Kingston, Jamaica, July 12, 2022. Fifty Jamaican friends and friends from other latitudes, members of the State Mission and Cubans residing in Jamaica met at the Embassy of Cuba on the afternoon of this Monday, July 11, to celebrate the resistance and heroism of the Cuban people in the fight against Covid 19 and against the blockade and hostility of imperialism towards the Greater Antilles.
Representatives of various organizations that make up the solidarity movement with Cuba spoke. Christophe Simpson, director of the Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism (LANDS), highlighted the importance of unity among the revolutionary forces, to work for the benefit of the peoples and present a common front against imperialist maneuvers. Heru Menelik, of the "Marcus Garvey" People's Political Party, expressed his support for Cuba, while condemning the US blockade and the defamation campaign against the Cuban Revolution.
Friend Paul Burke read a statement from the Jamaica Peace Council where Cuba's permanent solidarity with the rest of the world was highlighted and the true purposes behind the destabilization campaigns against our country were unmasked. Representing the Association of Cuban Residents in Jamaica, its president, Professor Osvaldo Cárdenas, commented on the effects of the blockade on the "ordinary Cuban" who lives both inside and outside of Cuba.
Pulmonologist Gladis Blanco, a member of the Medical Brigade in Jamaica, explained how Cuba was able to produce its own vaccines against Covid-19 and control the disease, despite the enormous economic and health challenges that the island faced. In the last speech of the afternoon, Ambassador Fermín Quiñones thanked the solidarity movement and worthy Cubans for their commitment to the defense of the homeland.
As part of the event program, Dr. Bárbara Chávez recited the poem Fidel, by Carilda Oliver Labra, and several short films and a chapter from the series The War on Cuba were screened, on the effects of the US blockade in the context of the confrontation between Cuba to Covid 19.