Cuba will continue to live and let live!

It was announced that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this year to Maria Ressa, Editor-in-Chief of the Filipino Rappler news site, and Dmitry Muratov, Editor-in-Chief of Russian Novaya Gazeta. However, there was another candidate for the award who brought about brotherhood and peace among the peoples of the world.

All over the world, friends of Cuba called for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to the Henry Reeve Brigade, Cuba’s health bridge which extended to all countries of the world; they held meetings and collected signatures for that purpose. In our country, the José Martí Cuba-Turkey Friendship Association was the one who called for this request. Thousands of people supported this call.

We called for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve Brigade because Cuban health professionals, with the Henry Reeve Brigade, were with the people of the world even in the pandemic conditions when the world needed solidarity the most, when governments seized even the health supplies going to other countries, when health systems collapsed and people died on the streets. Cuban health workers, who have reached 3.5 million people from 21 countries in the worst health disasters since its establishment in 2005 and saved the lives of at least 80,000 people, went to 27 countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuban people once again showed that they share what they have instead of stealing from others. The Henry Reeve Brigade has concretely proven that fraternity and solidarity in the most difficult times is the foundation of world peace.

Moreover, by showing this solidarity under the inhumane blockade they have been subjected to for 60 years, the Cuban people also shouted that humanity cannot be contained by the chains that surround it. Cuban health workers, who continue to produce even under the terrible deprivation conditions imposed on the island people by the US imperialism, gave hope to the poor people, who were ignored by the vaccine monopolies and imperialist countries, with the first coronavirus vaccine developed in Latin America.

While the imperialist countries are trying to strangle the Cuban people with a blockade, the Cuban people continue to live and let live with socialism. We are grateful to the Cuban people for keeping this option, which is a hope for humanity, alive under difficult conditions, and for the Henry Reeve Brigade and the Cuban health workers who stand by the peoples of the world, for showing us what world peace means once again. It is a duty for us to maintain solidarity with the Cuban people and raise hope.

José Martí Cuba-Turkey Friendship Association

October 8, 2021