Today, the presence of the Flu A (H1N1) virus was announced in Cuba.  The carrier is a young Mexican citizen who is studying medicine in our country.  The only thing that can be confirmed now is that it was not the CIA that introduced it.  It came from Mexico.

What was the Mexican president complaining about regarding the measures Cuba adopted, according to the established norms and without the least intention of affecting our sister nation of Mexico?  We were far from imagining that the epidemic would break out there and in the United States.

Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence of the flu virus while they were awaiting Obama’s visit, and now they are threatening to suspend President Calderon’s visit, something that had been already done earlier because of other understandable and non-flu epidemic related reasons.  At this point, we and dozens of other countries are paying the piper and on top of that we are being accused of using harmful measures against Mexico. 

 “I was indeed going to go to Cuba in these days or weeks but since Cuba has cancelled flights to Mexico”, declared the Mexican president, “perhaps I won’t be able to do so, it could be one of the unforeseen consequences that do not have sufficient technical bases,” Calderón added, according to information from an important European news agency.

The next day, another news agency on this continent printed the same thing.  The authorities of that country were not even clear about that.  Now it would seem that we have been unfair, acting without technical bases and hostile towards the Mexican people.

The Mexican students are in no way even minimally guilty; they are excellent people, as are the Cuban professors and workers at the school, strictly carrying out the appropriate control measures dictated by the circumstances.

What is most fair is that the Mexican people be informed that in the Final Declaration of the NAM Ministerial Meeting, three of its paragraphs state:

“The Ministers of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries …express their deep concern and solidarity with the Government and people of Mexico given the serious situation created by the swine influenza outbreak in that country.

“The Ministers request the World Health Organization and the international financial organizations to provide full logistical and financial support to the Government and people of Mexico in their efforts to combat this epidemic promptly and effectively as well as to provide adequate assistance to other affected countries to prevent further outbreak of this disease.

“In this regard, the Ministers call upon the World Health Organization in coordination with the Mexican authorities, to ensure a systematic and proper follow-up in order to effectively contain the further spread of this epidemic.”

I am merely expressing ideas that occur to me as the news kept coming.


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