Cuba has been at the forefront of medical and educational assistance to Haiti and other impoverished southern nations, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez tells Faiza Rady "Besides discussing issues of bilateral trade with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, I expressed the Cuban people's solidarity with the Palestinian cause and our long-term support for a two-state solution, including the right of return of all refugees to their homeland and the establishment of East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez told Al-Ahram Weekly in an exclusive interview last week while visiting Cairo. Unlike visiting Western dignitaries, who may pay lip service to the suffering of the Palestinian people while supporting Israel's policy of grabbing and annexing Palestinian land, Rodriguez wasn't uttering empty slogans. Since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights, the Cuban government has cut diplomatic ties with Israel and has consistently voted in favour of all UN resolutions condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The Cuban people stand on record supporting the Palestinian struggle, as with their historic support of liberation movements in Algeria, Namibia, Angola and South Africa, to name but a few. Rodriguez also discussed Egypt's current chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) with Abul-Gheit, the heading of which the Cuban government handed over to Cairo last year. "NAM is important," says Rodriguez, "because like President Raul Castro says, it has a membership of 118 nations, representing two- thirds of the world's people. It is a means to support the right of southern countries to control their natural resources for the benefit of their peoples, including the right to development, and in the face of neo-liberal economic hegemony." This is a right the Haitian people have been denied since their revolution against French imperialism in 1804. Haitians were punished for liberating their country from its slave masters. Referring to the devastating earthquake that recently hit the island nation, Rodriguez explains: "It is no coincidence that Haiti is the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere. We in Cuba are more fortunate because our revolution had 50 years to eradicate the impoverishment resulting from Spanish and US imperialist pillage. But Haitians were forced to pay a heavy price for their liberation." In Haiti, 200 years ago, some 400,000 slaves revolted against 30,000 French slave masters, defeated them in 1804 and drove them out. France then forced Haiti to pay reparations of 150 million francs -- the estimated cost of their freed slaves, at a current value of over $20 billion. Then, from 1915 to 1934, the US occupied and ruled Haiti, controlling and plundering its economy. From 1957 to 1986, Washington continued to control Haiti by backing the infamous Duvalier dynasty of dictators -- "Papa" and "Baby Doc". The Duvaliers' record speaks for itself: they killed 10,000 people, stole millions and accumulated 40 per cent of the country's external debt. After their ouster, the US again interfered in 2004 by supporting a military coup against Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest who championed an anti-poverty and anti-corruption platform. "Haitian poverty is the historical product of imperialism, and neo-liberalism in more recent years," comments Rodriguez. Cuba's deputy foreign minister told the Weekly about Cuban medical assistance to the island. In the week following the earthquake, the Cubans set up two field hospitals and Cuban physicians performed 1,078 surgeries and assisted 38 births. But Cuban aid to Haiti began long before the disaster. A socialist country, Cuba puts people before profit. "We provide aid without seeking profits, our investment is in people -- our people, but also many of the world's poor," explains Rodriguez. For ideological reasons, the Western media maintains a blackout on Cuba's educational and medical aid to impoverished southern nations. "In Haiti," says Rodriguez, "our literacy campaign has reached more than 50,000 people who have learnt to read and write. And 413 doctors are working free of charge in a cooperative health programme." Unlike Western health workers, Cuban physicians didn't have to be shipped to Haiti after the earthquake because they were already there. Cuban health workers first went to Haiti in December 1998 to provide aid to disaster victims, after hurricanes George and Mitch hit the Caribbean and parts of Central America. "Currently, Cuban doctors work in all 10 Haitian departments, and in 127 of the 137 municipalities," says Rodriguez. "And some 400 Haitian physicians graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Santiago de Cuba, one of the best medical schools in the country, their education paid for by the Cuban government." A total of 37,109 patients have had eye surgery in three ophthalmologic centres established in Haiti. The more complex cases that cannot be handled on the island because of the lack of medical infrastructure are sent to Cuba, where they are treated at the Cuban government's expense. Medical assistance to the global south, which first began in 1963 when Cuba sent health brigades to Algeria after independence, currently reaches 51 African nations. Since the 1960s, Cuba has provided schooling and training in medicine to more than 30,000 students. The programme has been highly successful. Infant mortality levels dropped from 59 to 7.8 per 1,000 live births in Ghana, from 48 to 10.6 in Eritrea, and from 131 to 35.5 in Equatorial Guinea. Cuba itself has achieved the lowest infant mortality rates in the Americas, which the 2009 UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report assessed at 4.8 deaths per 1,000 live births (Canada ranks second with a level of six per 1,000, and the United States follows with seven deaths per 1,000 births). In addition, UNICEF reported that Cuba is the only country that eliminated acute child malnutrition in the Caribbean and Latin America. And despite the crippling blockade the US has imposed on Cuba for the past 49 years, the World Health Organisation ranks the US healthcare system as 37th worldwide, whereas Cuba ranks 39th. "Educational development achieved through literacy campaigns, establishment of a free healthcare system, immunisation, family planning programmes and special care to pregnant women has made it possible," says UNICEF. "We have achieved much," acknowledges Rodriguez, "but Cuba continues to pay a heavy price for the blockade, which has cost our people $96 billion in damage and lost revenues since 1962. Still, President Raul Castro has reiterated his willingness to sit down and talk to the Obama administration, about the blockade and other issues." The Cubans are still waiting for the US president of "change" to deliver.
