What went through my mind

TODAY the presence of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus in Cuba was announced. The carrier is a young Mexican citizen who is studying medicine in our country. The only thing that can be affirmed for now is that the CIA did not introduce it. It came from Mexico.

What was the Mexican president complaining about in relation to the measures adopted by Cuba in accordance with established regulations and without the least intention of affecting the sister people of Mexico? We were far from imagining that the epidemic would be unleashed there and in the United States.

The Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence of the virus while awaiting Obama’s visit, and now they are threatening us with suspending that of President Calderón, previously suspended for other, understandable reasons unconnected to the epidemic. At this point we and dozens of other countries are carrying the can and, over and above that, we are being accused of adopting measures that are damaging to Mexico.

"In fact, I was going to go to Cuba in the next few days or weeks, but given that Cuba has suspended flights to Mexico," stated the president of Mexico, "I am probably not going to be able to, that could be one of the unforeseen consequences which lack a sufficient technical basis," Calderón added, according to a major European news agency.

The next day another agency from that continent published the same news. The country’s authorities were not even clear on that. Now we have been labeled as the unjust party, without technical bases and a country hostile to the people of Mexico.

The Mexican students are not in the least to blame, they are excellent people, as are the Cuban professors and workers at the school, rigorously fulfilling the pertinent control measures that the circumstances have imposed.

The fairest thing is that the Mexican people should be informed that the three final paragraphs of the Final Declaration of the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement affirm:
"The ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement… express their profound concern for and solidarity with the government and people of Mexico in the context of the grave situation created by the outbreak of swine fever in that country.

"The ministers ask the World Health Organization and the international financial agencies to give total logistic and financial support to the government and people of Mexico in their efforts to combat this epidemic immediately and in an effective manner.

"In this context, the ministers have urged the World Health Organization, in conjunction with the Mexican authorities, to guarantee systematic and appropriate follow up with a view to containing the subsequent propagation of this epidemic."

I am simply expressing the ideas of what went through my mind as the news was coming in.

Fidel Castro Ruz
May 11, 2009
9:38 p.m.