Díaz-Canel emphasized that “Cuba is overjoyed by Luis Arce’s victory” and celebrates the rebirth of the Bolivarian ideal.

(Taken from Granma)

As part of a series of conferences on global governance and development, entitled “The challenges and common problems of humanity at the current

time,” the diplomat recalled that amidst the worsening pandemic, the United States announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It is ironic that the imperialist government made this decision just when the strengthening of this organization was most needed,” he noted.

In terms of security and disarmament, he denounced the U.S. decision to renounce its commitment to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and emphasized, “Trump has also stated that the Reduction of Strategic Arms Treaty (Start) will not be extended,” the only agreement on nuclear weapons currently in effect.

Valero insisted that multi-lateralism is the path to peace and emphasized that this is the focus promoted by the “Bolivarian, Chavista government, looking to construct an international structure that unites states in brotherhood and foments shared responsibility in international affairs.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in his comments during the leaders meeting on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Sao Paulo Forum condemned the illegal U.S. blockade that has systematically violated the human rights of Cubans for over 60 years.

He sharply criticized the imperialists’ outrageous treatment of migrant families, “particularly boys and girls, mistreated, abused in a kind of cage, depriving human beings of dignity and their most elemental rights.”

Before the UN General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla denounced the United States as the world’s principal violator of human rights, a pattern repeated systematically, massively and flagrantly.

During a meeting held November 1, 2019, to present the proposed UN resolution entitled: “The necessity of putting an end to the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba,” Rodríguez recalled that there were 2.3 million persons incarcerated in the United States, where 10.5 arrests a year are made, and that prisoners continue to be held illicitly and indefinitely at the illegal U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo.

“More than a million of their citizens sleep in the street; 28.5 lack medical insurance; women earn approximately 85% of what men do; and accusations of sexual harassment are common.”

On a global level, Rodríguez noted, the U.S. government has signed only 30% instruments of international law and does not recognize the right to peace or development, not even the rights of boys and girls.

(Source: Granma)

De facto authorities in Bolivia, on the afternoon of July 21, publicly reported that the building known as the “Clinica del Colaborador,” owned by the Republic of Cuba, which was violently raided by police on November 15, 2019, would be made available, in the next few days, to treat Bolivian citizens with COVID-19.

This unilateral decision, which is presented as a humanitarian act, constitutes a violation of the rights of the Republic of Cuba as the legal owner of the aforementioned property, preceded by disregard for international law and an incessant campaign of lies and distortions about Cuba, particularly directed against the medical cooperation that our country provided in Bolivia, a campaign that this Ministry denounced in a statement, January 25, 2020.

It must be recalled that, in November of 2019, Bolivian authorities, with the leadership and support of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, arrested several Cuban health collaborators under false pretenses and conducted searches and raids of their homes, while publicly inciting violence against our health personnel. This campaign has not stopped and is being used for internal electoral purposes.

The facility occupied by the Clinica del Colaborador was purchased and expanded by the Cuban State, in strict compliance with Bolivian law. It is located at 163 22nd Street, on the corner of Enrique Herson in the Achumani area of the city of La Paz. In accordance with Resolution 0410 of April 4, 2007, the Bolivian Ministry of Health, in accordance with the powers conferred by Act No. 3351 of February 21, 2006, the Ministry authorized the operation of the center to provide care for Cuban professionals working in the health and education sectors in the country.

The facility includes a 2-story house and a 3-story building. The small facility has 13 hospital beds, 6 for inpatient cases, 4 for observation and 3 for intensive care. It was one of the 158 health facilities where, by virtue of the 1985 Scientific-Technical Cooperation Agreement in the area of health between the governments of Cuba and Bolivia, and its subsequent updates, 18,015 Cuban health professionals offered the sister Bolivian people 73,557,935 medical consultations, performed 1, 533,016 surgeries, of which 727,138 were ophthalmological, and assisted 60,792 births. As part of this collaboration, 5,184 young Bolivians have graduated from medical school in our country.

In Bolivia, Cuba’s health collaborators provided their services in 34 Community Integral Hospitals, 119 Community Integral Centers and 5 ophthalmologic centers, in nine departments, 28 provinces and 42 municipalities in the country.

Since the above-mentioned raid, Bolivian authorities have arbitrarily denied personnel from the Cuban embassy access to the Clinica del Colaborador.

The Cuban government has demanded the immediate restoration of its rights as the legitimate owner of the aforementioned property, through diplomatic notes No. 1079/20, from the Republic of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, April 13, 2020; and No. 26/20, dated June 18, 2020, from the Cuban embassy in La Paz, respectively, to which no response has been received

We have attentively followed the tragic events the sister people of Bolivia are facing, suffering more than 60,000 SARS-COV-2 infections and more than 2,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to official data. Bolivia’s health system has not been able effectively confront the pandemic, and is on the verge of collapse. Unfortunately, doctors and health workers have been infected and died, among them several young Bolivian graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba, who have honorably done their duty.

In this context, many Bolivian organizations and citizens have addressed Cuba, both publicly and privately, requesting support from Cuban health personnel and medicines that have proved effective with COVID-19 patients. Many have noted the contribution that would have been made by the Cuban Medical Brigade that was providing services in Bolivia before the coup, if it had been present.

The generous Cuban people have not renounced their altruistic vocation. Aware that the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic requires urgent joint efforts of cooperation and solidarity and, without relinquishing ownership of the Clinica del Colaborador property or our rights as the legitimate owner, the Cuban government makes its use available to the sister Bolivian people to assist COVID-19 patients, as long as the crisis situation generated by this pandemic continues in Bolivia.

Havana, July 23, 2020.

The protests have been attacked by coup-supporting gangs and police, causing the deaths of at least 30 Bolivians, according to the Ombudsman.Although mobilizations continue in the streets, the Senate unanimously approved a proposal to study the drafting of an Exceptional Transitional Law to convoke general elections.

Senate President Eva Copa said that the proposal would shorten established timeframes, and streamline requirements, to allow for elections as soon as possible.On November 19, eight deaths were reported at an oil company located in Senkata, during a police-military operation to break a strike there and begin fuel deliveries.

Educational institutions in the municipality of Villa Tunari occupied a highway to join six other trade unions in Cochabamba and organizations nationwide denouncing the coup and expressing solidarity with Evo Morales.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, exiled President Evo Morales called on the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “to denounce and curb this massacre of indigenous brothers demanding peace, democracy, and respect for life in the streets.”

(Granma)

An organization created to protect the interests of the United States, funded and supported by its sponsor in Washington, it has shown its claws in the planning, organizing, and carrying out the coup in Bolivia. This is the OAS.

The organization has not said a word following President Evo Morales’s ousting. Condemning what happened would be too much to ask. Calling for dialogue would have been the appropriate step, but they never did it. Taking action to ensure the respect for human life, and the lives of the President, Vice President and other officials, was never on their agenda. Even worse, Secretary General Luis Almagro, and members of the OAS’s illegal appendage known as the Lima Group, have kept a conspiratorial silence, perhaps waiting for a sign from the U.S. State Department.

As difficult as it may be to understand, there are still some governments in Latin America, such as those in the Lima Group, who not only belong to this harmful organization but lend themselves to these malicious plans to overthrow governments and end social projects that benefit millions of poor citizens in our countries.

I must admit that I mistakenly thought I would come across a statement by the OAS on the internet condemning the events in Bolivia – if only for appearances – but to my frustration, I found nothing.

While the honorable and sympathetic government of Mexico, aware of the need to take a position in defense of peace in Bolivia, has called for an urgent meeting of the organization, on the other hand, the government of Peru only called for new elections in the neighboring nation and for the OAS to accompany the entire process.

I think the time has come – perhaps it should have been a long time ago – for Latin American peoples to all stand up and denounce the OAS, assert dignity, ethics and the desires of our nations, and condemn the maneuvers of an organization which serves its U.S. masters, disregarding the interests of the peoples it is supposed to represent.

I repeat: it is time to, one and for all, get rid of this obstacle that has caused so much damage to the independence and development of our peoples. It is time to unmask before the world characters such as OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who organizes conspiracies to carry out coups, like the in Bolivia against a constitutional President, democratically elected, beloved by his people, a role model of work and dignity.

Moreover, this organization should be condemned for leaking information on its audit of the Bolivian elections, which should have gone public on November 12 and, suspiciously, appeared during the dawn hours of the 9th.

What was the purpose of this leak? Clearly to create uncertainty, and trigger chaos and violence.

These actions deserve punishment, if there are laws to judge such miserable people in this world.

Plus, the leaked information was written in ambiguous and unconvincing language.

I imagine that Evo, always honorable and dignified, soon realized what it meant for his country, Latin America, and the world to have trusted a discredited OAS to, first, observe the elections, and secondly, conduct the audit.

It is not too late though. Now is the time for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to stand together and say NO to coups and their sponsors in the OAS.

Let us not wait any longer to act. Those who have been beaten in Bolivia, those who have lost their eyes in Chile, indigenous peoples, former combatants and other people killed every day in Colombia; those who are murdered or wounded in the favelas of Brazil for the crime of demanding employment and food, and the millions driven to poverty and extreme poverty in the Argentine led by Macri, all of these people are calling for action and the only way to do so is together, with dignity and courage. These are key elements. And the OAS lacks all of them.

FIDEL CASTRO ON THE OAS

“What do the Yankees want? Do they want to say that we defy the OAS? If they want to say it, wonderful, let them say what we say: that they have the OAS as an instrument to prevent revolutions in America.”- Speech by Fidel Castro in the closing session of the First Latin American Youth Congress, 6 August 1960.

“The Organization of American States completely lacks the moral authority and the right to judge and sanction Cuba.” – Speech by Fidel Castro on the 11th Anniversary of the Moncada assault, July 26, 1964.

“Our position is that this organization has been an instrument for imperialist penetration and dominion over Latin American.

Our position is that someday, we, the Latin American peoples, should stand united to become a human community worthy of respect in the world, to bring our forces together so we are no longer what we are today, the victims of aggression. Is it a sewer or not? Is it a cesspit or not? Is it the Ministry for Yankee colonies or not? Historically, this organization embodies the imperialist oppression of our peoples and when they are free, this organization will disappear. We won’t need an OAS when there is a community of Latin American peoples.” – Fidel Castro in a press interview, December 4, 1971

“Is there really a human rights commission within that rotten institution? Yes, there is, I answer myself. And just what is its mission? To evaluate the human rights situation in OAS member countries? Is the U.S. a member of this institution? Yes, it is one of the most honorable members. Has the government of the United States ever been condemned? No, never.

Not even the crimes of genocide that Bush committed, taking the lives of millions of people? No! Never! How could this injustice be committed? Not even the tortures at the Guantánamo Base? As far as we know, not a single word.” – Reflection by Fidel Castro, “Once again, the Rotten OAS,” May 8, 2009.

RAUL CASTRO ON THE OAS

“We will never forget that the OAS – the Organization of American States – founded by the United States during the second half of the last century, at the beginning of the Cold War, has only served interests which contradict those of Our America.

This organization, rightly described as the “Ministry of colonies” of the United States by the Foreign Minister of Dignity, compañero Raúl Roa García, sanctioned Cuba, and was ready to offer support and recognition to a puppet government, if the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón had been successful. The list of actions it took against the nascent Cuban Revolution, and other revolutionary and progressive governments, is interminable.

Despite the fact that we have never encouraged other countries to abandon this organization, I must reiterate what was expressed in Brazil, some years ago now, paraphrasing José Martí, that before Cuba returns to the OAS, ‘the ocean of the North will join the ocean of the South, and a serpent will be born from the egg of an eagle.’” Central Report to the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, presented by the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Army General Raul Castro Ruz. Havana, April 16, 2016.

DÍAZ-CANEL ON THE OAS

“The inter-American system has reactivated mechanisms of such odious memory for the region as the Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR) and the demoralized OAS, which has been consolidated as an instrument of political pressure for the United States and oligarchies that defend neoliberalism (…) Yes, the OAS is a very ugly thing. And very cynical.

Their “concerns” do not touch the depths of anger felt by the people rising up against neoliberalism, faced with pellet guns, gases, and lead bullets for protesting peacefully.” – Speech by President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in the closing session of the Anti-imperialist Meeting of Solidarity, for Democracy and Against Neoliberalism at the Havana Convention Center, November 3, 2019.

(Granma)

“We have lived days of deep sadness, of harassment, of physical mistreatment,” said Dr. Nirza García Valdés, a General Surgery specialist, who worked in the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, referring to the period immediately following the coup against President Evo Morales Ayma.

“But even in the moments of greatest danger, we did not weaken. We stayed in our positions until the last moment, supporting the health of the sister Bolivian people until it was no longer possible to continue,” said García, a native of Bayamo, in the province of Granma.

“We return victorious. We do not feel defeated. We come with our heads held high, with our mission accomplished, because no coup, nor any regime that may take charge of Bolivia’s fate, can erase our impact.

“The lives saved are there, the grateful patients are there, and the results achieved by Cuba and its international collaboration will always be there.”

Alfredo Escobar Bernal, gastroenterologist, thanked the Cuban government for not abandoning brigade members to suffer the consequences of the coup in Bolivia on their own.

When the coup was consummated, he explained, he was in Santa Cruz and lived moments of uncertainty, along with other colleagues, given the tension that eventually triggered very serious confrontations among Bolivians.

“There were situations in which we felt the support of people who recognize the value of Cuban collaboration, but at other times, supporters of the coup took advantage of our presence to defame Evo Morales and his government.

“I had no doubt that, at all times, we were protected by our country’s authorities through diplomatic channels, and by personnel responsible for the medical mission. They were always aware of our safety.”

As of November 18, 431 health professionals had returned to the country from Bolivia, with the arrival of another group expected shortly. Also returning are members of the Cuban medical brigade in Ecuador, where the government cancelled the bilateral agreement in this sector.

Earlier this month, before the UN General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla clarified that our country’s health collaboration programs, which are facing attacks by the current United States administration, are serving “the neediest communities, based on the solidarity and completely voluntary disposition of hundreds of thousands of Cuban professionals; conducted as established in cooperation agreements signed with the governments of these countries; and have enjoyed, for many years, the recognition of the international community, of this organization itself and the World Health Organization, as an outstanding example of South-South Cooperation.”

(Granma)

To the joy of the Cuban people, this group of 207 internationalists included four who were arbitrarily detained in Bolivia: Amparo Lourdes García Buchaca, Electromedicine expert; Idalberto Delgado Baró, economist; Ramón Emilio Álvarez Cepero, specialist in Intensive Care and Endocrinology; and Alexander Torres Enriquez, Comprehensive General Medicine specialist.

With the arrival of this group, 431 professionals have returned to the homeland, proud of having done their duty.

The Cuban internationalists were received at José Martí International Airport by Political Bureau member Roberto Morales Ojeda, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, and José Ángel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, among other authorities.

(Granma)

MINREX STATEMENT

During the last few hours, several acting authorities in the Plurinational State of Bolivia have presented the idea that Cuban collaborators are encouraging protests taking place in Bolivia, along with a similar campaign on social media, through accounts of doubtful origin and false profiles, inciting violence against health personnel.In this context, on November 13, four members of the Medical Brigade in El Alto were arrested by the police as they were traveling to their residence with money withdrawn from a bank to pay for basic services and rent for the 107 members of the Brigade Medical in the region.The arrests were based on the slanderous presumption that the money was to be used to finance protests. Police representatives and the Public Ministry visited the headquarters of the Medical Brigade in El Alto and La Paz and confirmed, based on documents, payrolls, and bank details, that the amount of money coincided with that regularly withdrawn every month.The four collaborators arrested are:Amparo Lourdes García Buchaca, Electromedicine specialist. In Cuba she worked at the Provincial Electromedicine Center in the province of Cienfuegos, before joining the mission in Bolivia, in March this year.Idalberto Delgado Baró, economist from the Isle of Youth Special Municipality, who worked at the Municipal Electromedicine Center there before joining the mission in Bolivia last March.Ramón Emilio Álvarez Cepero, Intensive Therapy and Endocrinology specialist, who in Cuba worked at General Gustavo Aldereguía Hospital in the province of Cienfuegos through July of 2017, when he joined the Bolivian mission.Alexander Torres Enriquez, specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine who worked at the Carlos Verdugo Polyclinic in the province of Matanzas, before joining the mission in Bolivia, February 3, 2019.Uninterrupted contact with these Cuban collaborators has been maintained, through the Cuban Embassy in La Paz and the Medical Brigade’s headquarters.The four Cuban collaborators all have commendable careers, as evident in their occupational profiles, and, as is the case with all those completing missions in Bolivia, they have strictly, rigorously focused on the humanitarian and cooperative work that brought them to the country, in accordance with intergovernmental agreements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects false accusations that these collaborators encourage or fund protests, based on deliberate lies with no basis whatsoever.

Given the circumstances described, the immediate return to the homeland of all Cuban collaborators has been decided.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that detained cooperators be released immediately, and that Bolivian authorities guarantee the physical integrity of all Cuban collaborators, in accordance with the responsibility assumed by the Bolivian State for the security and protection of these collaborators, in signed intergovernmental agreements.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on Bolivian authorities to put an end to the aggravation of irresponsible, hateful, anti-Cuban behavior, defamation, and instigation of violence against Cuban collaborators, who have made a contribution to the health of the sister Bolivian people with their solidarity. The millions of Bolivians who have received altruistic attention from hundreds of Cuban doctors know perfectly well that lies cannot hide the meritorious contribution and noble motivations of our health professionals.(Minrex)

(Granma)

”The Final Declaration rejected coup plotters’ self-proclamations as legitimate authorities, which violate the constitutional order of Bolivia, and demanded respect for the institutionality represented by the National State Assembly.In addition, condemned were opposition groups, which, with the support of foreign governments and the local oligarchy, are fully responsible for the violence unleashed in several of the country’s main cities, costing the lives of several Bolivian citizens.

“The countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) declare in a regular consultation session, to consider joint action with all governments of the world to allow the Bolivian people to be accompanied in the restoration of legality and the restitution of Bolivian President, brother Evo Morales Ayma.

The Alliance calls for the defense of Bolívar’s favorite daughter! , stated Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, upon reading the statement.Bolivian Foreign Minister, Diego Pary Rodríguez, and Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ana Teresita González Fraga, among other representatives of ALBA-TCP member states, also participated in the special meeting.Meanwhile, this Thursday the Bolivian Senate swore in Monica Eva Copa, legislator from the Movement to Socialism (MAS), as its new president, and the Chamber of Deputies elected Sergio Choque, also a MAS member, as its new leader.

(Granma)

What government has in 13 years reduced illiteracy from 13% in 2006 to 2.4% in 2018; lowered unemployment rates from 9.2% to 4.1%, the lowest in the region, and moved moderate poverty from 60% to 34.6%, and extreme poverty from 38.2% to 15%, in this period of time? According to this government’s ambassador in Cuba, in an interview on Cuban television, for the first time the country has a young woman serving as the head of a diplomatic mission; a 29-year-old Senate President; and a 51% female Parliament, wearing traditional ponchos and clothing.

If all this was accomplished by giving the people power, participation, not with neoliberal formulas to enrich a few to the detriment of the majority, then that government becomes the preferred target of U.S. imperialism and the right wing oligarchy, since they would be run out of the business. Their ire I even greater if the nation’s President stands with the world’s poor in the UN Security Council, and looking the empire in the face says: “The United States government is not interested in democracy, if that were the case, it would not finance coups and support dictators; it would not threaten democratically elected governments, as it does in Venezuela. The U.S. is not interested in human rights or justice, if it were, the U.S. would sign international conventions for the protection of human rights. The U.S. shows contempt for the international order, it is not interested in multilateralism, if that were the case, it would not withdraw from the Paris Agreement or the Global Migration Pact. This contempt is motivated by a desire to appropriate our natural resources.” The U.S. government cannot forgive any government behaving this way.

This is the Bolivia of President Evo Morales, and these strengths became his “sins.” They are the real reason that led Carlos Mesa, Presidential candidate-coup plotter, and Luis Fernando Camacho – with a list of planned assassinations in hand, like Pablo Escobar, as he himself has stated to anyone opposing a forced change in the country – to organize a coup that in its essences is fascist, dismissing human beings in pursuit of their interests.

LIES EXPOSED

Evo and the growing Plurinational State bothered them so much, that in their desperation, they challenged the elections indicating majority support to continue Movement to Socialism project. But the coup plotters were drowned in their own lies. The NewsFront agency cites a report from the Center for Economic and Political Research in the United States, which noted the absence of irregularities in the elections held on October 20, refuting the OAS position.

The news agency indicates that statements from the organization – which has yet to present any evidence to support its position, has had a significant impact on media coverage and, therefore, on public opinion, additionally noting that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Bolivia has two count systems, one provides the legal result, and the other a quick count, a system implemented following suggestions of the OAS for electoral transparency.

At no point in the OAS report, the research center states, are the “irregularities” mentioned specifically described, insisting, “Neither the OAS mission or any other party has shown that there were widespread or systematic irregularities in the elections.” The research center itself questioned the OAS independence from the U.S. – which provides 60% of its budget – and challenges its silence on comments by President Trump and Senator Marco Rubio, asserting electoral fraud in Bolivia,

THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS BE WITH THE PEOPLES

Several carefully planned steps, leading to the coup, were taken, beginning well before October 20. The cries of fraud were raised; the main state media closed and their journalists threatened; the OAS audit was rejected, as well as the option of electing new electoral authorities, proposed by Morales himself. Then the Bolivian Armed Forces and police turned their backs on the people and the democratic process in the country.

It is symptomatic, as revealed by the report from the U.S. Center for Economic and Political Research, that Bolivia’s Police Chief, Vladimir Calderón, and the Commander of the Armed Forces, Williams Kalimán, were, until December of 2018, police and military attaches, respectively, of the U.S. and they were the ones to step forward and call for the resignation of their President. Evo insisted that the armed forces not provoke violence, not confront the people, and now, following the coup plotters’ orders, they have come out to attack.

The website https://telegra.ph reports that Ivanka Trump could have delivered money for the coup to Jujuy, which Gerardo Morales could get to Camacho on his trip to Santa Cruz. The same source tells us that in the first days of September, on the pretext of Ivanka Trump’s visit, a huge military-economic CIA team arrived, camouflaged as firefighters from the Jujuy Ministry of Environment, who were sent as replacements to the “sister nation” of Bolivia. At that time Jujuy sent “help” to fight forest fires in the Bolivian Amazon.

Those who tell the truth and defend it always find the answers. Nicolás Maduro, on the day after the coup – in the Caracas of Chávez, of Bolívar, of a united America – in an international meeting in support of Bolivia and its President, unmasked Luis Fernando Camacho. “The father of this fascist was the owner of the gas company that Evo nationalized to distribute the wealth amongst his people,” he said.

If anyone doubts the participation of the United States government and the Organization, of America States (OAS) in the coup in Bolivia, take a look at Trump’s Twitter account and read this comment on the subject, “These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua…”

(Granma)