Caring in Crisis: Love from Cuba
Photo of ReglaSOUL and family showing support for the U.S. movement for Black Lives at Havana's Malcolm X monument. Photo by Natalie Favre.
June 12, 2020
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This week, U.S. and global communities continue to call for an end to systemic racism and to seek a better way forward. As we at the Platform continue to analyze the ways that we can show up for this work, we start this week’s newsletter with more messages of solidarity from Havana followed by an update on Cuba’s progress toward containment of COVID-19 and the international role of Cuban health workers. Look out next week for a Fathers’ Day message on work to support fatherhood and transform machismo in Cuba, followed by a return on the 26th to our previously scheduled analysis of Cuban innovation during the time of COVID-19.
Take care - Sarah, Justine, Mariakarla
Black Lives Matter
Defenders of human rights and social justice from countries around the world – including Cuba - are voicing their support for the current struggle in the U.S.
In this short video, everyday Cubans express their reaction to the murder of George Floyd and their solidarity with efforts for racial justice:
Belly of the Beast is an exciting media initiative working to share people-focused stories from inside Cuba. The project is led by Cuba Platform’s friend and colleague Reed Lindsay.
Another esteemed Cuba Platform colleague, ReglaSOUL, led by Alexey “El Tipo Este” and Amberly Alene, shares this message:
Havana, Cuba | Yesterday a collective of artists, activists and promoters of wellness for black communities united with ReglaSOUL at the monument of Malcom X on 23 & F to demand justice for the lives lost as a result of police brutality in the United States, but also in #Colombia, #Brazil, the #DominicanRepublic and around the world.
As an initiative founded by a black man born in Cuba and a black women born in the United States we can not be silent about the continued cases of murder and systematic violence against Black people.
With pride, we honor the sacrifices of all of the Black people who have fought for justice against police brutality and were forced to find refuge in other parts of the world, such as our dear Nehanda Abiodun, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, Robert F. Williams, the honorable Assata Shakur and many more.
We send this message as a reflection of our commitment to solidarity with the cause for black lives from Havana, Cuba. We are with you.
-ReglaSOUL & Family @ReglaSoul @ReglaSoulCuba
And, in response to last week’s update from the U.S., our long-time colleague Emilia Fernández sends these words from Cuba:
I admire, respect and support those who have had the courage to go out into the streets and show their indignation. I hope that these many decent, sensitive, intelligent and good-willed people will become a great force of energy - one that is as diverse and powerful as the nature of which we are all part – channeling toward the end of discriminatory power. It is everyone’s business to become a force with energies that humanize and help build spaces for cooperation and growth, for the benefit of all those who have been exlucded from opportunities. It is not the work of one day; 400 years of exclusion are not erased with the stroke of a pen.
Cuba and COVID-19
As reported in Reuters, Cuba nears declaring victory on the coronavirus. After three months of pandemic, Cuba now reports fewer hospital admissions than discharges and a decreasing number of new daily infections. President Diaz Canel announced Wednesday that the country is “in a position to return to normality." During last night's Mesa Redonda (a weekly, televised round-table), he and several ministers discussed the emerging three-phase plan for resumption and recuperation of public services, cultural events, regular hospital services, transportation, and tourism.
An article published last Sunday in the Guardian identifies human resources, universal access to healthcare, active screening, and contact tracing – combined with the state’s ability enforce isolation through coercion - as elements of Cuba’s “successful programme to contain coronavirus.”
As of last night, Cuba reports 2,233 confirmed cases (since the onset of the pandemic), 1,902 recuperated patients, and 84 deaths. The country saw in increase in new, confirmed cases last week, possibly as a result of increased rapid-diagnostic testing, which has allowed for the identification of asymptomatic patients.
International Relations, Solidarity and Sanctions
Last Monday, the 52-member health brigade specializing in disaster response returned to Cuba from Lombardy, the hardest hit region of Italy. On Thursday, a brigade of over 300 Cuban health workers, mostly women, traveled to Kuwait and the Republic of Guinea Conakry to assist in the control of the pandemic there.
While various organizations continue to advocate that Cuba’s Henry Reeve Brigade be awarded a Nobel prize for their international response to the pandemic, the U.S. government tightens sanctions. Last week, The Trump administration expanded its list of Cuban entities that Americans are banned from doing business with to include FINIMEX, the financial corporation that facilitates remittances sent home from the U.S. to Cuban family members and friends.