Aristóbulo Istúriz Almeida, Vice-President for Social and Territorial Socialism in Venezuela, recently conveyed a heartfelt greeting and recognition from his country’s government and people to Cuban collaborators for their solidarity in confronting the pandemic.
Istúriz, also People's Power Minister of Education, stated that without the internationalism of the Cuban people, it would have been impossible for Venezuela to successfully battle COVID-19, amidst the imperialist offensive reinforcing the economic blockade and unilateral, criminal coercive sanctions.
He pointed out that U.S. aggression is the greatest threat facing the nation today, recalling the words of Hugo Chávez warning that as long as imperialism existed, the Bolivarian Revolution would be in danger, and condemned to live from one battle to another, obliged to live from victory to victory.
He highlighted the importance of the unity of the two peoples, which is, he remarked, “the unity of Martí and Bolívar, of Chávez and Fidel, and our brotherhood cannot be broken, we must maintain it, consolidate it".
These statements were made during a meeting to review the work done over the past year by Cuban social missions in Venezuela, whose daily efforts are a tribute to their emancipatory, Latin Americanist and anti-imperialist legacy.
In 2020, the contribution of the more than 20,000 Cuban collaborators to the battle against the pandemic, and the Bolivarian Revolution’s social programs, is especially meritorious in the context of adversities generated by the economic war imposed by the United States on the two countries.
The partnership remains firm. During the most difficult days of the pandemic, the medical mission’s Barrio Adentro program, in close coordination with the government and local health authorities, prepared more than 4,500 beds in 410 Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers and 17 comprehensive rehabilitation rooms to care for COVID patients and suspected cases of infection with the new coronavirus.
A total of 334,488 patients were treated in these institutions and more than 13,500 collaborators worked in red zones, where 6,273 individuals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were treated. Ninety-three percent returned home fully recovered.
Members of all the social missions joined efforts to contain the chain of transmission and conducted more than 117 million door-to-door monitoring visits and administered more than 1,700,000 diagnostic tests.
Missions in the areas of culture, sports, education, food and agriculture, pharmaceuticals, higher education and energy also registered significant successes as part of efforts to sustain the work of bilateral projects serving the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
Julio César García Rodríguez, head of Cuba's Social Missions in Venezuela, noted that work in 2021 will continue to be marked by COVID-19, stating, "The main efforts of all collaborators will be focused on preventive action and confronting the disease, assisting Venezuelan patients, ensuring the care and protection of our compatriots in order to maintain services and continue saving lives."
García Rodríguez identified additional challenges expected this year, including the projected COVID-19 vaccination campaign, "a process in which the entire Cuban collaboration system will be immersed," adding that central elements of the Cuba-Venezuela comprehensive cooperation agreement for the current year are being defined, including presence in other important sectors of social economic development.
Cuban Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda sent a special message recognizing the work of the Cuban army of white lab coats in 2020 and their achievements in battling the pandemic.
Recognized for their outstanding contributions were medical brigades working at the field hospital erected at the Caracas Poliedro; the Molecular Biology Laboratory (Guarenas, Miranda state); the Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers Ludovico Silva (Capital District), Santa Rosalía (Capital District) and Salvador Allende (Miranda); the Good Life for Diabetics and Ozone programs; and the team of psychologists supporting the Cuban mission.
