Cuban Ambassador Visits Winnipeg

Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, the Cuban Ambassador to Canada, visited Winnipeg during the week of October 15. During this, his fourth visit to Winnipeg, Fernandez met with local activists from the Manitoba Cuba Solidarity Committee, spoke at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, as well as with high school students. He first came to Winnipeg during the 13th Pan American Games in 1999, and was here last month to participate in the United Nations War Affected Children conference.

At a public meeting held October 18 at University of Winnipeg, Fernandez spoke to over 100 people about Cuba's role in the "new globalized economy". He began by outlining Cuba's foreign policy, which he pointed out is a reflection of Cuba's domestic reality. Cuban foreign policy, he said, is based on five pillars:

1. Defence of national sovereignty, including the right of all countries to build their own society and choose their own economic and political system.

2. Breaking the international diplomatic isolation of Cuba. He pointed out that at one time after the Cuban revolution, Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the Western hemisphere with diplomatic relations with Cuba. However, today, next to Canada and the U.S., Cuba has relations with more countries than any other country in the Western hemisphere.

3. Expanding trade and investment and breaking the economic blockade.

4. Internationalism and solidarity, between human beings and between nations.

5. The struggle for an international environment - economic, political, social - that allows for the highest achievements of human life.

The ambassador pointed out that, on the basis of these policies, Cuba has been able to maintain its broad social infrastructure and is rapidly recovering from the economic crisis which set in following the collapse of the socialist bloc in 1990. More importantly, he stressed, Cuba has done so without any assistance from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, while all those countries which have relied on these agencies for "aid" are going deeper and deeper into crisis, with the standard of living of their people plumetting.

Fernandez spoke passionately about the injustice of a world where 820 million people go hungry every day, while $800 billion a year is spent on armaments and another $400 billion on illegal drugs. The 100 poorest countries, he noted, have a per capita income that is lower than it was 15 years ago. Sooner or later, he pointed out, there will be an international financial crash which will hurt the poorest nations and the poorest people in the world the most.

A lively question and answer session followed. In response to a question about the frequent charge that Cuba does not have a free press, Fernandez said that a media controlled by a democratically elected government is far more democratic than media controlled by private capital.

When asked whether Cuba was a model for sustainable development, Ambassador Fernandez pointed out that Cuba could be no more and no less than a model for itself. At the same time, if there are other countries which are inspired by Cuba's example to adopt similar domestic and foreign policies, then perhaps the stranglehold which the rich and powerful countries have over the developing nations can be broken.