Havana, September 20, 2024.- “Your visit is a source of great satisfaction,” said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, when welcoming Dessima Williams, president of the Senate of Grenada, who is making an official visit to Cuba, at the Palace of the Revolution on Thursday.
The Head of State spoke to the parliamentarian about continuity, history, common struggles and brotherhood. This, said Díaz-Canel, is an opportune moment to continue strengthening relations between our countries.
The president recalled his visit to that nation at the end of 2022, as well as the three trips that the Prime Minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell, has made to the Greater Antilles in recent years.
This effort from the Government sphere, he considered, is complemented by this parliamentary visit, a stage from which government actions are also supported. In this regard, he ratified the “political will to continue expanding our relations.”
After recalling how Fidel and Maurice Bishop — who was Prime Minister of Grenada between 1979 and 1983 — fostered the foundations for friendly relations between both peoples, the Cuban dignitary recalled the participation of Cubans in the defense of Grenada during the American intervention, a moment from which we not only have a bond of “friendship and solidarity, but also a blood relationship, which unites us in defense of the same cause.”
Likewise, the Cuban leader thanked Grenada for the support it provides to Cuba, both within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United Nations Organization, in the fight against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on the Cuban people by the United States Government. In addition, he said, “they have demanded that Cuba be excluded from the list of States that supposedly sponsor terrorism.”
These are two instruments of Yankee imperialism, she stressed, that “try to suffocate the Cuban Revolution, limiting the reality of our dreams, slowing down our economic and social development, but we are determined to confront all of this as we have always done.”
Díaz-Canel also insisted on the importance of working from the respective parliaments to “consolidate the commitments that Cuba made at the Cuba-CARICOM Summit —held in 2022— in which we proposed a group of programs, especially in the area of Health, to benefit the peoples of the Caribbean, and that we are very interested in their implementation with each of these countries.”
For her part, the President of the Senate of Grenada, who had already visited Cuba on previous occasions, considered “a privilege to be here again and also a great opportunity.”
He especially asked to thank the member of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power and the Council of State, for his “historic role in relations with Grenada,” as well as the “kind invitation” to participate in the International Seminar on Parliamentary Diplomacy, held between September 18 and 19 in Havana.
He described this event as “very positive,” since it leaves, he asserted, “several tasks, especially for the younger generations.”
With gratitude he also referred to the training of professionals from Grenada that has been carried out in Cuba over the years, and that today allows them to be present in different sectors of the Grenada economy.
(Cubaminrex-Presidency)