Paris, July 4, 2024. The visit to the headquarters of the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Havana, Mrs. Anne Lemaistre, offered an important space for a broad exchange with the Ambassador of Cuba Maria del Carmen Herrera Caseiro on the development of UNESCO cooperation programs in the Antillean country, the progress and obstacles to their implementation.
In this context, they spoke at length about the difficulties derived from the US blockade and the unjust inclusion of Cuba in the arbitrary list of the United States Department of State of countries supposedly sponsoring terrorism, which hindered financial transactions, the acquisition of supplies, the participation of Cuban experts in UNESCO meetings and activities, the work of the Regional Office in Cuba and the Cuban delegation to the Organization, among other repercussions, affecting the execution of cooperation projects.
At the same time, both parties reviewed the progress of the Transcultura project, the rehabilitation works of the Santa Clara Convent in Havana, the possible visit of the Director General of UNESCO to conclude the program, as well as the actions to promote a second phase of this project of transcendental importance for integration and sustainable development in the Caribbean region.
On the other hand, they exchanged about the Route of Enslaved People program, in which several countries from the Central American and Caribbean regions participate, which share the sad history of a past of slavery.