The Fidel Castro children are here

Despite the stifling blockade and sanctions, Cuba, is a model of development. Its 14-15 year olds are 100 per-cent literate; life expectancy is 77.87 years while it has run free and qualitative healthcare and education for over 50 years. Its physicians are 5.91 per 1,000 persons; infant mortality rate is 4.1 per 1,000 live births; unemployment is 3.8 per-cent; government debt is 17 per-cent while 1.5 per-cent live below poverty line compared to about 11 per-cent in the US.

CLARA Margarita Pulido Escandell is a 61-year old Cuban who breathes Africa. When I first met her and she discovered I had a trade union background, she enquired  about  the African Labour leader, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu the founding President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. 

Sunmonu  had spoken at the university in Legon, Accra, Ghana when she was a Master Degree student. His Pan Africanist exhortations    continues to ring in her head over three decades later.Fidel Castro as Cuban leader believed in children and youths and was confident that once the country took good care of them, the Cuban Revolution can never be defeated.  

Pulido was one of those Cuban youths who came close to Fidel. Her choice of education in Africa  after her first degree in Havana was deliberate. In turn, her country made good use of her preferences, enthusiasm, revolutionary spirit and Pan African inclinations. Her proficiency in Spanish, French and English also stood her in good stead.  The Pulido story  is a study in how a country works at its overall interests while developing its citizens. She rose from being a 1982 official of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (of the World)  to Deputy Head of Mission in the Cuban Embassy in  Ghana by 1999.  Later, she was promoted  the Director  of the Centre for African  and Middle Eastern Research.

In 2008,  she  was back in Africa, this time as ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union with concurrent accreditation to Djibouti and South Sudan. She stayed four years, then in 2017, returned to Africa, this time as ambassador to Algeria with concurrent accreditation  to the Saharawi  Arab Democratic Republic.When in 2019, then Cuban ambassador, Carlos Trejo Sosa informed some of his Nigerian friends he was leaving, we expressed some sadness because he was like an elder brother who was never tired  explaining the historical links between Cuba and Africa; between this continent and Latin America. Whenever we discussed the sacrifice of thousands of Cuban youths who laid down their lives in Angola fighting the forces of Apartheid, he would tell us stories of people of African descent  like the ‘Bronz  General’ Antonio Maceo  who were amongst the leaders of  the liberation forces in the Cuban and Latin American wars of de-colonization.

When we raised concerns that with his recall, we are going to lose a well- grounded African, he would chuckle as if to say, she who is coming after me is even more African. Pulido’s knowledge of African history and politics are truly wide.

When she met journalists in Abuja on Thursday, February 18, 2021, she walked in wearing half boots, kneel length overall jacket and  confidence; the message and the messenger rhymed. She began by thanking Africa for its continuous support of the Cuban people in the face of a six-decade aggression and bullying by its giant neighbour, the United States, US.  She acknowledged the February 7, 2021 resolution of the African Union, AU Heads of State Summit which expressed: “serious concern  about the continuous  and illegal  Economic, Commercial and Financial  Blockade  imposed by the United States  of America against Cuba.” The AU in expressing: “ its  solidarity with the people of Cuba.”  had acknowledged that the: “Blockade  is the main obstacle  for Cuba’s implementation  of the United Nations 2030  Agenda for Sustainable  Development…”

On behalf of the Cuban people, she also expressed appreciation to leaders of the Caribbean Community, CARICOM, the   African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, ACP and the Non-Aligned Movement whose 2019 Summit of Heads of State in Baku, Azerbaijan, strongly condemned the blockage.

The Cuban ambassador also expressed  profound appreciation to countries across the world who at the annual United Nations General Assembly, UNGA,  reject the American blockade and unilateral sanctions  against  Cuba. She particularly highlighted  UNGA Resolution 74/7   on the necessity to end the blockage,  and noted that: “The United States  has ignored, with arrogance  and contempt, the 28 resolutions  adopted by the UN General Assembly condemning the blockade…”

The blockage she said means that Cuba cannot import or export anything to the US,  receive American tourists,  use the US dollar for foreign exchange, use credit  from financial institutions or import  life-saving medicines.

Pulido who was a one year old baby when the US imposed the blockade, revealed   that just between April 2019 and March 2020, contrary to the United Nations resolutions,  the Americans  carried out about 90 coercive   economic actions  against Cuba: “with the intention  of intervening  in the country’s internal affairs and in clear violation  of the freedom of international trade and navigation.” These she said included imposing punitive sanctions against   27 companies, 54 vessels  and three individuals  for transporting fuel to Cuba  despite the fact that none of them were of US origin. In the one year period,  the US blockage she said, cost Cuba an estimated $5,570,300,000  while the accumulated quantifiable  cost over the past sixty years is $1,098,008,000,000.

The blockade she said is so inhuman that when in 2020, the Chinese billionaire, Jack   Ma (Ali Baba) sent emergency Covid-19 supplies to various countries including Nigeria and Cuba, the airlines, for fear of American sanctions, refused to deliver those of Cuba. To her, the blockage is actually a genocide.

Pulido  said despite these pains, Cuba in true solidarity with the rest of humanity in 2020, sent over 3,000 medical workers including doctors and nurses  in 38 medical brigades to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in 28 countries and 3 non-autonomous  territories. This she said  has led to various international figures and organisations like the Nigeria Labour Congress, nominating the Cuban White Shirts for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

The ambassador said while the Biden administration promises to  be better than that of Trump,  even under the Obama administration, the Cuban Embassy in US was not allowed to use the banks. She however said Cuba  is always ready  to relate with all countries provided that this is based on mutual respect. She added that Cuba is an ever hopeful country: “We are ever optimistic; were we not, we won’t   be alive.”

Despite the stifling blockade and sanctions, Cuba, is a model of development. Its 14-15  year olds are 100 per-cent literate; life expectancy is 77.87 years while it has run free and qualitative healthcare and education for over 50 years. Its physicians are   5.91 per 1,000 persons; infant mortality rate is 4.1 per 1,000 live births; unemployment is 3.8 per-cent; government debt is 17 per-cent while 1.5 per-cent  live below poverty line compared to about 11 per-cent in the US.

So why is Cuba insistent that the blockage must be ended? Pulido replied: “We are not requesting this just for ourselves, but mainly for   our children; children everywhere, are the future of any country.”