Cuba receives a shipment of humanitarian aid from Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A ship with a cargo of humanitarian aid sent by the Nicaraguan government arrived Friday in Cuba to help the Caribbean country, which is suffering from a severe shortage of food, medicines, and other basic products in the midst of the worst outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.

The Nicaraguan merchant ship Augusto Cesar Sandino brought a cargo of 30 containers of food to the container terminal of the Special Development Zone, in the western port of Mariel, 45 kilometers west of Havana, in the province of Artemisa.

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The island’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment (Citma), Elba Rosa Pérez, thanked, on behalf of the Government and people of Cuba, the gesture of the Nicaraguan executive, while highlighting the “common ties in matters of solidarity and brotherhood” between the two nations.

“The sending of the donation is highly appreciated, which constitutes another of the tokens of support that are always received from the people of Nicaragua,” the minister said.

Last week Vice President Rosario Murillo, wife of President Daniel Ortega, announced that Nicaragua would send food to Cuba with a “message of solidarity and deep love, just when we celebrate 42 years of re-establishing diplomatic relations between our countries”.

Nicaragua and Cuba have been close collaborators during the years in which Ortega has been at the helm of the Central American country, first from 1979 to 1990 and then from 2007 onwards.

Both countries are part of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Other nations such as Russia, Mexico, Bolivia, China, Venezuela, Jamaica, and U.S. solidarity organizations have also sent food, equipment, and medical supplies to the Caribbean island.

This aid comes when the Caribbean country is suffering an economic crisis and a severe shortage of basic products and medicines, now aggravated by the covid-19, which generated growing unrest that erupted last July 11 in a series of citizen protests on the island.

Cuba is currently suffering from a severe upturn of covid with daily reports of between 8,000 and 9,000 infections and high numbers of deaths, and more than 46,000 active patients in its health centers, which places the country as one of the five countries in the world with the highest incidence of the virus at this moment.

Experts have pointed out among the causes of the resurgence is the “pandemic fatigue” with the consequent drop in the perception of risk, street crowds due to food shortages, or the circulation of new variants with greater transmissibility such as Delta.