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This past Wednesday, March 26, 20-year-old
Lisandra Guerra became the 500-meter time-trial
cycling world champion in the World Track
Cycling Championship held in Manchester, Great
Britain, following intense competition with
athletes from 37 different countries. Fruit of
our educational and sports system, of our
talented youth and women, we can sincerely and
legitimately feel proud of this victory. Credit
where credit is due!
Today, however, I shan’t write about sports.
That same day, on the 26th, the Henry
Reeve Contingent Detachment that had been
involved in relief work in Peru returned to
Cuba, undefeated.
The earthquake took place on August 15, 2007. It
measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. The
detachment arrived in Cuzco on August 18. Their
two-month relief work plan had been designed to
address the most urgent needs.
The real needs were to require more than double
this time. They saw 153, 292 patients, 65,299 of
whom were visited in their homes. They remained
in Peru until March 25, 2008, seven months and
seven days.
Dr. Juan Carlos Dupuy Núñez, who has been in
charge of the Henry Reeve Contingent since its
creation in September 19, 2005 and was the head
of the Cuban medical brigade in Pakistan, headed
the detachment. Several members of the
detachment had done relief work in Pakistan and
Indonesia. Not one of these 77 men and women
turned a deaf ear to the call of duty.
The glorious pages in history they have written
cannot be erased. Such dignity and conscience
are a bulwark against the rusted armaments of
imperialism.
In view of the Peruvian people’s gratitude and
acknowledgement, it was morally impossible for
us to leave the country without having other
members of the Contingent travel there to
undertake relief work in their place.
I shall be writing about China in coming days.
The material has already been written and needs
only some minor touches.
I didn’t even try to write about the
commemoration of the 20th anniversary
of the Cuito Cuanavale battle, the loftiest
example of our people’s internationalist
conscience. I would prefer that those who
witnessed the heroic events in person, during a
time that was to last, not one day, but months,
speak in honor of the glorious fallen.
Yesterday, I watched the Round Table program on
Cuba’s congress of intellectuals and artists,
about to start. There is no doubt in my mind the
debates will be extremely interesting.
We shall be alert, following developments, as
Bush gets up to his old tricks in Bucharest and
the Black Sea the first days of April, as we
have already denounced. And keep an eye on the
Vice! This was a typical saying in the days Cuba
was a neo-colony, meant to keep people on their
guard.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 29, 2008
7:16 p.m. |
