This is why the Ministry of Communications established Resolution 141/2020 outlining general guidelines to make this process viable within Central State Administration bodies and agencies, the Central Bank of Cuba, the General Customs of the Republic, the Institute of Physical Planning and the National Statistics and Information Office, which include a schedule that began in 2020 and must be completed by 2024.

According to the document, the migration involves operating systems of technological nodes, servers and private data centers supporting computer systems, as well as personal desktop and laptop computers, all of which are connected to the Internet.

On the other hand, each one of the above mentioned organizations and institutions must prepare their own migration schedules in order to guarantee completion of the process by December 2024, and are obliged to establish contractual relationships with developers and other entities, to ensure technical advisory services and training of their personnel.

(Taken from Granma)

“Thanks to intellectuals of the entire world who add prestige with their signatures to our long, determined struggle against the blockade. The redh, founded during other threatening days for Cuba, understands very well the seriousness of the siege the empire has imposed on us.”

With these words, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez tweeted his gratitude to members of the In Defense of Humanity Network (redh) who signed a message demanding an end to the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

Released on May Day, the communiqué appealed to lovers of peace, justice and international law to denounce the unprecedented aggressiveness of the blockade in place for over 60 years.

Included among the signatories are former Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, José (Pepe) Mujica, Evo Morales Ayma and Fernando Lugo Méndez; well-respected figures like Noam Chomsky, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Elena Poniatowska, Danny Glover, Ignacio Ramonet, Adán Chávez Frías, David Choquehuanca, Hebe De Bonafini, Frei Betto, Atilio A. Borón and Stella Calloni, as well as organizations and institutions adding their voices in opposition to the cruel policy, reinforced by the Trump administration with more than 240 additional measures, despite the hardships posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The text describes the blockade as genocidal and a crime against humanity, according to the Geneva Convention of 1948 and the Rome ruling of the International Criminal Court, emphasizing its economic and social impact on the Cuban people and calling on all to fulfill their ethical duty to denounce this injustice and demand that the principles of peace, international law, multilateralism, and mutual respect prevail, as the only way to guarantee the survival of the human species on the planet.

(Taken from Granma)

Your Excellencies,

Esteemed President Ilham Aliyev,

Distinguished heads of state and government,

I thank Azerbaijan, as chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, for calling this meeting to discuss the urgent, necessary efforts which allow us to face COVID-19.

I avail myself of this occasion to congratulate Uganda, which shall assume the NAM Chairmanship in the year of 2022. While assuring it Cuba´s full support, we wish Uganda success in the performance of such duty.

Due to its seriousness, I must denounce the terrorist attack with an assault rifle and over 30 rounds that struck our embassy in Washington on April 30 last and demand from the United States government a thorough and swift investigation, harsh sanctions and security measures and guarantees for our diplomatic missions in its territory, as it must do under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Your Excellencies,

NAM has shown its relevance in the present situation. That is attested by the Communiqués that have been adopted in support of the World Health Organization and concerning COVID-19 and which call for global unity and international solidarity and cooperation and also for putting aside political differences and eliminating unilateral coercive measures which violate International Law and the United Nations Charter and limit the capacity of States to deal with the pandemic efficiently.

We acknowledge the role played by the Azeri Chairmanship of NAM in the implementation of these initiatives.

COVID-19 has proven to be a global challenge. It goes beyond borders, ideologies or levels of development. Therefore, the answer to it must also be global and joint and it should put political differences aside.

It is not possible to predict exactly the extent of its consequences. The high figures of infected persons and many human deaths are showing its devastating impact in an increasingly interconnected world which, still, has not been able to make use of such interconnection for the sake of solidarity and is paying today the price for its inability to correct serious social disbalancs. It should be stated openly: Had we made solidarity global, as it was done with the market, the story would have been different.

There is a lack of solidarity and cooperation. Those values cannot be replaced with profit-making, which is almost the only incentive for those who worship the market while forgetting about the value of human life.

An analysis of the events that have disturbed humanity in the last four months must include the costly mistakes of neoliberal policies, which led to a downsizing of state management and capabilities, excessive privatizations and a neglect of the majorities.

This pandemic has evidenced the fragility of a fractured and excluding world. Not even those who are most fortunate and powerful would survive in the absence of those whose work create and sustain wealth.

The multiple crises it is bringing about foretell ravaging and lasting effects for the economy and all spheres of society.

The pandemic is worsening the pressing problems in a planet riddled with deep inequalities and where 600 million people are living in dire proverty and nearly half of the population have no access to basic health services, whose management is defined by the market and not by the noble goal of saving lives.

In the meantime, global military expenditures are over 1.9 trillion dollars, of which more than 38%, or 732 billion, were appropriated in the United States in 2020.

I wish to share with you this quotation from the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz: “Instead of spending so much in the development of increasingly sophisticiated weapons, those having resources for that should promote medical research and put the results of science at the service of humanity, thus creating tools for health and life and not for death.”

Let us call, together with the Secretary General of the United Nations, for the end of wars, including non-conventional ones, so as to safeguard the right to peace.

We reject the recent and serious military threats by the government of the United States against the sisterly Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the government and the people of Nicaragua and reject measures against their right to wellbeing, sacurity and peace.

The attempts at re-imposing the neocolonial past to Our America by publicly declaring the validity of the Monroe Doctrine are running counter the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

In this complex situation, the United States is attacking multilateralism and it disqualifies unjustly the role of international organizations, particularly the World Health Organization.

Your Excellencies,

At the XVIII NAM Summit in Baku in October of 2019, we called for the strengthening of the Movement in the face of international challenges convinced that only unity would save us. It is the role of NAM to lead actions toward the write-off of the uncollectable foreign debt which burdens our countries and for the lifting of unilateral coercive measures being imposed on some of our nations as they, together with the social and economic effects of COVID-19, are threatening the sustainable development of the peoples.

We must face selfishness and be aware that assistance from the industrialized North shall be scarce. We have to complement each other, share what we have, support ourselves mutually, and learn from successful experiencies. A useful choice could be resuming in the future the annual meetings of NAM health ministers in the framework of the World Health Assembly.

Cuba is ready to share its experiences with the NAM countries, to which it is bound by historic ties of friendship.

For Cuba, the challenge has been a mammoth one. In the months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, we were already facing a ruthless tightening of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade policy aimed at bringing our trade and access to fuels and foreign currency to a full standstill.

Through tremendous effort and sacrifice, we have been able under such conditions to keep in place our universal and free public health system that has dedicated and highly-qualified professionals who enjoy world prestige in spite of the crude and slanderous campaigns by powerful adversaries.

The early warning signs on the possibility that COVID-19 would become a pandemic came in the midst of this suffocating context of an economic war, and that made challenges bigger.

Right away, we drew a plan including measures based on our main strengths: A well-structured State that has the responsibility to protect the health of its citizens and a society with mass involvement as to decision-making and giving solutions to its problems.

The work resulting from years of resource appropriations to develop and strengthen health services and sciences has been put to a test and the evolution of the epidemic in Cuba in the last two months is showing the good impact social investment policies may have when facing the biggest and most unexpected challenges.

In spite of the huge constraints being imposed on us by the protracted US economic, commercial and financial blockade, that are posing a big daily challenge to keeping our public health system in place and facing this pandemic in particular, we have ensured the right to health of the Cuban people with the involvement of society as a whole.

Scientific development has allowed us to treat different communicable diseases successfully both in Cuba and in other nations. This time, the pharmaceutical industry has expanded the manufacturing of drugs of proven efficacy to prevent and deal with COVID-19 that we have shared with other countries.

In response to requests that were made, in the last month 25 new medical brigades of Cuban health professionals have joined the efforts in 23 countries to fight the pandemic. They have joined those who have been providing services already in 59 States, many of which are NAM members.

Cuba shall not give up its solidarity vocation even when, out of political reasons, the US government continues attacking and obstructing the international cooperation being provided by our country, which jeopardizes access to health services for tens of millions of people.

Your excellencies,

We have a responsibility to combine our willingness and efforts to face this immense challenge.

Let us promote international cooperation and solidarity. Our endeavor shall be decisive.

Let us do it for the right of our peoples to health, peace and development, fully abiding by the founding principles of NAM. Let us do it for life.

Thank you very much.

(Translation from Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Both leaders agreed on the good state of bilateral relations and positive results of cooperation efforts across various spheres. They also discussed the Centre to Stimulate the Development of Children, Adolescents and Youths with Special Education Needs Associated with Disabilities, a regional project which emerged from the 5th Cuba-CARICOM Summit, and will be based in Guyana and receive technical support from Cuba. The encounter also served to address regional and international issues.

The distinguished visitor was accompanied by Foreign Minister Barrington Greenide and Foreign Ministry Director General, Audrey Wadell.
Participating on the Cuban side was First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelino Medina González.

(Granma)

“I congratulate you all and firstly comrade Raul Castro for his wonderful effort,” pointed out Fidel, whose presence in the plenary session aroused prolonged applause from the nearly one thousand delegates and 280 guests present.

He considered that delegates chosen by the people to whom it delegated its authority “it’s the greatest honor they have received in life; added to this is the privilege of being revolutionaries.”

Why did I become a socialist? More clearly, why did I become a Communist?, he asked, and explained how he acquired his ideology, without a private tutor to help him in the study of Marxism-Leninism, and stressed that another 70 years should not elapse for an event like the Russian revolution to occur, for humanity to have another example of a great social revolution that represented a huge step in the fight against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.

However, he warned that the greatest danger now hovering over Earth derives from the destructive power of modern weaponry, because it could undermine peace in the world and make it impossible for human life on the surface of the earth to exist.

Future generations will know -he reflected- much more than us, but first they will have to solve a big problem: how to feed the billions of human beings whose realities collide against the limits of the natural resources they need.

“Let’s hope many humans worry about these realities and don’t continue like in the times of Adam and Eve, eating forbidden apples,” he commented, and expressed his concern about who will feed people without technology, or rain, or reservoirs or underground deposits. We must constantly insist on these issues, he stressed.

The historic leader of the Revolution recalled that soon he will turn 90 and that “everyone will eventually die, but the ideas of Cuban communists will prevail, as proof that on this planet, if you work with fervor and dignity, the material and cultural goods that humans need can be produced, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain them. ”

“We will set out and will improve what should be improved, with utmost loyalty and united force, like Marti, Maceo and Gomez, in unstoppable march,” he concluded.

(ACN)