[This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 was published in the previous issue]

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MISSION WITH LIFE SAVING MEDICINES

THE delegation had an important responsibility to fulfil. It had to hand over medicines collected jointly by CPI(M) and CPI to two important centres - the Paediatric Oncology Ward of the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR) and the internationally renowned National Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery (ICCC), both located in Havana. The delegation noted that there were other such delegations from Europe and Latin America also contributing medicines. Both these institutions are beacons of excellence in their respective fields.

The INOR has been offering international medical services from 1995 onwards and has attracted patients from more than 52 countries including from across the Americas (USA, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela) and Europe. The INOR is known for breakthrough treatments for lung cancer, anti-tumour vaccines like Cimavax and Vaxira. The visit offered a rare, firsthand glimpse into Cuba's uncompromising public healthcare model and its resilient struggles in the face of extreme adversity. Through more than fourteen specialised departments—including Paediatric Oncology—this apex institute provides entirely free, comprehensive medical care to its patients. Through systematic newborn screening protocols and proactive preventive measures like HPV vaccinations, the Cuban healthcare system has been adept at early disease detection. However, the Director, Dr. Luis Eduardo Rodriguez, and his team shared with deep sorrow that while childhood cancer survival rates had previously reached 85 per cent, severe shortages of essential drugs caused by the cruel economic blockade had driven that figure down to 65 per cent. The delegation had carried cartons of medicines to treat cancer patients including vials which had to be carefully carried in an icebox.

We could witness how the inhuman blockade by US imperialism is literally cutting the veins of Cuban healthcare. Cuba known worldwide for the doctors of the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade who risked their lives to fly to vulnerable nations during the outbreak of diseases like Malaria, Ebola, the COVID-19 pandemic, or during natural calamities is being strangled by the USA. The Paediatric section had 26 patients; the shortage of raw materials for medicines, inability to access bulk shipments of medicines from friendly nations, power outages are all taking a heavy human toll. Doctors informed us that the infant mortality rate which was 4, has more than doubled to a high of 9.8 per 1,000 live births. 

The delegation then visited the Institute of Cardiology, a premier research and treatment centre with an impeccable sixty-year-old legacy of scientific excellence. Pioneering angioplasty and 3D echocardiography in Cuba, the institution is equipped with advanced facilities including a cardiovascular surgery ICU and a cardiac catheterisation lab. Although comprehensive cardiac diagnostics and treatments are provided completely free of charge to all citizens, the scarcity of pacemakers, medicines and specialised surgical equipment due to the embargo remains a formidable challenge. Cartons of medicines including blood-thinners collected by the CPI(M) and the CPI were handed over to the Institute. 

The Medecins Sans Frontieres is much praised by the liberal world, but they are silent in connivance when the Cuban Henry Reeve medical brigades are facing harassment by the US officials in various countries. Aid workers, as well as Ministers and health authorities of those nations are also being hounded. But then those responsible for the genocide in Gaza, maintaining silence when homes, hospitals and schools were bombarded and doctors were killed, will have no qualms about such harassment or inflicting a silent genocide on Socialist Cuba.

VISIT TO CUBAN INSTITUTE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH PEOPLES

The day the delegation visited the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (ICAP) we came across a post by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming ICAP “has been a vehicle for radical left-wing extremism and subversive foreign influence in the United States” and blacklisting its President Fernando Gonzalez Llort, First Vice President Noemi Ramona Rabaza Fernandez and Leima Martinez Friere. Our delegation met the First Vice President and expressed solidarity with the Cuban people and their steadfast resistance against US imperialism. ICAP is a world-renowned institution that for more than six decades has promoted friendship, international solidarity, justice, and peace.

The sanctioning of the ICAP leadership is also accompanied by sanctioning of Cuban companies with the deliberate purpose of harming the economy and preventing the Cuban government from guaranteeing basic services to the population—which are already in a critical situation due to the blockade. The ICAP is playing the role of building bridges of solidarity and friendship with the peoples of the world in the true spirit of internationalism. The Vice President of ICAP was clear when she said, “The Revolution has never forgotten the vulnerable during the genocidal blockade.”  Walking through the streets of Havana, one realises that this internationalist consciousness does not merely exist in political rhetoric; it is woven into the everyday lives of ordinary people.

ECONOMIC HARDSHIP, EXODUS AND PEASANTRY

The economic hardship, food and fuel shortages, and runaway inflation since 2021 has led to the largest mass exodus in Cuban history. Recent international studies indicate that over 18 lakh people have left the country—representing nearly 15-18 per cent of Cuba's total population. A vast majority migrated to the US, while substantial numbers also relocated to Spain and various Latin American nations. The rusted padlocks hanging on the gates of numerous houses across the streets of Havana bear silent witness to this mass departure. The delegation also found in Old Havana serious cases of destitution and inequality. From all earlier accounts of visits to Cuba, it was clear that children and aged coming out in this manner seeking food or money was never the case. In the urban unorganised workforce, there were people who pointed out their meagre earnings and how they had to often go hungry to bed. Even the Bodega - the state-subsidised neighbourhood ration shops where people get their monthly food allowances – are short of stocks.

In Cuba, in Havana, across its weathered streets, what we witnessed was not mere stagnation, but the resilient survival struggle of a people bearing the heavy brunt of an economic blockade. The helpless people including the old and the children reaching out for alms near the Museum of the Revolution, on the streets of Old Havana and even in hotels; the sight of people at the Colloquium also carrying part of the food served in packets for people back home —these scenes laid bare the poverty and daily hustle of the capital's citizens striving to make ends meet. Despite facing severe shortages, the people assert with conviction that their hardships are not caused by their government, but by the inhuman, decades-long blockade imposed by American imperialism that seeks to suffocate them. People across all age groups seemed to have a political clarity derived from political education and their anti-imperialist consciousness was clear. This consciousness is what keeps Cuba standing tall before the world. In the face of endless sanctions and crises, a people who refuse to yield an inch of their ideals are simply not ready to be defeated.

The delegation intended to visit ANAP (National Association of Small Farmers—Cuba's premier organization for small-scale agrarian workers) started in 1961 and the FMC (Federation of Cuban Women). These meetings had to be cancelled due to their pressing engagements. A visit to an agricultural village was added to the itinerary, providing an opportunity to interact directly with ANAP-affiliated farmers. The delegation travelled to Vinales, a valley in Pinar del Rio province about 200 km from Havana. The Vinales valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its traditional farming, tobacco plantations surrounded by limestone hills. The delegation met with a family cultivating tobacco for generations and known for their premium cigars.

The farmers were part of ANAP, and they explained the problems they are facing due to the blockade. A farmer, Sergio, explained to the delegation that tobacco seeds are distributed to farmers by the government through the ANAP. They explained how the shortage of fuel and spare parts has forced them to go back to the use of draught animals for ploughing the land. In 2023 an effort by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to source tractors from Puerto Rico fell through as the manufacturer did not venture to face the risk of US sanctions. Inability to acquire machinery, fertilisers and pesticides in addition to production enhancing technologies are said to have led to a fall in agricultural yields especially of food grains by over 40 per cent. The crisis in rural areas is less severe compared to Havana, which relies heavily on tourism and saw livelihoods evaporate due to the embargo. For rural communities reliant on agriculture, though income has dwindled, daily life has not been disrupted as severely as in the city.

HUMAN COST OF IMPERIALIST BLOCKADE

According to the Cuban government, the cost of two hours of blockade (around USD 1,400,000) is equivalent to the purchase cost of medications used for the treatment of psychiatric, neurological, and heart conditions, as well as food for children with genetic deficiencies and endocrine metabolic diseases; the cost of 16 days of blockade (around USD 339,000,000) is equivalent to the funds required to meet the needs of the country's National List of Essential Medicines; the cost of two months of blockade (USD 1,600,000,000) is equivalent to the cost of the fuel needed to meet the country's regular power demand or the funds needed to guarantee the delivery of the rationed family food basket distributed to the population during one year.

Products such as beans, sugar, coffee, oil, powdered milk, soy yogurt, meat products, chicken, beef, and domestic fuels (coal and natural gas), medically prescribed diets, given on a priority basis to children suffering from chronic diseases and pregnant women are all not flowing in due to the blockade. It is estimated that Cuba requires about 1800 tonnes of powdered milk every month for this section. Powdered milk and food supplies are now made available only for the children aged up to two years and it is impossible to guarantee even powdered milk for children outside this age bracket. It is becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee cooking oil. From March 1, 2024, to February 28, 2025, the Cuban Government estimates suggest that material damages and losses caused by the blockade to Cuba were as high as USD 7,556,100,000, which represents a 49 per cent increase as compared to the previous period.

CUBA SHALL SURVIVE!

Cuba has endured more than six and a half decades of economic blockade and most draconian restrictions like even stopping humanitarian assistance. Food and fuel shortages deliberately imposed on it by US imperialism is clearly seeking to create unrest and a situation for the overthrow of the Cuban government. The intention to cut off all veins that replenish Cuba - cut off all possible sources of external income, damage tourism, obstruct travel and inflow of family remittances as well as scare away potential investors, aid and isolate Cuba have not been successful so far. Cuba has lived for nearly four decades since 1991 without the presence of the Soviet Union which was a bulwark of support for three decades after its revolution in 1959. Today, Socialist China and Russia are making efforts to replenish Cuba’s food and fuel requirements.

However, what is sustaining the Cuban people is their political-ideological clarity and a socialist state that guarantees a food basket, free education and free healthcare as a fundamental right to every citizen. This is the primary reason why the people hold the government close to their hearts, even amidst severe hardship. It is the indestructible revolution led by Fidel that has made its people assert resolutely that they cannot be forced into the servitude of their colonial past. The fight for survival is not at all easy, but we came back with a conviction that Cuba shall survive in all its defiance.

Cuba is Not Alone! We shall be the veins that Imperialism cannot cut! US Imperialism, Hand Off Cuba!