By Carlos Aznárez on June 17, 2017
Access to health care in Cuba exceeds that of the United States. Photo: Bill Hackwell
As it was the case with Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush the father, Clinton, Bush the son and even with Obama, Donald Trump is also wrong if he thinks that with insolence, his clown style, and pro war “tightening” against Cuba he will achieve what everyone else has tried to do and has miserably failed. Cuba, its people and its Government are made of good wood forged on revolutionary theory and practice carried out every day of every year since January 1, 1959 when Fidel led a revolutionary movement to put a stop to colonial oppression. Cuba is the first to outstretch its hand when it finds a partner who understands its gesture but it can also be as hard as steel when it comes to being subjected to unjustified humiliation and interference, as the inhabitants of the White House are used to doing.
Asking for a bit of rationality to a demoniac as Trump is really an exercise in futility. Convinced that he had to keep a promise he made in the midst of his electoral campaign to the anti-Cuban sectors he has just announced with a stroke of a pen that he will erase the small agreements signed by Obama with Raúl Castro, except for two or three items. Among them that the odious US flag will continues to wave at its Embassy in Havana.
All this is happening at precisely the same the time when Trump is facing rejection by an important sector of U.S. population due to his racist and xenophobic stands. And even several leaders of his own party are now questioning him and are joining with those who are moving forward to investigate him for his past of multiple black holes that could endanger his tenure. So Trump chose to run away from his problems by issuing an unconditional passport of support to some of the most extremist people of “Little Habana”, in Miami to pay them back for their support. With an anti-communist speech for the ages, similar to the ones given by the dinosaurs in the time of the cold war, the hierarch of Washington and his mimics immersed themselves in the arms of their hosts Senator Marco Rubio, Mario Díaz Balart and some conspicuous accomplices of the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, to which the US establishment protects to levels of scandal. The Trump with his flamboyant gestures and silly laughter likes to surround himself with scum and be flattered by killers like the Veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion (fortunately defeated in Giron by Fidel and his fighters). Also attending were the rich financers who line the pockets of those who conduct the campaigns against the Cuban revolution and it’s Government.
Some Latin American analysts had placed erroneous hopes that Trump would somehow be “less bad” than the Democrat who celebrated the killing of Muammar al-Gaddafi, but regardless Cuba and its glorious revolution remain a stone in their shoe. Precisely for that Trump was appeasing the Florida mafia, those remaining mummies, who responded with hysterical applause to the jester on stage. Fortunately for Cuba they had put distance from the Revolution as soon as it happened.
This last Friday in the Miami theater, that bears the name of one of the terrorists who wanted to enter in Cuba through Playa Giron and was captured, Trump did not hold back anything in order to flirt with a pack of men and women marked by fire and hatred against the huge achievements of the revolution.
That Cuba has remained dignified for almost six decades of criminal blockade is something that was not planned in the worst dreams of the counterrevolutionaries. They will never manage to understand that the people of Cuba will sacrifice everything in order to prevent the end of their social and political achievements. Those benefits granted by a government “of, by and for the humble ones”, as Fidel used to say, which have increasingly converted several generations of Cubans into proud representatives of a country where culture, education, health and social justice are not just empty slogans as is the case in the great majority of countries.
The arrogance of Trump to say that he will defend “democracy and human rights” in Cuba when in his own back yard the only thing he can show are the heinous consequences of capitalism is the height of denial. A micro world where human beings do not count, where health is a business that only some can access and where education is ultra-elitist. The streets of the U.S. have become dwellings of the excluded of the “American way of life” and drug use is one of the highest in the world.
Just 90 miles from Miami, the statistics speak for themselves. In 2016 Cuba maintained one of the lowest percentages of infant mortality with just 4.3 per thousand live births. And speaking of health the revolution managed to be the first nation in Latin America to eradicate polio and infectious diseases like malaria have also disappeared. Cuba has developed a vaccine against meningitis and has some of the most advanced research to control different types of cancer. Cuba’s strides in health and medical technology are recognized by international organizations in this field.
All of this is a product of a public health system that not only reaches all corners of the country, but extends to many nations through cooperation agreements and initiatives of solidarity. Cuban medical teams made a huge contribution for example in the fight against Ebola in West Africa and Cuba does not shy away from sending aid and medical professionals to the poorest inhabitants in every corner of the planet. What about education? It is not just the internal development of Cuba but it also implements literacy plans globally in its goal to eliminate illiteracy.
Cuba has fulfilled much of the Millennium development goals. It has eradicated extreme poverty and hunger, achieved universal primary education, and promoted equality and the empowerment of women. As a result, Cuba is a nation of high human development has is ranked high in the world for its social welfare policies.
In contrast to the winds of war and intervention always blowing from Washington, Cuba is committed to peace for the continent and the world, and because of that, contrary to the intentions expressed by Trump in his pathetic speech, in recent years Cuba’s foreign policy has achieved striking success. Cuba participates with voice and vote in dozens of forums and international bodies, it is consulted by countries that despite being considered “developed” fail to reach targets that the Revolution has already exceeded in basic social aspects demanded by their respective populations. And it is important to add that Cuba has been used to bring a dialogue of pacification in countries with endless conflicts as was the case recently with the negations between the FARC and the Colombian Government.
All countries reject the blockade as expressed at the last meeting of the United Nations on the subject where even Israel and the United States itself chose to abstain from their own shameful position.
Trump can scream and kick all he wants in the brothel of Miami, surrounded by a tiny group of worms, (on a peninsula where there are thousands of Cuban-Americans who do not share the sentiments of that disgusting speech) but what he will never be able accomplish is to bring the dignified and sovereign Cuban people to its knees.
As it was expressed in the statement by the revolutionary Government right after Trump’s speech, “Any strategy aimed at changing the political, economic and social system in Cuba, whether it intends to achieve through pressure and impositions, or using more subtle methods, will be doomed to failure”.
It not only the men and women of Cuba who are willing to fight against this latest twist of imperialist policy, but also by their side will be, as always, the grateful solidarity of all those who believe that the Socialist Revolution, sustainable, and prosperous is the only hope for this world.
From the belly of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist thought once again it is time to tell Trump: “Cuba Si, Yankee No”.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano