cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1586829

Good stuff.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died of natural causes seven years ago today after surviving 634 CIA assassination attempts.

Using exploding cigars, a contaminated diving suit, poisoned drinks, poisoned pens, paramilitary invasions, CIA-built special weapons, and assassination plots with the Cuban Mafia, Washington's intelligence service tried every trick in the book to eliminate Castro. However, he survived to the age of 90, passing away peacefully in 2016.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1160608

Your thoughts?

Short article, btw.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1160608

Your thoughts?

Short article, btw.

By Alejandra Garcia on November 19, 2023 from Havana

In little more than a month, 12,000 Palestinians have been killed by [neocolonialism], including 5,000 children, before the passive gaze of the governments of the world. It is the people of these countries who are protesting in large numbers for an end to the conflict that is leaving Palestine in ruins, in almost non-existent living conditions. Every day, thousands and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators around the world take to the streets in favor of peace, and Cuba does not remain indifferent either, as our government and the people call in one voice for a cease-fire and the self determination of the Palestinian people.

On Friday, in a gesture of profound respect, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other leaders invited 144 young Palestinians studying medicine in Cuba to a meeting at the Palace of the Revolution. And it was emotional and heartbreaking.

“What a shame of humanity. Tears and even words are not enough to alleviate the pain of the Palestinian people who are being wiped out in an act of extermination perpetrated by Israel,” the Cuban president stressed.

Fifty-three out of the 144 Palestinians who attended the meeting live in the Gaza Strip. This is the case of Maria, 22, who has already witnessed four wars in her country. She expressed her gratitude for the act of solidarity at the Palace of the Revolution, one of the many others that have taken place throughout the Caribbean country in support of the Palestinian people since October 6.

“In Gaza, mothers carry their children twice: once in their wombs and once in their shrouds. It’s hard to be away from family, but my mother has asked me to continue studying, not to give up, because medicine is the noblest job in the world. ‘Raise up your name and the name of Palestine, she told me,” the young student recounted.

Mohammed Ahmed Zannoun, who has been in Cuba for nine months, told how he and his friends cannot let the day go by without talking to their families. “What do we Palestinians want? A free homeland. We are not asking for anything else,” he said, adding how grateful he and his fellow students are for Cuba’s support amid so much indifference from the international community.

One prevailing sentiment prevailed in the auditorium. “Our territory won’t be razed to the ground, and our people won’t be exterminated because there will always be a combatant left standing.” And an image prevailed as well; that of the students placed on the shoulders of the Cuban leaders a traditional keffiyeh that symbolizes the Palestinian people, the same item that Fidel once wore on the shoulders of his uniform.

“We Cubans learned to defend the Palestinian cause from the internationalist and humanist vision of the historic leader of our Revolution, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, who was always a friend of that nation that demands its right to self-determination,” the president declared.

This Friday, the Cuban and Palestinian flags also illuminated the facade of the José Martí monument in the emblematic Plaza de la Revolución, thanks to renowned Cuban artists.

The island has expressed on numerous occasions its unconditional support for the right of Palestine to be a free and sovereign state, with its capital in East Jerusalem and in pre-1967 borders. This yearning has been frustrated by the interference of US-backed [neocolony], whose land confiscation, illegal settlements, and widespread discrimination have inflicted suffering on the Palestinian population, stripping them of their fundamental rights.

“We strongly condemn Israel’s genocide. We will accompany Palestine in fulfilling its dream. As Fidel once said, it is time to put an end to the philosophy of dispossession so that the philosophy of war dies due to lack of incentives,” the Cuban president concluded.

(Taken from an email sent to me by the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee. Emphasis original.)

In times of so much pain, I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and join the worldwide call for the immediate cessation of the genocide in Gaza.

I join all voices speaking out against the colonial usurpation of the Palestinian territories and the cruel and merciless persecution of their citizens.

It is time to call for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in order to guarantee the freedom of the kidnapped [neocolonial] soldiers.

I also stand in solidarity with people of the Jewish faith, who confront Zionism with dignity and courage throughout the world. I join those who condemn violations of international law by [neocolonialism], and cry out: “Not in our name” or “Palestine: From the river to the sea.”

In these terrible days of genocide in Gaza, I have been moved to hear the tender sound of the word “habibi” (love) amid the sobs of children as they kiss their loved ones for the last time, alongside the heartbreaking scenes of mothers, fathers, siblings, health workers weeping in despair for the innocent lives torn away by Zionist barbarism.

Humanity feels an incurable pain and an indignation that is hurting every day.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/868263

Got this all from a Discord server.

In socialist Cuba, it is a different story. There are enough doctors, nurses and other medical workers, psychiatrists and psychologists to cover the entire Cuban population. “The physician to citizen ratio in Cuba is the world’s highest, with 8 physicians to every 1,000 citizens, more than double the ratio of physicians to citizens in the U.S. (Gonzalez Mendez, 2005; Campion & Morrissey, 2015)

In Cuba, “Mental and medical healthcare are free and fully integrated. Early diagnosis and intervention are standard, as each patient is known by their community doctor/nurse team from infancy through old age and by yearly home visits.” (“Learning about mental healthcare in today’s Cuba: An interview with the president of the Cuban society of psychology,” — Linz, Sheila J & Ruiz, Alexis Lorenzo, 2020)

If informed by a family member of a psychiatric problem, an intervention in Cuba can occur early before the mental health problem becomes a crisis. Doctors and nurses have established relationships with their patients, and usually live in the same community with government-supported, rent-free housing to foster long-standing relationships (“Briefing on the Cuban Mental Health System,” Jeffrey Kleinberg, 2018).

If the profit motive is removed, a “cure” for the dreaded mental ‘diseases’ of schizophrenia, paranoia, bipolar disorder or any of the diagnoses contained under the rubric of SMI is relatively simple and effective, as is demonstrated in Cuba. This occurs despite the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States.

Díaz-Canel stressed that, “It is necessary to remove the international barriers that have hindered access to knowledge by developing countries and their use of such determining factors for economic and social progress.”

We were able to offer to the world the solidarity that Washington did not give to the Cuban people with our medical brigades, in the worst moments of the pandemic.

We are pleased that Cuba was able to successfully develop three homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, as well as immunize its pediatric population as of two years of age and vaccinate more than 90 percent of Cubans, in spite of the blockade.

As is known, the government of Cuba has expressed its willingness to move towards a better understanding with the government of the United States and to foster civilized and cooperative relations, based on mutual respect and without prejudice to the sovereignty of the United States.

We will continue to promote and facilitate the broadest possible ties with numerous sectors of this country that want to get closer to Cuba.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder called the WSJ report “inaccurate” during a June 8 briefing. “We are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station,” said Ryder, adding that “the relationship that those two countries share is something that we continuously monitor.” (thehill.com, June 8)

White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby then denied the WSJ story. “I’ve seen that press report. It’s not accurate,” Kirby told MSNBC. (June 8) How the media and the politicians handled the false report illustrated how the U.S. ruling class and its political system is geared to moving toward confrontation and war.

Show solidarity with the workers of Cuba and all of the people who have suffered for literally no reason and join us in demanding an end to the blockade.

Batista wanted Haydée Santamaría to divulge Fidel’s whereabouts. To force her to speak, the torturers showed her her brother’s eyes and Boris’ dismembered genitalia. This grotesque act of intimidation, however, did not break her revolutionary strength. She defied her own torturers and remained silent. “If you did that to them, and they didn’t talk, much less will I.”

Santamaría wrote to her mother from prison: “Abel will always be with us. Cuba exists, and Fidel is alive to build the Cuba that Abel wanted.” She said, “Abel is not dead, for to die for your country is to live.”

[…]

Santamaría’s political convictions were based on experience, not just theory or pure logic. She saw that it was not enough to change one politician for another, that it became necessary to change systems in order to change humans. “Changeover had to be total. Then it had to be ours, absolutely ours. . . . For me, to be a Communist does not mean only joining a party; it means having an attitude towards life.”

The most important concept underlying mental health services in Cuba is the strength of the relationship between mental health care and Cuban society as a whole. Mental health care is completely integrated into Cuban society. The orientation of health care in general is preventive, through education and frequent contact, so that potential health problems are spotted early before they become serious. Psychologists and other mental health workers are included.

Teams make regular visits to people in their sector, focusing especially on high-risk groups, such as children from birth to four years old, the elderly, people with diabetes and people with high blood pressure — all as part of an exercise of preventive medicine.

Since March 13, Cuban banks have been accepting the Mir card issued in Russia, which allows cash withdrawals by converting rubles into Cuban pesos and favors transactions by tourists or businessmen from the Eurasian nation on the island.

Since March 13, Cuban banks have been accepting the MIR card, issued in Russia, which allows making cash withdrawals by converting rubles into Cuban pesos, and which favors transactions by tourists or businessmen from the Eurasian nation on the island. This payment system defies the criminal blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than six decades, because it establishes links between financial organizations of the two countries, including third parties that use these gateways. The Russian agency Sputnik recently quoted the Russian ambassador to Havana, Andrei Guskov, who put forward these arguments and added that the implementation of this system should have a positive effect on the increase in the flow of Russian tourists to the island. Likewise, Professor Luis René Fernández Tabío, researcher at the Center for Research on International Economy of the University of Havana, said that "it is a contribution to the balance of payments, and with it the country can import goods and services from the Eurasian nation," in addition to protecting the bilateral link from the negative impact of the blockade. For Fernández Tabío it is also a window that contributes to break the direct and indirect effects of the economic war applied against Russia through Western sanctions, which prohibit the import and export of goods, services and technology. The Cuban expert explained that the MIR payment system constitutes a step outside the Swift system, and could favor the incorporation of Cuba to a method of transactions at the moment it becomes generalized, either within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) or other alternative mechanisms created to escape the predominance of the dollar and its entire system of unilateral coercive economic measures, illegal from any point of view and violators of human rights.

In a March 2020 talk to the National Network on Cuba, University of Glasgow lecturer Dr. Helen Yaffe stated that Cuba initiated biotechnology five years before the first capitalist biotech company was established. Dr. Yaffe explained that Cuban biotech was nonprofit — based on collaboration, not competition — and is tied to their education system.

“Cuba bet on biotechnology very early, opening the first research manufacturing facility in the country in 1981,” said Agustín Lage, founder and former director of BioCubaFarma’s Center of Molecular Immunology. “Those early steps set the stage for the sector’s current performance in Cuba — supplying over 60% of the country’s essential medicines list, exporting to more than 40 countries, registering innovative products, showing tangible impact in public health and owning more than 2,000 patent filings worldwide.”

Havana, March 14 (ACN) The director of Mexico’s Institute of Social Security Zoe Robledo announce on Tuesday the increase in the hiring of Cuban doctors.

During a press conference given on Tuesday by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Robledo explained that the number of Cuban doctors to Mexico will double the nearly 600 specialists already working in that country, according to PL news agency.

In May 2022, Cuba and Mexico signed a health accord including the training of medical professionals, research, vaccines, drugs and the hiring of Cuban doctors by Mexico.

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 14 (ACN) Cuban authorities and institutions congratulate today the country's media workers, on the occasion of the Press Day, which evokes the creation of the newspaper Patria, considered a paradigm of revolutionary journalism.

Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, stressed that the national press, with ethics and truth as principles, honors every day the publication founded on March 14, 1892 by national hero Jose Marti.

On Twitter, the president wished happy day to the press professionals, and said that in Cuba that profession fights against inefficiency and brakes to development, while recognizing the effort and results.

Meanwhile, the President of the National Assembly of People's Power, Esteban Lazo, highlighted in his congratulations the loyalty of the press workers to Marti's legacy and their dedication to the homeland and the Cuban people.

For his part, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on the same social network that the professionals of the press sector exercise their work with passion and honor.

The journalists' guild closes today the day of celebrations for its day, with the closing of the 2nd International Colloquium Patria, the presentation of the Jose Marti and Juan Gualberto Gomez National Journalism Awards, and a political-cultural event on the steps of the University of Havana.

March 11-12, Fordham University, NYC

International US-Cuba Normalization Conference

An International Conference on US-Cuba Normalization will be held next weekend, March 11-12. The conference is an in-person event at Fordham University in New York City, but the Plenary sessions will also livestreamed. Pre-registration for the conference for in-person and virtual attendance is required, and can be done here.

The conference is packed with events:

Saturday, March 11:

• 9:15-11:45 am: Cuba solidarity short film festival
• 12:00 pm: Plenary session, featuring a keynote presentation by Noemi Rabaza Fernandez, First Vice-President, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and a presentation on prospects for removing Cuba from the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list
• 2:00-3:30 pm: Concurrent panels
• Cuba and the African diaspora, featuring presentations by Ambassador Yuri Gala Lopez – Deputy Permanent Representative, Cuban UN Mission and Professor Kenia Serrano, Dean of Preparatory School of Languages, University of Havana, Coordinator, Cuba in Africa Oral History Project
• Women's Rights in Cuba today, featuring three panelists from the Federacíon de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC)
• Cuba and Youth Solidarity
• Cuba and the Labor Movement
• 4:00-5:30: Concurrent panels
• Organizing the movement in the streets
• Resolutions and legislative outreach
• Solidarity travel
• 8:00-9:30 pm: Public rally featuring a message from the Cuban Ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera

Sunday, March 12

• 9:30 am: Special film presentation
• 11:00-2:00 pm: Closing plenary

Full details about the conference and all the speakers can be found on the conference website.

(Message courtesy of an email from the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee.)

Havana, Feb 28 (Prensa Latina) The Havana-based Casa de las Americas convened the International Summer Course on "Marxist Thought in Afro-America," which will take place from July 3 to July 7.

The purpose of the course is to contribute to enriching the Marxist theoretical heritage, from Cuba’s experience in its struggle against slavery, colonial and neocolonial oppression, capitalist logic and imperialist domination, and its historic-cultural belonging to the Global South, according to Casa de las Americas.

The main thematic axes for debate will be Marxism, Pan-Africanism, feminism: affluences and confluences and Marxist apprehensions of social movements.

Participants will include professors from several countries, two daily lectures are planned for a total of 10, and book presentations and other events will be held in the evenings.

Up to 40 places will be granted, 20 for residents outside of Cuba and the same number for participants in person, and those interested can consult details on the official website of Casa de las Americas.

The call will be open from February 27 to April 30, and confirmation of enrollment and the course program will be published on May 10.

Casa de las Americas is a Cuban cultural institution founded in 1959 to defend sociocultural integration with Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world.

It also disseminates artistic and literary materials from the region through promotional activities, courses, concerts, contests, exhibitions, festivals and seminars, among other initiatives.

The deputy technical director of the Meteorological Center in Ciego de Avila, Aliana Lopez, said that the equipment will transmit data uninterruptedly, will provide information every 10 minutes, and can monitor atmospheric variables in real time.

The center is of great benefit for the community because it will measure temperature, rainfalls, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, cloudiness, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation, among other indicators, the specialist pointed out.

Included within the actions of the international Coastal Resilience project under development in Punta Alegre, the new equipment will strengthen the warning system on extreme meteorological phenomena and other effects of climate change, she added.

She emphasized that by providing a series of climate statistics, it will favor territorial development planning, mainly in agriculture and fishing, in addition to reducing losses and disasters caused by hurricanes, heavy rains, droughts and other phenomena derived from climate change.

The station is adjacent to the Los Buchillones Archaeological Site Research Center in Punta Alegre, in an area that meets indispensable requirements such as safety, leveling of the terrain and distance from natural or artificial elements that could distort the measuring of meteorological variables.

Funded by the European Union’s Global Climate Change Alliance and implemented by the United Nations Development Program, the international Coastal Resilience project aims to rehabilitate ecosystems to benefit the inhabitants of communities on the northern coast of the central region of the country.

It is also based on the search for natural solutions to adapt to climate change, such as planting mangroves and other native coastal plants.

Another purpose of the initiative is to strengthen and integrate disaster risk reduction at the local level and to adapt the socioeconomic development plans of sectors and the government of the town of Punta Alegre, where about 6,000 inhabitants live, to climate change.

There have been many health problems for which Cuban science and the human and intellectual potential of the scientists, has found an effective and sovereign response in order to protect and improve the quality of life of the population.

This humanist premise is confirmed time and time again. The latest instance is the recent announcement of the project to create a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), led by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC in Spanish), together with other entities of the BioCubaFarma business group.

"Beyond the importance it could have for the institution, it is an opportunity to contribute to the solution of a health problem, such as the transmission of HPV, which is the cause of the appearance of tumors in women," said Julio Alfonso Rubí, PhD in Sciences and CNIC general director.

According to information from the center, cervical cancer -caused by persistent infection with a group of high-risk oncogenic HPVs- is one of the main causes of death in women.

There are more than 240 different types of HPV, of which 15 are related to cervical cancer, and other less common types such as vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile and oropharyngeal cancer.

Among the most dangerous are genotypes 16 and 18, which are linked by 70% to preneoplastic and invasive cervical cancer lesions globally.

In Cuba, cervical cancer is the fifth cause of death in women, and the second in the group between 15 and 44 years of age. Studies for the identification of HPV in different population groups, carried out by researchers of the Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute and other Cuban medical entities such as the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical and Surgical Hospital, showed a high frequency of infection by HPV genotypes of high oncogenic risk in Cuban women, even when they present a normal cytology test.

Precisely, genotypes 16 and 18 have been found among the most frequent in cervical cancer samples in Cuban women.

In view of the incidence and risk of this disease, the World Health Organization proposed a global strategy to eliminate it as a Public Health problem for the decade 2021-2030, which includes vaccinating 90% of girls under 15 years of age against HPV before 2030.

There are at least five HPV vaccines in the world that are prequalified; however, the prices of these vaccines, which patent is generally owned by large companies, are not accessible today to the economic possibilities of our country, Dr. Alfonso Rubí pointed out.

AT WHAT STAGE IS THE HPV VACCINE PROJECT?

Karen Marrero Domínguez, CNIC researcher in charge of the project, explained that the project aims at obtaining a bivalent vaccine candidate against HPV infection in genotypes 16 and 18.

The vaccine candidate under development is designed as a subunit vaccine, and uses as antigen the major envelope protein of HPV 16 and 18, called l1, she added.

"This protein, when produced in recombinant systems, has the property of self-assembling into particles, which morphologically and immunogenically resemble the envelopes of the virus itself. That is why they are called virus-like particles," she explained.

The researcher pointed out that all the vaccines developed to date use these nanostructures as the active ingredient, and have shown that they are capable of inducing an immune response that protects against infection by these viruses the person has been immunized.

Likewise, the immunogens approved to date include protection against genotypes 16 and 18, which together are responsible for 70% of the development of cervical cancer, which is why the Cuban project also employs them, she said.

Marrero Domínguez explained that the project has been divided into three stages. The first one constitutes the development and obtaining of the production systems; in our case, the Escherichia Coli bacteria is used as host, and the establishment of the protein purification conditions, and later the assembly of these virus-like particles from the purified proteins.

"The antigens are already structurally corrected at the laboratory. What’s next? The immunogenic evaluation, that is, the capacity of these structures to induce these responses in animal models," added the specialist.

The second stage of the project is to adapt the process of obtaining these particles, which have been developed in the laboratory, to a larger scale, , she pointed out. For this, we will work with the National Biopreparations Center in order to obtain larger quantities of these antigens, which will allow the development of the vaccine candidate in a formulation ready for testing.

“Our purpose is quite ambitious. We aim to have a vaccine candidate ready for testing in animals to evaluate the toxicology and immune response," said Marrero Domínguez.

In this sense, Dr. Alfonso Rubí explained that the results obtained thus far have made it possible to officially reporting on the development of a project with a high probability of success.

Regarding the importance of a future vaccine, the CNIC Director General stated that it is an opportunity to protect our female population from a fundamental health problem such as cervical cancer and other lesions associated with HPV infection.

He also stressed that the goal, although ambitious, is to vaccinate the female population between nine and 15 years of age by the year 2030.

IT IS ALSO A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY

"The HPV vaccine project transcends addressing a health problem; Cuba being the producer of the vaccine and having it available in our country is also a matter of security and sovereignty," said Dr. Alfonso Rubí.

The director pointed out that, in difficult circumstances such as the ones we are living, Cuba cannot count on any supplier nor on the possibilities of paying for any vaccine, so the country had to produce its own.

Precisely, the CNIC was the first multidisciplinary institution dedicated to biomedical and scientific research. Created by the Revolution on July 1, 1965; the CNIC is also the precursor of the development of the current Cuban biopharmaceutical industry.

Its Director General pointed out that the CNIC develops a wide research activity based, fundamentally, on obtaining products of natural origin, in addition to the improvement of equipment for rapid microbiological diagnosis and projects associated with the diagnosis of environmental corrosion and the elaboration of ozonized products.

The HPV vaccine project corresponds to the line of research and development of biological products, in which the processes for obtaining antigens for the development of vaccine candidates against infectious diseases are established.

As an alternative and response to the health urgency, the executive highlighted, research began since mid-2019for the development of a Cuban vaccine against HPV, which is advancing, with encouraging results, to become a vaccine candidate.