Havana, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) A Cuban delegation is attending the 6th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) that began today in Nairobi, Kenya, to analyze the triple planetary crisis: climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, the Cuban team led by the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), José Fidel Santana, will develop an intense work program that will include meetings with environmental authorities of Member States, the United Nations System and other entities.
Cuban representatives will actively participate in the consideration of draft resolutions and in the High-Level Dialogues in defense of the positions of developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States, calling for urgent action to address the enormous environmental challenges of climate change.
Luanda, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) The President of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament), Esteban Lazo, arrived at this capital’s “4 de Fevereiro” International Airport for a three-day official visit to Angola.
Lawmakers Raúl Lima, third Vice President of the Angolan National Assembly, and Alcides Sakala Simoes, president of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Relations, International Cooperation, and Community Abroad, welcomed Lazo at the airport.
The head of the Cuban Parliament arrived in Luanda from South Africa, where he met with that country’s governmental leaders and political parties on Monday.
According to the Angolan Parliament’s press office, Lazo’s program in Luanda includes a courtesy meeting with National Assembly President Carolina Cerqueira and meetings with Angolan lawmakers within the context of the historic relations between the two institutions.
Caracas, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) The fight against the United States blockade and the permanent rejection of Cuba’s inclusion in Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list were two of the priorities discussed at the 5th National Meeting of the ACCREVEN, it was reported here on Monday.
Participants in the meeting of the Association of Cuban Residents in Venezuela (ACCREVEN), who met on February 23-24 in Valencia, Carabobo, also agreed to take actions to solve the migration regularization of its affiliates and to develop a communication strategy on social media.
They also decided to prioritize economic and business relations with Cuban entities, and strengthen the work and promotion of joint solidarity initiatives with Venezuela-Cuba friendship organizations, as well as holding events with children, adolescents and young people, according to a press release.
The debates were characterized by the “frankness of the approaches” and the proposals in search for solutions to the persistent “complex migration situation” of Cuban immigrants in Venezuela, among other issues.
ACCREVEN President Orelbis Reyes expressed his willingness to attend to the priority issues for the affiliates in their labor regularization, migration and academic updating, and in other important and complex matters that will be attended to.
It is a matter of looking for “concrete solutions” in the context of cooperation among the institutions that have the task of solving the problems faced by the community from a “proactive, integrating and unitary vision of the emigration with our homeland,” he pointed out.
The meeting was attended by José Mayo, second head of Cuba’s Diplomatic Mission in Venezuela; Consul General Ulises Barquín, and other members of the diplomatic mission, as well as the Bolivarian mayors of the city of Valencia and the municipality of Libertador in Carabobo, Julio Fuenmayor and Oscar Orsini, respectively.
A group of organizations and individuals based in the United States advocate for investments and trade with the island to sponsor the emerging private sector and mitigate the impacts of the crisis.
With the 2024 election campaign in full swing, an alliance of U.S. and Cuban-American groups and activists published an open letter to President Joe Biden encouraging him to take a turn in his Cuba policy.
The letter speaks directly of the advantages of a rapprochement with the island by offering “the best chances of achieving some of the margins that you need to win, by receiving votes from one of the Latin American communities with the largest voter turnout.”
The group is the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect ― Acere for its acronym in English ― a name that plays with the phonetics of asere, a Cubanism that belongs to the colloquial register and a word that for Cubans means friend, brother or partner.
“After several announcements, we are still waiting for measures that allow trade and investment with the island’s growing private sector. We also hope to achieve unlimited freedom to travel to Cuba, as is the case with other countries that are really dangerous,” the petitioners state.
Signed by more than fifty organizations and more than two hundred individuals based in the United States, the document resolutely calls for removing the island from the list of nations that help or sponsor terrorism, according to the State Department.
Cuba received more than a quarter of a million tourists in January of this year, according to official statistics.
In total, 259,898 tourists arrived on the island in the first month of 2024, which represents an increase of 104% compared to the same period in 2023.
However, this means 47% less than in the same period of 2019, the year before the pandemic, as reported this Friday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The figure represents a timid recovery in international tourism, in one of the main months of the high season in Cuba.
Among visitors in January, those arriving from Canada (127,172), the main issuing country, once again stood out.
The North American country had a year-on-year increase of 98.2% and was followed by Russia (22,272) — double the previous year, for a 216.8% increase — and the Cuban community abroad (21,910), which had an increase of 88.2%.
Windhoek, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba met on Sunday with the president of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament) of Cuba, Esteban Lazo, at the State House of this African nation.
Lazo also met on Sunday with the founding father and first president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, who thanked Cuba for its support for the independence of his country and the permanent solidarity with his people.
At the meeting, Nujoma ratified the close ties between both nations, the Cuban Parliament reported on its X account.
On Saturday, the Cuban parliamentary leader paid tribute to former Namibian President Hage G. Geingob at his state funeral.
When speaking alongside other world leaders at Geingob’s funeral ceremony, Lazo highlighted how since the news of his death, Cuba has expressed its gratitude towards the former president, who exhibited a brave, firm, independent and supportive stance for the Cuban Revolution.
This attitude was also reflected against the economic blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than 60 years and on the occasion of other events that have affected the well-being of the Cuban people, he noted.
Santo Domingo, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) Two caravans against the United States blockade against Cuba took place on Sunday simultaneously in this capital and Santiago de los Caballeros, in the north of the Dominican Republic.
Dozens of vehicles with Cuban and national flags, photos of Cuban National Hero José Martí, and signs that read “No to the Blockade against Cuba,” “Cuba Yes, Blockade No,” accompanied the caravans, organized by the members of the Solidarity Campaign with Cuba in the two territories.
Also present were representation of the Máximo Gómez Association of Cuban Residents in the Dominican Republic, headed by its president, Nelson Valdés.
From the exit of the Heroes Center, on the capital’s Enrique Jiménez Moya Avenue, to Parque de la Independencia, a historic site in the colonial zone, the voices of local people who spontaneously demanded an end to the US blockade against Cuba from the sidewalks were heard. On the occasion, Roberto Payano, National Coordinator of the Campaign, asked the Government of President Luis Abinader to intercede with the Joe Biden administration to change its policy on Cuba, another country that is friendly to the Dominican Republic, and to which we are united by historic relations.
Payano urged the US charge d’affaires in the Dominican Republic to notify his government that solidarity with Cuba here is attentive to the mistreatment of that friendly people who have resisted Washington’s hostile policy for more than six decades.
Keeping Cuba in an economic, commercial and financial blockade, which even prohibits third countries from selling food and medicine to the island, is a crime that affects Cuban families, he pointed out.
The friends of Cuba also called on President Joe Biden to exclude Havana from the spurious State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list, made by the Government of the United States, and recalled that the US president has the power to delete the Caribbean nation from that list.
Nelson Valdés, in turn, referred to the effects of the blockade, and among them he mentioned the impossibility of making money transfers to Cuba because US provisions prevent banks from doing so.
It was another day of support for Cuba, for the lifting of the blockade and supporting for the Cuban family.
Havana, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) President Miguel Díaz-Canel pointed out on Sunday that the cochlear implant program in Cuba remains a priority in the healthcare system, despite the shortcomings caused by the United States blockade.
Regarding the celebration of International Cochlear Implant Day on Sunday, the president highlighted on his X profile that this program in Cuba is one of the most sensitive and humane of the Revolution.
On this date in 1957, the first cochlear implant in the world was performed by French Doctors André Djourno and Charles Eyries, who made history by making a totally deaf person hear.
Among the specialized services provided by the Cuban healthcare system is the National Cochlear Implant Program, which has been developed for 25 years, with priority for children with multiple disabilities, including deafness and blindness.
Cuba performed the first single-channel extracochlear implant in 1987 and ten years later multichannel intracochlear implants began at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana.
The cochlear implant program in Cuba is supported by the Government and the Ministry of Public Health, and is accessible to the entire country and completely free of charge, including technological updates.
Windhoek, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) The president of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament) of Cuba, Esteban Lazo, participated in the burial ceremony of former Namibian President Hage G. Geingob, in the Acre of Heroes on Sunday.
In this context, the president of the Council of State met with the presidents of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, and of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Lazo attended Geingob’s state funeral on Saturday, where he highlighted the former Namibian president’s role as “an undisputed African leader” since the insertion of independent Namibia in 1990.
He stressed that Geingob passionately defended not only his people’s right to forge themselves as a sovereign nation, but also contributed to cementing Namibia’s international projection, putting the country at the forefront in the fight for the development of the peoples of the Third World and Africa in particularly, for equality and justice. We will never forget our friend, the Cuban parliamentary leader emphasized on the occasion.
A Baobab has fallen but his example will be multiplied in the young people who embody the future and who will make Namibia a better country, as he dreamed, Lazo noted.
Buenos Aires, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) The leader of Argentina’s MasCuba Solidarity Movement, Alberto Mas, assured on Sunday that they will continue to support that irreverent and blessed nation, because it is the first trench against imperialism nowadays.
After receiving the Friendship Medal, awarded by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, at the proposal of the Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Mas reaffirmed his commitment to Cuba, and highlighted its example.
“It is a great honor to receive such an acknowledgement that belongs to all of us who work in MasCuba, demonstrating that collective effort always pays off, the leader noted.
“Supporting Cuba is to show the Argentinian people that unity and the construction of a popular front that allows us to confront the Nazi-liberalism that threatens the continent is necessary,” he added.
Mas said that despite the current situation in his country, they will continue to defend Cuba, because it is the proof “that a better world is possible.”
“Long live Cuba! For us, Homeland or Death is not a slogan, but a reality,” he affirmed.
Cuban ad interim Chargé d’Affaires Dagmara Calzada pointed out that Mas made innumerable contributions to solidarity over the years as part of the Argentinian Club of Journalists Friends of Cuba and the movement.
His contribution was decisive in the struggle for the return of the Cuban Five Heroes (Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez), she underscored.
Mas is an example of unfailing loyalty to Cuba. With this tribute we show our gratitude to MasCuba and to all the comrades who defend our country. Thanks to you the Revolution is unbeatable and will continue to move forward, she granted.
Members of the Union of Cuban Residents in Argentina participated in the event, at which participants recalled the restart of the independence struggles, led by Jose Marti (1853-1895) on February 24, 1895.
