Cuban doctors will never accept aggression of any kind against Cuba’s health system.

For a number of months now Cuban doctors have been at the center of an aggressive and manipulative media campaign.

Author: Redacción Nacional | internet@granma.cu

April 2, 2025

 

 

Workers from the Institute of Hematology and Immunology together with professors in a number of Medical Sciences specialties confronted the most recent defamation campaign against health professionals in Cuba and outside of Cuba.

 According to a recent report by Cuban Television, the Cuban Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation together with Neurology and Hematology have expressed their support for Cuban doctors and health professionals in sync with  their views and feelings in relation to the aggressive campaigns of hatred and lies that attempted to discredit the altruistic work of Cuban medicine.

 In taking this stand the mentioned societies express the views and feelings of their members and support them during challenging times.

 Doctor Wilfredo Roque Garcia, director of the Institute of Hematology and Immunology (IHI), explained that for a number of months now medical professionals have been singled out by an aggressive and very manipulative, and at times violent, media campaign that through lies and slander has attacked our professionals and our institution.  

 The chief of IHI Pediatric Services, Doctor Lucelia Leyva reported that, in one of the live broadcasts carried out by people who follow the doctors promoting these hate campaigns "people was encouraged to come to the institution on a medical leave, because, they falsely claimed, in the hospital patients were being kidnapped, assaulted, or that there was negligence or abandonment, evidence of their call to hatred or violence."  

 The mentioned report highlights that the Institute of Hematology and Immunology (IHI) is an institution of excellence in Cuban Medicine, a national benchmark regarding hematological and immunological diseases, which has accumulated a number of scientific achievements and innovations, and stands out in education and professional formation of human resources for the Cuban National System of Health.

 Doctor Olga Margarita Agramonte, president of the Cuban Society of Hematology, pointed to IHI, an institution founded in 1966 having among its achievements a high rating in curing childhood leukemia (between 89 and 90% of curability), in itself a marker for social development.

 In the face of the U.S. Secretary of State's measures against Cuba's international medical cooperation and the hate campaign by anti-Cuban media, the union of medical professionals defends its humanitarian and solidarity mission.

 

FROM THE DECLARATION OF THE CUBAN SOCIETY OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION

 • The ethical dilemmas a physician faces in his or her practice are diverse, but a doctor does not lie, manipulate, injure, or humiliate; he or she always puts his or her solidarity, altruism, and desire to overcome illness and any difficulties that may arise above all else, for the good of his or her patient, family, and colleagues.

 • A Cuban doctor cares for and protects, shows solidarity, and is committed to the comprehensive well-being of people, regardless of their origin, ethnicity, social position, status, and family environment. A Cuban doctor, wherever they may be, also shows profound respect for other specialists.

 • The profession we represent will never share the attacks on the Cuban healthcare system or the work we do daily. Our work, amidst enormous shortages and collective and individual sacrifices, speaks for itself.

 Translation NSCuba

 CNC CAMPAIGN HURRICANE 2025

On Thu, Mar 20, 2025 

I’m writing on behalf of the Canadian Network on Cuba, to announce the successful close of our Hurricane Relief campaign and to thank everyone for your hard work and donations. 

The campaign was a phenomenal success, raising $33,527.25 in total. An ultrasound machine has been purchased and delivered to a maternal genetic clinic in Bayamo, and a container full of medical supplies is leaving Canada on April 1st, to be delivered to a hospital in Matanzas city. I’m attaching some photos of the supplies being packed up, courtesy of Julio Fonseca—as you can see, this is a substantial delivery!

Thanks again for your part in this incredible show of support for the Cuban people. We’ll be in touch again shortly regarding our next initiatives. 

Venceremos!

Cam Scott 

Campaign Coordinator
Canadian Network on Cuba

 

 

More than a ton of drugs  seized in Cuba in 2024

The past year 133 incidents of illegal landfall on the coasts of Cuba, 28 attempts to introduce drugs through its air border, and 151 interprovincial trafficking operations were thwarted. There were more than 1,157 people sentenced for offences associated with illicit drug trafficking.

February 20, 2025.

Francisco Arias Fernandez, internet@granma.cu

The Cuban plan, Safe Borders, played a crucial role in frustrating 28 attempts of introducing drugs through airports in Cuba.  The strengthening of joint actions to prevent and confront the introduction of drugs in the country was crucial in ensuring the seizing in 2024 of more than a thousand kilos of drugs -mainly cocaine, marijuana, Methamphetamines and other Cannabinoids, that actively operate and use routes close to Cuban territory.

According to reports from the Ministry of the Interior, in 2024 the main impact continued to be mainly through maritime channels with 133 actions for a total of more than 844 kilos, predominantly cocaine followed by marijuana and Hachis. There were smuggling acts with 25 people detained and 37 kilos of drugs seized. Trends and complicated tendencies favor cocaine catches, very addictive and harmful to health and in keeping with world tendencies as well as attempts to land in every province of our country.

Also in 2024 there were five processes connected to operations involving speedboats and penetrating Cuban territory -from the United States, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Jamaica, with the objective of introducing drugs and trafficking people. Investigations and relevant actions with regards to 20 foreign organizers involved in the mentioned dual operations are taking place in cooperation with mentioned countries’ peer services.   

The report pointed out that in the south coast of Guanahacabibes, Pinar del Rio, three Cubans were detained with more than 8 kilos of Methamphetamine, among them the organizer and boatmen involved in trafficking.   

In regards to Cuba’s aerial border, authorities have corroborated the intentionality of foreign subjects and Cubans living outside of Cuba to introduce drugs in the national territory via airports from ten countries in the area, using passengers, cargo and postal packages, combining differing modes of operation some traditional with new one, and through triangulating operations. From the United States mainly synthetic cannabinoids in their natural estate (powder), mixed with paper or in paper folds, and Methamphetamine.  

In the context of ensuring borders that are secure, the Aduana General de la Republica (General Customs of Cuba) and the Ministry of Interior successfully frustrated 28 attempts to introduce drugs through airports, five of them using postal channels. In other 13 cases actions went deeper and three operations in the US were prevented prior to arriving into Cuban territory.

In total 94 people (75 Cubans and 19 foreigners) were detained, seizing 90.6 kilos of drugs (74.14 kilos of cocaine, 7.9 kilos marijuana, 5.88 kilos of synthetic Cannabinoids, 2.63 kilos of Methamphetamine and 0,06 kilos of ecstasy).

Through Interpol 59 Cubans and 2 foreigners continue to respond for the crime of illicit trafficking drugs. In addition, 157 operations of interprovincial trafficking were blocked with 267 detainees and seizure of 73 kilos of drugs, mainly in Havana, Camagüey, Holguín, Granma and Santiago de Cuba.

 

There were also 105 cases of marijuana cultivation, with more than 49 thousand plants and 207 thousand seeds seized, mainly in the provinces of Granma, Holguin, Las Tunas and Guantanamo.  Cuba has close operational cooperation with anti drugs foreign services and with Interpol, including exchanging relevant intelligence information according to signed treaties in the context of multilateral order and bilateral cooperation, with full transparency and respect to combat international illicit operations such as the ones discussed here.

 

In this sense, Cuba has 37 points of contact with foreign anti drugs services and during 2024, 105 relevant messages were exchanged with 24 countries. Rigor, in the application of Penal and Penitentiary policy, is maintained. The Office of the Prosecutor overview 1237 files in preparation phase connected with drug trafficking, including international Narco-trafficking, and 897 testimonies connected to drug possession. Because of the harmful character of the crime these charges were applied to 92 percent of the people accused of drug crime, a precautionary measure of provisional jail applies.  

 

Cuban tribunals filed 980 cases for these crimes, 744 at the provincial level and 236 in municipal tribunals. One thousand and ninety three people were judged, and 97 percent of them (1157) were sanctioned and of the sanctioned 94 percent of  (1087) include privation of freedom or alternative correctional work with internment. Confiscation of vehicles, money, jewelry, lands and properties, as per each case, was also applied. The coherent penal response includes a combination of main and accessory convictions in keeping with the severity of the behaviors.  As a result of the joint and permanent effort, and despite the hostility and the policy of suffocation of Washington, Cuban authorities maintain a tolerance zero policy to drugs. Cuban authorities encourage comprehensive prevention interventions in schools and neighborhoods, and favor alternative community actions aimed at developing a culture of rejection of drugs, increasing understanding and risk perception in connection with drug use in society.

 

Among the preventative actions favored, in 2024 educational directors and workers participated in 32 463 training sessions, 438 665 educational talks, 346 140 video debates, 45 472 schools of family life education, and 33 814 mornings. In Havana training in nine institutions, intentionally selected, took place. Special attention was given to 68 adolescents who, due to the deterioration of their behavior, required evaluation by the Juvenile Care Councils of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and were provided with individualized measures aimed at redirecting their behavior.

 

 The ongoing communication and dissemination work, together with the preventive actions carried out under the direction of the National Drug Commission and including the participation of the agencies of the Central State Administration, social, mass and youth organizations, makes it possible to influence directly the perception of risk, the establishment and correction of deficiencies in preventive work at community level, the evaluation of the phenomenon in case, and the maintenance of people’s rejection of these illicit acts.

Translation NSCUBA