SECOND SHIPMENT OF MEDICINES TO CUBA.

The second shipment of medicines, made available to Cuban hospitals by GSI Italia and Banco Farmaceutico, was dispatched yesterday, 31 August, by air. Approximately one cubic metre of essential supplies was loaded into the hold as ‘unaccompanied’ luggage belonging to Italian volunteers travelling to the Caribbean island. The island is in the grip of the US embargo’s harshest measures; it lacks electricity due to a shortage of oil caused by the ban on supplies to oil-producing countries; it lacks medicines; and it lacks economic resources due to the US’s hostile actions against countries purchasing Cuban products such as sugar.

A widespread social volunteering movement has developed in recent months in Italy and other European countries, in support of the Cuban economy and in opposition to the oppressive policies of President Trump and Rubio – who, it should be noted, is of Cuban origin. It is this volunteer movement, expressed through dozens of organisations and slogans, that GSI Italia relies on for the priority transport of medicines to the island and their delivery to hospitals and clinics. Over 7,000 containers are currently held up in various Caribbean ports in compliance with the US government’s dictates. Letters of thanks from Cuban hospital managers are being sent to those who donate the medicines and to those who transport them as if they were their own personal luggage. When imagination overcomes embargoes…..