by Dr José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health of the Republic of Cuba

In the complex scenario of contemporary geopolitics, economic figures often camouflage the real human impact underlying government decisions aimed at achieving obscure political and economic objectives of domination in their relations with other countries — objectives that frequently put lives at risk.

A clear example of this reality is the desperate and cruel tools used by the Government of the United States against Cuba, which increasingly heighten the risks and threats to the lives of our people.

What has historically been for my country an economic, commercial, and financial blockade lasting more than six decades has recently mutated into a qualitatively different and quantitatively even more aggressive and inhumane phase: energy suffocation under false pretexts. Cuba suffers the continuation of unilateral coercive measures with enormous extraterritorial impact on relations with all countries and faces a systemic siege surgically designed to provoke shortages capable of damaging and reversing the social development of our nation and the quality of life of our population, with destabilising purposes.

The unjust inclusion of Cuba on the list of States allegedly sponsoring terrorism, combined with the persecution of Cuba’s commercial contracts with countries and companies to acquire fuel; the harassment, interception, and confiscation of ships transporting fuel; as well as threats of sanctions and, in some cases, their effective application against shipping companies, have generated even greater pressure that transcends the economic sphere to situate itself in the realm of basic human security.

In the health sector, this reality translates into permanent objective tension: the National Health System depends on a continuous supply of electricity and on logistics that are today severely hindered.

The impact of the US policy of maximum pressure against Cuba is starkly revealed in the most sensitive indicators. Behind the numbers are patients who suffer and families who await solutions that are sometimes delayed — or never arrive — due to external factors resulting from this progressive strangulation policy against the Cuban economy by the Government of the United States.

Currently, the surgical waiting list in the country reaches 96,387 patients, of whom 11,193 are children. With the current energy restrictions, these figures increase as the National Health System is forced to postpone non-urgent surgeries to prioritise oncological and other life-defining procedures.

Vulnerability is accentuated in programs of high social sensitivity, which have been prioritised, but still cannot escape the multiplied limitations brought by the current energy situation of the country.

For example, at this moment, the Maternal and Child Care Programme faces the challenge of ensuring follow-up for 32,000 pregnant women who require essential diagnostic ultrasounds. Likewise, interruptions in refrigerated transport due to lack of fuel have hindered more than 30,000 children from receiving their vaccines on time, despite the biologics being available in our warehouses.

Added to this is the care of 16,000 patients in radiotherapy and another 2,888 who depend on hemodialysis treatments — services that demand energy stability that is currently very difficult to guarantee.

Nevertheless, despite these and other realities faced by the National Health System, its functioning is not in a phase of collapse. The response has not been paralysis, but rather strategic reorganisation based on resilience and resource optimisation.

Among other actions, problem-solving capacity in Primary Health Care continues to be strengthened, the Family Doctor and Nurse Programme is reinforced, and tools such as telemedicine are used to ensure the vitality of basic services.

This capacity for response rests fundamentally on the altruism, ethics, commitment, and professionalism of Cuban human capital, which does not live isolated from the country’s reality. Our workers and students suffer in their homes the same shortages and long hours without electricity as the rest of the people they serve, and yet they turn the challenges of each day into new motivations to act and to continue seeking alternative solutions to the lack of resources in health institutions.

It is moving how, in provinces where 85% of neonatology specialists live outside the municipality where they work, extraordinary alternatives are sought to ensure that no newborn is left unprotected in the face of the transportation crisis.

The prestige of Cuban medicine has been forged with humanism and a sense of duty, not only within our borders, but also in the 165 nations where Cuban health collaborators have provided or continue to provide services for decades. Today, that same commitment sustains the National Health System, even under growing pressure and accelerated technical wear of its infrastructure.

We feel proud that Cuba is not alone, thanks to the solidarity we receive from the most diverse corners of the world. Our eternal gratitude goes to all sister nations and, very especially, to the Mexican people and Government, whose extended hand has been special support for us in so many different scenarios.

The call we have made to the international community is not ideological, but profoundly humanitarian. Public Health is a fundamental human right that should not be conditioned by political disputes nor by the use of energy as an instrument of coercion.

When energy is lacking, it is extremely difficult to maintain essential services, and when that happens, it is people — especially the most vulnerable — who suffer the negative impact and bear the risks of the tensions it implies. Cuba will continue to adopt all possible measures to protect its population, which, at this moment, more than ever before, suffers the consequences of the cruel US policy of suffocation.

And in the face of that reality, our request to the international community remains to show solidarity in confronting the real and objective dimension of a criminal siege that threatens life itself.

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