in the anti-Cuban circles in Miami funded by the US government, an asymmetrical war has long been waged using social media, with disinformation, the spread of fake news and profiles, inciting violent actions.

On Sunday, those who came out with the slogan ‘SOS Cuba’ and ‘Defend Cuba’ were guided by a certain centre.  It was a well-laid plan via twitter – even breaking twitter’s own rules but no one has shut down these fake accounts created (1,500) on the eve of the supposed uprising.

The Miami-driven operation, ostensibly to save the Cuban people, calls for the creation of a “humanitarian corridor”. Those of us who remember the similar “request” for Yugoslavia and Libya remember the tragic results of such a “humanitarian corridor”: military intervention, deaths and the dissolution of sovereign states. This is the future that the so-called “defenders of democracy and human rights” want for Cuba. We denounce all those who are prepared to accept criminal interferences in Cuba’s internal affairs, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the UN Charter.

But on Sunday thousands of Cubans took to the streets to defend their lives, their gains and achievements, their dignity, because “the streets of Cuba belong to the Revolution”, as President Miguel Díaz-Canel said.

And we are here today, outside the Cuban Embassy in Nicosia, to say that just as “Cuba sends the world doctors, not bombs” (Fidel), the world will send Cuba as many syringes as it needs to vaccinate and protect its entire population.

We will stand steadfastly on the side and by Cuba, and the peoples of the world. We will intensify our solidarity with the Cuban people, because working people know how to share what little they have.

Long live Cuba!

Long live international solidarity!

Patria o muerte! Venceremos!

Hasta la Victoria siempre!