The New Yorker Stresses Cuba Medical Cooperation against Ebola

Washington—An article published on the US publication The New Yorker said that Cuba is the country with the first-level response in the world before the  international crisis that have appeared over the past years.

Entitled Cuba´s Ebola Diplomacy, the article signed by journalist Jon Lee Anderson stresses the significant contribution by Cuba to the fight against Ebola, even over developed countries like the United States, the U.K. and China.

“All of these countries are following the lead of Cuba,” reads the article and adds that the island “ has long been known for its roving teams of medical doctors and nurses. Indeed, Cuba, an island nation of eleven million people, with eighty-three thousand trained doctors—one of the highest proportions of doctors in the world.”

Anderson also said that when Cuban authorities requested volunteers to fight Ebola in Western Africa, over 15 thousand professionals offered to go, including intensive care doctors and nurses. He recalled that Cuba sent hundreds of doctors to Pakistan in the aftermath of the 2005 quake that hit that nation as well as to Haiti following a devastating earthquake in 2010.

“There are an estimated fifty thousand Cuban doctors working in slums and rural areas in as many as thirty other developing nations around the world,” the journalist noted and also referred to the hundreds of thousands students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States who are taking medical courses at Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)

And as to Cuba’s assistance to Africa now, Anderson says that “ Cuba’s outsize gesture in West Africa has not gone unnoticed, and may pave the way for the start of some Ebola diplomacy between Havana and Washington.”

He also recalled that on October 19th, Secretary of State John Kerry named Cuba as a nation that had made an “impressive” effort in the anti-Ebola campaign and that upon Returning from a fact-finding tour of the Ebola-struck countries, the U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power also pointedly praised the Cuban mission.

“The Ebola diplomacy follows a friendly handshake that Raul Castro and President Obama exchanged at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa, last December, and has added to anticipation that the Obama Administration may seek to finally lift the remaining restrictions in the United States’ trade embargo against Cuba.”

You can read The New Yorker article at: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/cubas-ebola-diplomacy

Cuba-US Religious Leaders Advocate to Normalize Relations

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 5 (acn) Cuban and US religious leaders expressed their commitment to continue working for the normalization of relations between the two countries, and the return home of three Cuban antiterrorist fighters imprisoned in US jails.

About to wrap up its visit to the island, the delegation headed by the Rev. John McCullough, president and executive director of Church World Service (CWS), announced the release of a joint statement with the Council of Churches of Cuba (CCC).

The joint call urges, too, for the finding of a solution to the case of Alan Gross, a US citizen arrested, tried and sentenced in Cuba to 15 years in prison for subversive activities, on which there is already a proposal by Cuba to have a prisoners swap.

Known is the opposition of McCullough to the illegal, irrational and genocidal blockade of the US government against the Caribbean nation, a position shared by his fellow travelers, Reverend Gradye Parsons, president of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and Rabbi Schnitzer Elhanam, executive director of the Jewish Mission to Cuba.

They also defend the right of their citizens to travel freely to the island and, in the case of McCullough; he was one of the promoters of the letter sent to President Barack Obama by American religious leaders to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The President of CWS also inaugurated the conference of Solidarity with the Five in Washington DC in the last two years and recently visited the Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Antonio Guerrero in Marianna federal prison in the state of Florida, where he is serving an unjust sentence.

Cuba Launches Portfolio of Medical Products and Services

Havana—The marketing agency of Cuban Medical Services launched its portfolio of products at the 32nd International Trade Fair, underway in Havana.

The portfolio is in tune with the clients’ demands and mirrors the strengths and particularities of the Cuban health system, with competitive programs in comparison to other services being offered at other markets, said doctor Yilian Jimenez, who heads the Cuban Medical Services marketing agency.

The entity, which was set up to foster cooperation relations between Cuba and the world, counts on a 54-hospital network where professionals implement modern and early diagnostic techniques, as well as 150 therapeutic procedures with a 95 percent effectiveness, said the doctor.

According to Jimenez, over 35 agencies from 101 countries, including Canada, Russia, China, Colombia, Japan, Angola and Costa Rica are currently requesting services to solve local health problems.

Cuban Medical Services offer treatment in 16 specialties or medical programs of high demand, including  hemodialysis, stem-cell therapy, comprehensive attention of diabetic patients, cardiovascular disease treatment, and other programs on different health conditions.

The portfolio offers alliances with the tourist sector and its companies, including medical services and health services at airports and other terminals, as well as optical, pharmaceutical and natural medicine products.

Also on the portfolio is the hiring of personnel, advice, human capital training, and other programs like services for scientific forums.

The Cuban agency has operations in over 40 countries, while over 50 thousand 700 health professionals from the island are working in 66 nations.

Italy is Willing to Speed up Dialogue Between EU and Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 5 (acn) Carlo Calenda, Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Italy, pledged today in this capital his country will help the speeding up of the reaching of a cooperation agreement between Cuba and the European Union, an organization of which his country holds the rotating presidency.

The regional bloc and the Caribbean nation are currently holding talks to normalize relations, a process initiated in June 2008, although more than 10 member countries have signed bilateral agreements with Cuba.

While inaugurating the Italian pavilion at the XXXII International Trade Fair of Havana, Calenda stressed that achieving this understanding is fundamental element to both sides at the political and economic level.

In the presence of senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) of Cuba, the deputy minister said that in mid-2015 he will visit Havana again, accompanied by representatives of large banks and companies in various sectors.

He announced further that shortly Italy will open an office in this city aimed at facilitating the entry of Italian companies in this Caribbean market and identifying new business opportunities.

Italy is a major partner of Cuba in areas such as agribusiness, construction materials and automatic; however there are many more potential that can be exploited by businessmen, Calenda considered.  

According to Ileana Nunez, deputy minister of MINCEX, Italy ranks second among nations with the highest number of branches in the Caribbean country, and remains among its top 10 trading partners.

She said that both countries have identified new opportunities to increase trade, which will require updating the current credit and financial mechanisms.

Cuba and Uruguay Strengthen Relations

Havana, Nov 4—The foreign ministers of Cuba and Uruguay, Bruno Rodriguez and Luis Almagro, agreed to further strengthen cooperation relations between their nations.

Upon welcoming the Uruguayan government official at the Foreign Ministry, Rodriguez said bilateral links are marked by important coincidence in international issues. He also thanked Uruguay for its stance against the US blockade of Cuba and he went on to ratify his government willingness to keep boosting joint efforts for regional integration.

Meanwhile, the Uruguayan minister stressed Cuba´s role in the international fight on Ebola epidemic, which is now affecting several western African nations, where over 250 Cuban medical specialists are offering their services.

Minister Almagro also thanked Cuba for its support in fields like health, which he described as an assistance that has filled a gap that Uruguayan society has not yet been able to fill.

Canadian Flight Opens Winter Season for Eastern Cuban Tourism

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Nov 6 (acn) The arrival of a Sunwing flight from Toronto, Ontario, marked the beginning of the winter season for tourism in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba.

The vacationers were met at the Antonio Maceo International Airport by the Son Cristal Quintet, a band belonging to the Turarte Agency, which enlightened their welcome with Cuban traditional songs.

This first flight brought 86 travelers, including some that come often to Eastern Cuba looking for higher temperatures, and friendlier people, as they referred. They would stay at the Hotel Brisas Sierra Mar-Los Galleons complex in the mountainous municipality of Guama, and the Club Amigo Carisol in Baconao Park.

Sunwing will keep this flight every Wednesday till April 2015, and from next week another direct flight will arrive from Montreal with the same frequency.