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lo que vimos en cuba nos impresionó.....

I present the account of two Democratic representatives from the United States who recently visited Havana. Interesting, of course, because of the authors' backgrounds. Published in The New York Times on May 11 (available in its entirety to subscribers only) and on May 12 in Spanish, from which I offer an automatic translation using Microsoft Word and the few available comments.

Jacques-François Bonaldi

GUSNOTE: TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH BY JULES LETAMBOUR

 

May 12, 2026 (original English: May 11, 2026)

By Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson. Jayapal, of Washington's 7th Congressional District, and Jackson, of Illinois' 1st Congressional District, are Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

 

Alejandro, a premature baby born at the Eusébio Hernández Pérez Maternity Hospital in Havana, weighed only one kilogram when we met him in April. We observed him in an incubator, one of the few in the building whose delicate electronics hadn't been damaged by the voltage fluctuations that follow nationwide blackouts. Severe U.S. sanctions make it nearly impossible to import spare parts for the other malfunctioning incubators.

During our visit to the hospital, we saw women in the final days of their pregnancies climbing stairs because the elevators don't work without electricity. Hospital staff struggle to get to work without fuel in their cars. During blackouts, doctors sometimes have to manually pump ventilators to keep babies alive. They say the hospital has managed to avoid an increase in infant mortality in recent months, but other centers across the country haven't been so lucky. From 2018 to 2025, as U.S. sanctions intensified, Cuba’s previously relatively low infant mortality rate surged by 148 percent. 

As members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we spent five days in Cuba in April to better understand the humanitarian impact of the month-long U.S. energy blockade against the island. We were shocked by the inhumane effects of this policy, which appears designed to strangle the economy until it drives the Cuban people to ruin and leave the country, as President Donald Trump put it, ready for a “takeover.”

With the exception of a Russian tanker carrying oil for 10 to 14 days, fuel supplies to Cuba have been blocked for more than four months, as other countries fear their tankers will be seized in open waters by U.S. warships. The resulting daily humiliations have permeated all of Cuban society. We returned from our trip certain that if the American people knew the full extent of what is really happening in Cuba, they would demand an immediate end to the blockade.

The U.S. fuel blockade against Cuba, in addition to the longest embargo in modern U.S. history, defies the norms of international law that establish state sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and the right of countries to trade freely. It amounts to an economic attack on Cuba’s basic infrastructure, designed to inflict collective punishment on civilians by manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in which healthcare, running water, agriculture, and transportation are no longer available.

During our visit, we met with a wide range of Cuban citizens: political dissidents, religious leaders, businesspeople, as well as members of civil society and humanitarian organizations. We also met with relatives of Cuban political prisoners. Everywhere, there was one agreement: the American blockade had to end, and there should be no invasion by the United States.

We were able to see firsthand how the Americans could benefit from the normalization of relations with Cuba in key ways. Under other circumstances, Cuba would be a natural trading partner for the United States. Several secretaries of agriculture from both Republican and Democratic states visited the island to explore opportunities for exporting American agricultural products to Cuba, opportunities hampered only by the American financial restrictions related to the embargo.

The Cuban healthcare system, for decades a global model of public health, has produced major advances that could extend to Americans, including promising treatments for Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. And Cuba, like the United States, could benefit from a tourism boom. When President Barack Obama took steps to normalize relations with Cuba, hotels, restaurants, and shops flourished across the island, spurring the liberalization of the Cuban economy and the emergence of an independent civil society.

The Cuban government can and should act internally to improve political and civil rights, including ending arbitrary detentions and the mistreatment of political prisoners, a point we raised during our meeting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel. But it has taken significant steps, such as announcing the release of prisoners in 2010 in what the country’s state newspaper called a “humanitarian and sovereign” gesture. Cuba’s decision to allow an FBI investigation into a recent deadly maritime shooting involving Cuban-Americans was another important sign of transparency and goodwill.

Many of the economic changes the Trump administration said it wanted during the lockdown are already underway. Recently, the government has allowed Cuban-American businesspeople to invest in private companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises now constitute a large part of the economy and the workforce.

But liberalizing reforms cannot counter a deliberate U.S. campaign to destroy the Cuban economy. In recent weeks, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new, sweeping sanctions against the Cuban economy, claiming that the island poses a threat to U.S. national security.

These measures have reaffirmed that the greatest obstacle to improving the daily lives of Cubans remains the outdated U.S. policy of economic coercion and military pressure from the Cold War era, the only result of which has been the isolation and suffering of the Cuban people. Further destruction of Cuba, including military action, would only lead to further economic collapse and more Cubans fleeing the island.

The United States and Cuba can turn the page and engage in genuine negotiations if they are based on mutual respect and aim to benefit the people of both countries. This is what we believe is within reach: a real opportunity for children like Alejandro and for the next generation of Cubans who deserve to experience the generosity of the American people and to live with hope for the future.

Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson

 

New York Times Reader Comments

 

Alvaro Abff

Spain · 10 hours ago

The situation on the island is utterly inhumane, created slowly over years, and accelerated by a mentally unstable President Trump who is completely devoid of empathy for those who are suffering.

 

Adolfo

Anaheim · May 14

And because instead of lifting what is called the blockade, why would it be better for the 60-year dictatorship to end and for the people to elect their leaders, for what?

 

Aram Joao

Cuba · May 15

@Adolfo The most important thing is to remove the blockade.

 

Carlos

Florida · May 14

For nine years, from 1999 to 2008, I was the director of medical supplies in Havana, and the hospitals lacked everything. This isn't new; the country doesn't have a productive system that generates money because of government mismanagement.

 

Aram Joao

Cuba · May 14

I think the way Donald Trump speaks about my country is disrespectful. The way he threatens us with an invasion only makes him a terrorist. He is not a respectable president. I dream of the day they lift the economic blockade and my land can prosper, but I know it won't be during his term.

 

Mia

South America · May 14

The analysis clearly shows that the Trump administration is ready to finish off, and is doing so with, the Cuban people. It is preparing to stay with Cuba and perhaps transform this beautiful island into the brothel it was in Batista's time, but more sophisticated and modern, and which would be declared without any shame, as is currently happening with Venezuela. According to Trump, the 51st state, Cuba would be the 52nd state of the United States.

 

RAUL GARCIA

CARACAS, VENEZUELA · May 14

The people are cannon fodder — Chavez, Fidel Raul, the managers of his revolution, never went hungry — 7 million left because of hunger — The revolutionaries, who all came from poor workers — stole more than the traditional oligarchs — without moral control, decency, or civility because they don't know it — they were never middle class — they come from the same pool as the criminals who are in the Prisons — Statistics — How many middle-class criminals are in prison? — They liked it + nothing

 

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2026/05/12/espanol/opinion/embargo-cuba.html

 

https://www.legrandsoir.info/ce-que-nous-avons-vu-a-cuba-nous-a-impressionnes.html

 

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

los derechos humanos: el de la vida....

 

HEBERSaVax: Historia de un producto cubano, único de su tipo en el mundo, y con grandes potencialidades en la lucha contra el cáncer

HEBERSaVax: History of a Cuban product, unique to the world, and with great potential in the fight against cancer

Por: Alina Perera Robbio

 

“Felicidades, Doctora, para usted y para su equipo”, expresó este martes en la tarde el Presidente de la República de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, a Yanelys Morera Díaz, líder científica del producto HEBERSaVax, novedoso candidato vacunal diseñado para el tratamiento de diversos tumores malignos.

Desde el Palacio de la Revolución, y en el habitual encuentro de Expertos y Científicos para temas de Salud, dirigido por el Jefe de Estado, resultó muy alentador escuchar disertaciones sobre un producto único de su tipo en el mundo, hecho en Cuba, que está dando señales de esperanza en el tratamiento del cáncer.

--------------------

 

Jacques-François BONALDI
The island, cornered, encircled, besieged, delivered over to the infamous impunity of the powerful—just as the Gazans have been for three years, just as the Lebanese are again, without any “mechanism” of the “international community” being able to put an end to it and punish the criminals—continues its “creative resistance” and remains capable of producing scientific advances in the medical field. José Martí wrote 134 years ago, almost to the day: “Men fall into two camps: those who love and build; those who hate and destroy.” (José Martí, “Albertini y Cervantes,” Patria newspaper, New York, May 21, 1892.) Here is one last example. (Automatic translation by Office Word.) Jacques-François Bonaldi (Havana), May 28, 2026

 


HEBERSaVax: The Story of a Cuban Product, Unique in the World, with Great Potential in the Fight Against Cancer

By: Alina Perera Robbio

May 26, 2026

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, chaired the regular meeting of experts and scientists on health issues Tuesday afternoon at the Palace of the Revolution.

"Congratulations, Doctor, to you and your team," said the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Tuesday afternoon to Yanelys Morera Díaz, scientific lead for HEBERSaVax, a new vaccine candidate designed to treat various malignant tumors.

From the Palace of the Revolution, during the regular meeting of experts and scientists on health issues, chaired by the Head of State, it was very encouraging to hear theories about a product unique in the world, developed in Cuba, which offers signs of hope in cancer treatment.

After the meeting, during which, among other things, the President inquired about the potential patient population, Yanelys Morera, a full member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, spoke with the Presidential press team about some key ideas she had shared with the group of experts and scientists.

Regarding HEBERSaVax, she spoke in terms of a "therapeutic vaccine," or also "active immunotherapy." The project manager explained that when a tumor grows, it is an actively growing mass that requires nutrients and oxygen. The product in question targets the mechanisms that feed the disease, in addition to triggering cellular responses that halt tumor progression and thus benefit the patient.

"We are dealing with a candidate that has multiple functions," said Yanelys Morera, who explained that the product "produces specific antibodies" that cut off blood flow to the tumor, while simultaneously restoring the individual's ability to fight the cancer through an immune response.

The research, the expert stated, "has gone through all the stages," from initial studies on laboratory animals "to the most recent ones we've had, which are the Phase II clinical trials, where we've tried to target specific areas."

The project leader emphasized that this is “a very safe type of therapy.” The vaccine’s side effects, she said, are rare and tolerable: “Therefore, these are very manageable elements that allow this candidate to be combined even with conventional therapies without increasing toxicity.”

This is a product, stated the full member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, that can have “multiple applications.”

While acknowledging that it is still in the research phase, the scientist reflected, it is worth noting that among the patients who received the candidate in the clinical trial, many showed significant and positive effects on their quality of life.

She spoke to reporters about patients who “experienced complete responses,” even in advanced cases. She reiterated that Cuba has “a very strong regulatory agency; and, therefore, we must demonstrate this body of evidence to move to the next stages.” “

The project leader traveled into the future, envisioned treatments stemming from primary healthcare, and expressed with passion and humility: “We are confident that this candidate will progress through all the necessary stages and can become part of the arsenal that cancer therapy needs to achieve better results.”

Other voices from the team

“HEBERSaVax is a product that many clinicians would feel very confident in,” clinical researcher Julio César Hernández Perera, a specialist in internal medicine and a full member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, told reporters.

He, who is part of this promising research, spoke in terms of “a product of Cuban biotechnology, the result of extensive research,” which has “the distinction of being unique in the world.”

The researcher and lecturer also emphasized that it is "a very safe product," because "in the clinical studies conducted, patients clearly indicated that HEBERSaVax is very well tolerated."

Julio César Hernández Perera does not rule out the possibility that in the future the product could be applied "to many solid tumors, since it has a high expression of this protein that promotes tumor growth and spread." Along the same lines, he highlighted advantages such as "low toxicity, and the possibility of using the product in patients with multiple comorbidities."

"We must continue to investigate, we must continue to broaden our horizons, to acquire more knowledge," the doctor stated before adding: "But we can say that we are very hopeful and that it offers us great possibilities; it gives us this horizon that seems unattainable but which speaks to us of a path by which we can achieve what we have dreamed of." “

From a very young age, clinical researcher and internal medicine specialist Adriana Felinciano Pozo offered journalists a brief account of what it was like to be part of a project so deeply involved in life: “This vaccine candidate offers us many opportunities,” she said.

She also mentioned the word "safety," referring to "solid data," and associated HEBERSaVax with qualities such as robustness and potential, as an achievement that allows it to be combined with other medications.

"This product," the expert stated, "has enabled patients to have a better quality of life, a response without adverse effects, and it is very easy to handle or administer, as it is intended for subcutaneous use."

Adriana recalled that "one of the most frequent causes worldwide, not only of death but also of morbidity and impact on quality of life, is cancer." “He said this because HEBERSaVax is an excellent tool in the face of this health challenge, with great potential in solid tumor diseases, in various areas where we have tested it, such as colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, ovarian cancer, and kidney cancer, in advanced patients, and where good responses have been obtained.”

This is Cuba: pushed to extreme limits, to the point of suffocation, by the work and misfortune of imperial perversity, it does not, despite everything, renounce defending the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life.

https://www.legrandsoir.info/la-revolution-cubaine-comme-amour-et-fondatrice.html

 

TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH BY JULES LETAMBOUR.

ORIGINAL: http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2026/05/26/hebersavax-historia-de-un-producto-cubano-unico-de-su-tipo-en-el-mundo-y-con-grandes-potencialidades-en-la-lucha-contra-el-cancer/

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

WE BELIEVE DONALD TRUMP WANTS TO DESTROY ALL THIS... OR STEAL IT....

 

bolivia....

 

Ode to the Bolivian Rebellion

Oleg YASINSKY


What matters in Bolivia is that it has become the main bastion of the continent's indigenous cultures, the least affected by Western civilization. Its primary value remains the collective.

It had to happen in Bolivia: in the most American of the Americas, the most Indian, the most timeless, the most vibrant country. In these bitter times for the continent, when everything that had been conquered over the past decades with so many dreams and so much blood, seemingly, was collapsing, pushing back time to the darkness of the past. Believers would explain that it was because, in the days when Bolivia was not yet called by that name, Wiracocha chose the waters of Lake Titicaca, near his Island of the Sun, to appear before the desperate and lost, to show their spirits the way. Others would say it's because Che Guevara, many centuries later, chose Bolivia in the most unequal and impossible of struggles, to die there in the greatest of immortalities.

Beyond the political scientists or tourists who confuse the metaphors of the "beggar sitting on a golden throne" with "Bolívar's favorite daughter" or "the heart of America," Bolivian land is not "a resource," nor "real estate," nor an "economic asset": it is magic, poetry, and music, still free from capitalist mediocrity and pettiness. That's why it had to happen in Bolivia.

It's perfectly normal that the mainstream media refuse to acknowledge this popular rebellion, which will soon reach a month. The more they ignore or spread misinformation about what is happening in Bolivia today, the more significant this genuine process becomes, and no one can claim it as their own. Just as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola failed in Bolivia in their time, today, here, the fascist dreams of Musk and his friends, as well as those of his pseudo-left competitors specializing in paving the way for corporations, are failing.

.....

 

554 The global power of corporations, after what they did in Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, and elsewhere, is now poised to bathe Bolivia in blood and, if it suits them, its neighbors as well. The only difference is that, in this new turn of history, the genocide of the indigenous people is being planned simultaneously with the genocide of most of humanity. Resistance and victory will only be possible if the reality and magnitude of the threat are understood.

 

READ MORE: https://www.lahaine.org/mundo.php/oda-a-la-rebelion-boliviana

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….