Cuba urges true cooperation with Haiti, without interference

Havana, March 15.- Haiti needs true and sufficient assistance and cooperation for its reconstruction and progress, without external interference that has not been the solution, but the cause of its problems, a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs states today.

The text, published on the organization's website, ratifies the solidarity of the largest of the Antilles with that neighboring country, in which there is a serious multidimensional crisis that worsens social instability, poverty and structural underdevelopment caused by centuries of looting, colonial and neocolonial and foreign interventions.

Given this situation in Haiti, the Foreign Ministry says, Cuba maintains contacts with regional actors, to whom it has reaffirmed that these people have the right to find a peaceful, sustainable and lasting solution to the challenges they face, on the basis of full respect for their freedom. determination, sovereignty and independence.

The Cuban Government maintains fluid communication and permanent attention to the 53 health collaborators who remain in the south of Haiti, where the situation is calmer, as well as to the other seven who, together with the staff of the Cuban Embassy, ??are well and have taken the necessary measures for their safety and protection, the statement indicates.

Likewise, it highlights that through the Havana Embassy in Port-au-Prince and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, communication has also been maintained with Cubans residing in Haiti or in transit and their families, and their situation is constantly monitored.

We transmit the Declaration in full:

The Republic of Haiti suffers a serious multidimensional crisis that worsens social instability, poverty and structural underdevelopment caused by centuries of colonial and neocolonial plunder and foreign interventions.

The international community owes a great debt to Haiti, a Caribbean nation that was the protagonist of the first independence, anti-slavery and social revolution on the continent, which has suffered the cruel and selfish reprisals of the imperialist powers for more than two centuries.

Haiti needs true and sufficient assistance and cooperation for its reconstruction and progress, without external interference that has not been the solution, but the cause of its problems.

Cuba has provided solidarity and selfless cooperation to Haiti in areas of great impact for its people such as public health, education, agriculture, sports, energy, hydraulic resources and other key spheres for the social and economic stability of the country 448,355 Haitians have become literate through Cuban programs and 1,606 young people have been trained in our universities.

Our country has uninterruptedly maintained, since 1998, a brigade of health professionals and technicians alongside the Haitian people, who with their humanistic and altruistic work have attended to 38 million 580 thousand 215 cases, performed 774 thousand 236 surgical operations and 73 thousand 331 ophthalmological interventions as part of “Operation Miracle”, assisted 204,090 births, administered 1,014,806 doses of vaccines and saved 252,433 lives. This cooperation has been sustained even in the most difficult moments of that country, including the foreign intervention of 2004, the earthquakes of 2010 and 2021, the cholera epidemics and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current situation.

The Haitian people appreciate and recognize the humanitarian, selfless and altruistic service provided by Cuban collaborators in the difficult circumstances in which they have always had to function.

The Cuban government maintains fluid communication and permanent attention to the 53 health collaborators who remain in the south of Haiti, where the situation is calmer, as well as to the other seven who, together with the staff of the Cuban Embassy, ??are well and have taken the necessary measures for their safety and protection.

Through our Embassy in Port-au-Prince and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, communication has also been maintained with Cubans residing in Haiti or in transit and their families, and their situation is constantly monitored.

Cuba maintains contacts with regional actors about the situation in Haiti, to whom it has reaffirmed that the Haitian people have the right to find a peaceful, sustainable and lasting solution to the challenges they face, based on full respect for their self-determination, sovereignty and independence.

The brother Haitian people can always count on the supportive support of Cuba. (Text and photo: ACN)