Havana, Jul 8 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel today received the credentials of three new ambassadors who will represent their respective countries in Cuba.
Accompanied by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the head of State welcomed the diplomats at the Palace of the Revolution, the Presidency of the Republic reported on X.
As part of the event, the ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Sherif Reda Ahmed Shehata; of the Republic of India, Thongkhomang Armstrong Changsan; and of the People’s Republic of China, Hua Xin, presented their credentials.
The president expressed his gratitude for the historic support to Cuba by these nations, which he described as sisters.
Díaz-Canel affirmed that the ambassadors will be able to count on all the help of the Government and the Foreign Ministry to carry out their work.
Havana, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan ambassador to Cuba, Orlando Maneiro, highlighted here today the liberating feeling and spirit of the Venezuelan people, on the occasion of the 213th anniversary of the independence of this South American nation.
While laying a wreath at the Simon Bolivar Monument located on Presidents’ Avenue in this capital, the diplomat stressed that it is a day of glory, when Venezuelans also celebrate the creation of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.
The commemoration was also attended by ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Cuba, as well as the Foreign Affairs Ministry and political and mass organizations of the Caribbean nation.
As part of the actions to commemorate the anniversary, a wreath was also laid in Havana’s José Martí Central Park and a political-cultural event was planned.
Cuba and Venezuela maintain solid political, economic and cultural relations, in addition to coinciding in governmental positions and practices on important issues of bilateral, regional and global interest.
The Venezuelan government and people celebrate their National Day today, on the occasion of the signing, on July 5, 1811, of the act of independence from the former Spanish colony.
With the declaration of independence, a new state and nation with a republican form of government was also formed.
Havana, Jul 7 (Prensa Latina) Forces of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) dismantled a terrorist plan against Cuba, organized and financed from the United States, that institution informed through a note published in the Granma newspaper.
The text details that as a result of the investigation carried out by the specialized bodies of the MININT, the citizen Ardenys García Álvarez was arrested. He illegally penetrated and entered Cuba with firearms and ammunition by sea, as well as other implicated persons residing in the national territory.
García Álvarez had immigrated to that northern country, illegally, in 2014.
According to the MININt’s note, the action was part of a new recruitment plan to carry out violent actions. The ministry recalled that in December 2023 the Cuban government published in the Official Gazette of the Republic the list of persons and entities who sponsor terrorism against Cuba.
Two days later, preliminary information was released on the neutralization of a new recruitment plan to carry out violent actions in our country, which was intended to be carried out by a Cuban citizen living in the United States, the text pointed out.
The Ministry of the Interior prevented the realization of the plans designed, directed, and financed, once again, by the United States. This has generated an investigative process focused on the facts and the persons involved.
This Monday, July 8, at the end of the Cuban Television National News Broadcast, a special program will be offered with the evidence that proves the terrorist plans and actions, as well as those principally involved.
Minsk, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) The Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Alvaro López Miera, met with the Minister of Defense of Belarus, Victor Jrenin, in Minsk, where they agreed to strengthen military cooperation, the BelTA news agency reported.
The ministers noted the importance of continuing the practical vector of interaction to strengthen cooperation in the military field, according to a statement released on Friday.
The Ministry of Defense of Belarus pointed out that López and Jrenin also summarized the provisional results of the joint work of the defense organizations in the first half of the year.
The Cuban minister arrived in Minsk on Monday to participate in the celebrations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from German fascism.
Havana, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban anti-pneumococcal vaccine Quimi-Vio was officially certified today by the Center of Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices of the Republic of Cuba, after a rigorous evaluation process.
After concluding all the required clinical trials, which show sufficient evidence of quality, safety and efficacy, the regulatory Center granted the registration to the injectable vaccine, developed and produced by the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), a project it began in 2012.
“It is a very complex vaccine, which, when introduced in the countries that have already used it, has led to a significant improvement in children’s health indicators in terms of respiratory disease morbidity and infant mortality due to infections,” Dagmar García, director of Research at the IFV, recently said.
The first study with Quimi-Vio was carried out in the central province of Cienfuegos in 2023 “and on that occasion more than 90 percent of all children between one and five years of age were vaccinated. It was approximately 11,600 children, the specialist recalled.
Garcia further said that, in Cienfuegos, in 2018 and 2019, community clinical trial was carried out, in which 93 percent of all children between one and five years of age was injected.
“One year after immunizing them, a 63 percent reduction in hospitalization rates for respiratory disease was observed; and a 73 percent reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease, for the serotypes contained in the vaccine,” he added.
In June this year, it was announced that an intervention study against pneumococcal disease in infants under one year of age (two, four and 11 months old) will be carried out with Quimi-Vio also in Cienfuegos. According to the main researcher of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) of Cuba, María Eugenia Toledo, Quimi-Vio will protect infants under one year of age from 11 serotypes that produce pneumococcal disease.
Addis Ababa, Jul 6 (Prensa Latina) The delegation of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) of Cuba concluded today the working visit to Ethiopia, during which an inter-institutional memorandum of understanding was signed to strengthen cooperation in the sector.
The document signed between the Ethiopian Ministry of Water and Energy and the INRH will implement the agreement established in 2014 between the two governments, the Havana embassy in Addis Ababa revealed.
The Cuban experts led by the vice president of the Institute, Javier Toledo Tapanes, arrived last July 1 in this capital with the aim of exploring collaboration areas.
Their presence follows a visit by the Minister of State for Water and Energy Asfaw Dingamo to the Caribbean island last year, which resulted in water assistance projects.
During their stay they toured water projects in the city of Adama and had a meeting with the director of the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute and president for the African continent of the World Meteorological Organization, Fiten Teshome.
Both parties agreed to work on capacity building in the meteorological sector.
They also visited the Ethiopian Institute of Water Technology where they talked with its directors, the source said.
Havana, Jul 5 (Radio Havana Cuba) The Latin American and Caribbean Continental Network of Solidarity with Cuba and Just Causes demanded in Buenos Aires the exclusion of the island from a list of alleged sponsors of terrorism, drawn up by the United States.
In a statement, the organization urged the deployment of a campaign in support of the largest of the Antilles and against the criminal blockade imposed by Washington on that nation, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
“We accept the challenge of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to build a great world movement against the economic, commercial and financial siege against Cuba. The Network is attentive to the call for this important creation,” the text states.
On the other hand, it urges to spread the transparency and security of Venezuela’s electoral system, to support President Nicolás Maduro and to defend the economic and social advances of the Bolivarian Revolution.
“We join the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico and the peoples of the Caribbean,” the document adds.
The Network also repudiated the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia and denounced the provocations and messages of hate and xenophobia of the Argentine president, Javier Milei.
“Their actions put the region at risk. We dispose ourselves as militants to make the 2014 Declaration of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States a reality, which establishes that we are a Zone of Peace based on respect for the principles and norms of International Law,” the statement notes.” (Source: Prensa Latina)
Havana, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel underscored the practical usefulness of the tours of municipalities that he does along with political and government teams, which generate learning about the realities of each place.
The visits are, in the first instance, an example of support for local authorities in the implementation of decisions indicated by higher authorities, the president explained in his podcast “From the Presidency,” published on Thursday.
Díaz-Canel confirmed that the country’s top leadership “is in the fight alongside its people” and in these contacts they can appreciate the problems beyond what the reports contain, which allows them to investigate the real situation by themselves, make decisions, contribute with solutions that in some cases have favored the exploitation of idle agricultural areas, the Cuban president noted.
The tours also address various social problems in the communities, in the health and education sectors, and stimulate the search for answers to labor demands, especially among young people.
The Cuban head of State also mentioned the territorial analysis of the budget deficit, price control, the fight against illegalities, as well as the strengthening of the socialist state company and its link with new economic players.
The president defended the method of constant dialogue with the people, a legacy from Fidel Castro that acquires high relevance for political work.
“The government’s agenda cannot be distanced from the people, and the visits are designed to analyze the problems and energize their solutions, which demands greater effort and work capacity from local authorities,” Díaz-Canel said.
“Direct dialogue with the people is teaching and learning, it allows for socializing experiences, systematizing criteria and gathering consensus,” said the president, who highlighted the commitment, responsibility and dedication of the country’s leadership at all levels.
Buenos Aires, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and several intellectuals and human rights defenders in Argentina on Friday supported the international demand to remove Cuba from a United States list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.
Gathered at the Espacio para la Memoria Institute (IEM), Pérez Esquivel, writer Stella Calloni, the survivors of the last civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983) Ana María Careaga and Irma Medina, director and screenwriter Lita Stantic, the member of the American Association of Jurists Claudia Rocca, and photographer Adriana Lestido expressed their solidarity with Cuba and demanded an end to Washington’s aggression.
In a statement signed by them, the IEM demanded that the United States Government immediately and completely remove Cuba from that ominous and arbitrary list.
This unjust and unilateral decision violates the United Nations Charter and the resolutions of the General Assembly. What is even more serious, it adds to the damage of a criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade, whose extension over time subjects the Cuban people to suffering and inhuman conditions, and which fail to comply with international standards and human rights, the text states.
From the IEM we reiterate the urgent need to remove Cuba from that list and end the unjust blockade and all types of unilateral coercive measures against a worthy people, who do not submit to the pressures of the US Government, the message concludes.
Havana, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba reportedly will further enforce regulations to prevent the import of technologies with low energy efficiency, marketed here by state-owned chain stores, micro, small and medium-sized businesses.
To that end, the National Office for the Control of the Rational Use of Energy is preparing a new resolution, continuing two others in force since 2021 (No. 235 and 236), to prohibit the entry of goods with high specific electricity consumption, Granma newspaper reported.
The measure will expand the modalities of regulated equipment and will be aimed at retailers such as Tiendas Caribe, Cimex and Palco, as well as micro, small and medium-sized companies, the Control Office senior specialist René Martín Páez.
According to the expert, the country needs to introduce modern technologies capable of contributing with great savings to the National Electric System and to the customers’ own economy.
If the population changes its resistance stoves for induction ones, the country would save 760,000 tons of fuel per year, and would avoid the emission into the atmosphere of an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to 2.3 million tons, he said.
The energy efficiency of induction stoves, he added, fluctuates between 75 and 80 percent, and competes with that of pots and rice cookers, although they have much higher performance.
Likewise, he added, they are more comfortable and minimize the risk of accidents due to causes such as burns.
While LED luminaires have the potential to save 200,000 tons of fuel and avoid 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, among all the consumption of the island, he argued.
They consume between 35 and 40 percent less than fluorescent lamps, and with similar quality standards, while their useful life can last at least five times longer, Páez said.
