“We offer to train professionals willing to fight against death. We will demonstrate that there is a response to many of the planet’s tragedies”.    Fidel

Fifteen years ago Cuba formed a medical brigade to provide aid to the population affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that was rejected by the United States Government. Called the “Henry Reeve” Medical Force, in memory of that exceptional young American combatant who died fighting for Cuba’s independence, a few days later, on September 19, an organization that until today has no precedent in the world would be formed by the Commander in Chief: The International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics “Henry Reeve”.

Fidel said it 15 years ago: “We offer lives” and Cuban President Díaz-Canel reiterated it a few months ago when he welcomed home the first Henry Reeve brigade that went to help in Europe against COVID 19. “You represent the victory of life over death, solidarity over selfishness.”

“When the world becomes a more just and noble place, surely the entire Cuban health system will be rewarded for having transformed into deeds Marti’s preaching that ‘Homeland is Humanity’. Profoundly humane works such as those you do everyday honor the memory of Martí, of Fidel and of all Cuban revolutionaries,” the Cuban president said on that occasion.

In honor of those heroes who have fought pandemics and natural disasters all over the world, from poor to developed countries, bringing life and solidarity,

Cubadebate and the site Fidel Soldado de las Ideas offer you here the complete speech of Fidel Castro in the founding of the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics and the national graduation of medical students, at the Ciudad Deportiva, September 19, 2005.

Members of the “Henry Reeve” brigade

Health professionals who have accomplished glorious international missions;

Fourth, fifth and sixth-year students of the Capital’s Faculties of Medical Sciences;

Students from the Latin American School of Medicine;

Young people studying nursing and health technology;

Professors, family members, and guests;

Fellow countrymen:

The number of Latin American and Caribbean graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine from countries in South, Central, and North America, added to the young Cubans who graduate today, giving 3,515 new doctors who will be at the service of our peoples and the world.

This figure will grow to more than ten thousand new doctors per year to meet the commitment of training one hundred thousand Latin American and Caribbean doctors in Cuba in ten years, under the principles of ALBA, signed between Cuba and Venezuela, which will contribute the same number, in a determined move towards the integration of our peoples.

To graduate as a doctor is to open the doors of a long road that leads to the noblest activity a human being can do for others.

Although every person and every people has the right to a healthy life and to enjoy the privilege of a prolonged and useful existence, the richest and most developed societies, dominated by the desire for profit and consumerism, have turned medical services into vulgar merchandise, inaccessible to the poorest sectors of the population.

In many Third World countries, such services hardly exist. And, between the developed and the euphemistically described as “developing countries,” the differences are abysmal. While statistics speak of developed countries with infant mortality rates below 10 per 1,000 live births, and some with life expectancies reaching or exceeding 80 years of age, other countries, such as many in Africa, have to resign themselves to infant mortality rates of over 100 and often 150 per 1,000 live births, and life expectancies that are declining and in some cases already fluctuating between 30 and 40 years.

While this is happening in the eyes of the world, military expenditures amount to a trillion dollars each year, only comparable to another absurd expenditure, that of commercial advertising, which also amounts to a trillion dollars.  Either one, well invested year after year, would be more than enough for all the inhabitants of the planet to be able to live decently.

Neither the climate nor the genetic potential is the cause of the tragedy. Cuba, a tropical country with a hot and humid climate, more conducive to viruses, bacteria, and fungi, a mixture of ethnic groups, its population, subjected to a cruel blockade and economic warfare for almost half a century, shows, despite this, an infant mortality rate of less than 6 per 1,000 live births in their first year of life, below Canada by a small margin, is heading for less than 5 and perhaps less than 4 in the not too distant future, to occupy first place in the continent. In turn, it will take half the time it took Sweden and Japan to raise their life expectancy from 70 to 80 years, which today stands at 77.5 years. Our medical services have raised those prospects in almost 18 years from about 60 to the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.

These words would seem presumptuous if our country could not be fairly described today as the country that has done the most in the world to share its medical knowledge and experience with other peoples.

Not once, throughout its self-sacrificing revolutionary history, have our people failed to offer their medical aid in solidarity in case of catastrophes to other peoples who require it, no matter how abysmal the ideological and political differences or the serious offenses received from the governments of any country.

The country that has done the most to share its knowledge

Our concepts about the human condition of other peoples and the duty of brotherhood and solidarity were never and will never be betrayed.  Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors and health professionals scattered around the world are irrefutable testimony to what I am saying.

For them, there will never be any language barriers, sacrifice, dangers, or obstacles. It is now 43 years since Cuba sent the first medical brigade to Algeria, recently liberated from colonialism after a heroic struggle for independence.

After more than four decades, and with the end of the special period, medical services have become the most important line of exchange of goods and services of our country with the world in the field of economy, without Cuba having stopped offering its medical cooperation absolutely free of charge to more than 60 Third World countries that do not have economic resources. This has been and always will be the case.

However, nothing I have said will be comparable to the Comprehensive Health Programs born after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998, causing the death of tens of thousands of children and adults, mainly poor and helpless people.

We promised to send enough doctors to save as many lives as the hurricane destroyed each year. Also, almost immediately, the Latin American School of Medicine, ELAM emerged. The comprehensive program was extended to other Latin American and Caribbean nations and very soon to many remote countries in Africa.  Today, even East Timor in distant Oceania is included in the Cuban Integral Health Program.

The ELAM already has more than 12 thousand students. Just two months ago, it graduated its first 1,610 doctors. Many Prime Ministers and high officials of the region attended this event, among them our dear brother Hugo Chávez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to whom we are joined by indestructible historical ties and common struggle for the full independence and integration of our peoples.

Both of us, on behalf of the peoples of Venezuela and Cuba, have deeply committed ourselves to support health, literacy, education, Mission Milagro, Petrocaribe, Electrocaribe, the fight against HIV, and other important social and economic programs of great human content and integration in our area.

The enormous task of preserving and restoring the sight of no less than six million Latin Americans and Caribbeans and of training 200 thousand health professionals in ten years is unprecedented in the world.

I am convinced, however, that these programs will be surpassed. On June 30, there was talk of extending Mission Miracle to the countries of the Caribbean.  Today, 81 days later, I can inform you that the number of Caribbean eye surgeries in our country has already reached 4,212 and the number of Venezuelan brothers and sisters, throughout this year, has reached 79,450, which added up to 83,662.

The great advances achieved in this field by our country will be extended to other sister countries in our region through the young professionals who are beginning to graduate from the Latin American School of Medicine.

It is a real fact that the medical cooperation of Cuba and its scientific research institutions with other parts of the world is rapidly expanding for the benefit of humanity. There is nothing strange in Cuba’s behavior, therefore, that it did not hesitate to offer the people of the United States the immediate dispatch of experienced medical personnel with the indispensable human resources for the urgent care of people at risk of death from a major natural disaster.

Added to this was the fact that our country is the closest to the area hit by the hurricane and was able to send human and material aid in a matter of hours. It was as if a large American cruise ship with thousands of travelers on board was sinking near our shores.

We could not remain indifferent. No one would believe that such help could be considered an offense or a humiliation. Our message was sent to the federal authorities of the United States as soon as Katrina crossed with its devastating force over New Orleans.

It hurts to think about it, but perhaps some of those desperate people, besieged by the waters and on the verge of death, were able to be saved. It is a hard lesson for those whose false pride and misconceptions led them not to respond even belatedly to our offer, which would not be the first time it has happened in similar circumstances. Some have tried to justify this behavior by claiming that Cuba rejected the ridiculous financial offer of $50,000 which, for obvious historical and moral reasons, in the midst of a blockade that has cost us tens of billions of dollars, coupled with harassment and aggression over half a century that has cost thousands of lives, we had to reject.

We were not offering money; we were offering to save lives, and our offer stands for today or tomorrow, as it is and will be Cuba’s norm with any people in the world.

If we have spoken about this issue, it was because a long list of countries that offered help hid the name of Cuba, causing confusion and even astonishment to many friends of our country in the world. This is how we explained it on September 2, three days after our offer, specifying the willingness to send by air, between 12 and 36 hours, 1,100 doctors with 24 tons of essential medicines in their backpacks.  After 48 hours, on September 4, that force, which already numbered 1,586 professionals, ready to leave with 36 tons of medicines, gathered at the Palace of the Convention, was called the “Henry Reeve” Medical Force in memory of that exceptional young American combatant who died fighting for Cuba’s independence.

On September 12, in the evening, an informative note was given to the Granma newspaper, published on the 13th. In it was communicated that the medical graduation of the 2004-2005 class would take place on September 19th at 5:00 in the afternoon in the Plaza de las Banderas of the Latin American School of Medicine -time forced us to change on time.  It was also communicated, and I quote, that

“On that day, an organization that has no precedent in the world until today will be constituted: the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics.  It will take the place of the Medical Force formed to support the people of the United States as soon as Katrina hit the south of that country with all its brutality.  Its aim will be not only to support a determined nation but also to cooperate immediately, with its specially trained personnel, with any country suffering from a similar catastrophe, especially those facing great scourges of hurricanes, floods, or other natural phenomena of such gravity.  It will bear the same name as the Medical Force born out of the tragedy that has just struck the people of the United States, ‘Henry Reeve’.

14 days had already passed without any response to our offer.

On Wednesday evening, September 14, I met again with all the members of that force who were in the process of deepening their knowledge to inform them about the statement made by the Governor of Louisiana, known in Cuba that same day, and the message sent by Bruno Rodríguez, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, the contents of which I am reading today for public information.

“Honorable Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Governor, State of Louisiana

“Madam Governor, we have carefully read your Executive Order No. KBB 2005-33 establishing the Declaration of Public Health Emergency and Suspension of State Licensing Procedure for Outside Medical Professionals and Personnel, which states that ‘…although a number of people have been rescued, there are many others waiting to be rescued, evacuated, and given medical assistance and many citizens have suffered and will suffer illness and injury…”

The Declaration also states that ‘…the number of medical professionals currently available in the State to respond to this emergency is insufficient and there is an immediate need for additional medical personnel, with the aim of providing assistance to those affected by the disaster…

“I wish to inform you that the necessary Cuban personnel offered to the United States to assist the population and alleviate the suffering of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, up to 1,586 qualified and experienced doctors, with the appropriate medicines or any other that the new circumstances demand, are ready to leave immediately by air to the state of Louisiana as soon as you have the corresponding authorization from the federal authorities.

Another five days have passed since September 19, and the federal authorities have not said a word. There is, therefore, more and more reason to think that on this occasion the generous and timely offer of our people will not be accepted.

As the tragedy that the world is experiencing is increasingly evident, we ratify the decision to create today, September 19, 2005, the “Henry Reeve” Contingent. It will be integrated, in the first place, by the members of the current Force that bears that name.

It will be successively joined by 200 volunteers from the current medical graduation, 200 from the previous graduation 2003-2004, 600 students from the sixth year of Medicine of the course 2005-2006, and 800 from the fifth year of this same course – after that the others will come, nobody will feel excluded.

The tens of thousands of specialists in General Integral Medicine, as well as Cuban graduates in Nursing and Health Technology who are or have been on missions abroad, constitute an inexhaustible quarry for the “Henry Reeve” Contingent.

Regardless of their knowledge as general practitioners, the youngest, or specialists in General Comprehensive Medicine, which will be the majority or other specialties, and wherever in our country or the world they perform their normal duties, all members of the Contingent must have a solid knowledge of epidemiology and diseases associated with disasters, two of the most common foreign languages; possess appropriate physical conditions and, as the case may be, the willingness and preparation necessary to move quickly by various means to the point where they are urgently needed.  This glorious organization, the first of its kind in the history of humanity increasingly in need of cooperation and solidarity, will be open to young Latin American and Caribbean graduates of ELAM, including American citizens studying there.

The Henry Reeve Contingent can not only support the population in cases of hurricanes, floods and other similar natural disasters.  Certain epidemics constitute real natural and social disasters. It is enough to cite, for example, the hemorrhagic dengue, that hits an increasing number of Latin American countries, depriving life especially to the children, and other old or new serious diseases, of which we can and we must know the most efficient ways to fight them.

There is a particular terrible epidemic – let’s call it that – that is sweeping the world: HIV, AIDS. It threatens to wipe out entire nations and even vast continental regions. In the prevention and fight against that disease, Cuba occupies a prominent place in the world.  Analyzing the rate that prevails in this hemisphere, it can be seen that there are countries of average infestation, where the prevalence of AIDS in 2003 – the last one published – can be 2.4 percent, 2.3 percent, 3.2 percent of the adult population between 15 and 49 years old. I do not cite names, for obvious reasons.

In others the infestation is even much higher. The best rate after Cuba is 0.6 percent.  I do not mention any names. In Cuba, it is 0.07 percent, or 8.6 times less prevalent than the closest country.

Our doctors, our scientists, our pharmaceutical chemists, and especially those who make up the “Henry Reeve” Contingent, must know as much as possible about AIDS, the most efficient methods of combating it, and above all that such methods be adapted to the specific conditions of each country.

When the immensely rich developed nations decide to really cooperate with African and other countries in the world in the fight against AIDS, they will need professionals like those in the Henry Reeve Contingent.

Then the value of this step will be fully understood. Rich, developed states have financial capital, but they do not have human capital. If you want to prevent mother-to-child transmission, for example, you have to perform a Caesarean section on the mother; mothers live in the villages and African villages are not visited by doctors from the developed world, they are not designed for that.

We must train the doctors required by the fields, villages, slums and poor neighborhoods of the cities of the Third World. Even in immensely rich countries like the United States, tens of millions of African Americans, Indians, Latino immigrants, Haitians and others lack medical programs and assistance.

We offer to train professionals willing to fight death. We will show that there is a response to many of the planet’s tragedies. We show that human beings can and must be better. We demonstrate the value of consciousness and ethics. We offer lives.

Long live the defenders of life who graduate today!

Long live the physicians who are able to overcome death!

Long live the glorious “Henry Reeve” International Contingent!

Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano North America bureau