Fidel, Cuba, Solidarity, Words Repeated in Peru

Fidel, Cuba, Solidarity, Words Repeated in Peru

Only 24 hours since the arrival of the Cuban civic retinue in this South American country and in every conversation with the Peruvians a name is repeated over and over again: Fidel, and always accompanied by the mention of solidary actions of Cuba.

Nicolás Aguilar Ibarra, head of the National Coordinator for Solidarity Peru-Cuba remembers the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro’s altruistic actions, one of the first ones, he says, in donating blood for the earthquake victims on May 31^st, 1970 in Áncash, and the later replica in Yungay.

A few months ago we were in the region of Áncash and the five hospitals Cuba donated after the earthquake of 1970 are still there. That is an example that cannot be erased, as well as the gesture of 150 000 Cuban who also donated their blood to assist victims, he commented.

Cuban health collaborators also traveled to Peruvian lands at the time, an action that Aguilar Ibarra assures took place again in 2007, three days after the Ica earthquake; and last year after the floods in the Piura area.

We are in debt with Cuba, assured Nicolás Aguilar Ibarra, because Fidel's blood is in Áncash and we have a commitment to the Island, he highlighted.

Besides the medical aid, 2 500 youths have graduated from medical school in Cuba and other 500 from other studies, he pointed out.

He said that what has been done so far regarding the Peruvian solidarity with Cuba is hardly a grain of sand in comparison to everything the Island has given even in scarce circumstances.

Although we see a lot of elder people in the solidarity movements with Cuba, young Ernesto Rojas assures that that feeling is also live in the new generations.

Rojas highlighted that in the last years the youth has gained more freedom with the access to alternative information in different media like the social networks, the multinational Telesur or Russia Today that have helped to break the ring of the large international media networks.

Peruvians support the Cuban process and little by little are more aware in the minds of the youth, he concluded.

It’s not hard to see the representatives of the Cuban civic society and the youths as brothers, in an exchange of pleasantries with the Cuban friends in Inca lands, where they will attend the forums of the VIII Summit of the Americas to begin this week.

Cubasi Translation Staff / Amilkal Labañino Valdés