Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Hurricane Relief Campaign
Solidarity and Support for Cuba After
Hurricanes Oscar and Rafael
• Solidarity and Support for Cuba After
Hurricanes
Oscar and Rafael
• Cuban People Courageously Confront Effects of Hurricanes, Earthquakes and Illegal U.S. Blockade
• Update on Recovery Efforts in Cuba
Hurricane Relief Campaign
Solidarity and Support for Cuba After
Hurricanes Oscar and Rafael
The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC) expresses our full and unwavering solidarity with the Cuban people, after the immense devastation caused recently by hurricane Oscar in the eastern region of Cuba, and just now after hurricane Rafael has torn through Cuba's western provinces, all while the country struggles to repair and maintain its energy infrastructure in the face of the asphyxiating United States economic blockade against it, worsened by additional sanctions added by Presidents Trump and Biden.
The CNC conveys our willingness to assist Cuba in any way we can and will be launching a hurricane relief campaign for Cuba immediately. We anticipate that Canada will respond with acts of support and solidarity as it has invariably done in the past for Cuba.
Despite a highly organized and competent Cuban Civil Defence which prioritizes human lives above all else, illegal and immoral U.S. unilateral sanctions make these natural disasters substantially worse for the Cuban people, hindering recovery and rebuilding efforts, the ability for medical personnel to provide care to patients, and the ability of the government to acquire the material inputs and supplies required not only to respond to these disasters specifically, but to facilitate the development of the country in general.
The CNC calls on all people of conscience, humanitarians, and advocates of justice worldwide to intensify efforts to end the U.S. blockade, which only serves to prolong the suffering of the Cuban people and obstructs their path to rebuilding and recovery. We also encourage Canadians to stand with Cuba and support the relief efforts as an act of solidarity, friendship, and commitment to the sovereignty and self-determination of the Cuban nation.
Abajo el bloqueo!
Samantha Hislop & Julio Fonseca,
Co-Chairs Canadian Network on Cuba
Hurricane Relief Campaign
Cuba is always there for the world — let's help Cuba!
In the aftermath of recent devastating hurricanes, and faced with the U.S. blockade, Cuba is in urgent need of assistance and solidarity.
How You Can Donate Now
e-Transfer To:
donate@canadiannetworkoncuba.ca
In message section, please indicate what donation is for (Hurricane Relief), your first and last name, and email address.
Cheque Payable To:
Canadian Network on Cuba
PO Box 99051 –
1245 Dupont St.
Toronto, ON
M6H 4H7
Every dollar provides critical aid to help Cuba recover!
Generators arrive
in Cuba, November 9, 2024 sent by The People's Forum in New York City.
(November 8, 2024)
Cuban People Courageously Confront Effects of Hurricanes, Earthquakes and Illegal U.S. Blockade
Cuban President Miguel
Díaz-Canel Bermúdez discusses hurricane damage
and recovery work with people in Mayabeque, November 9, 2024.
In the past week, following devastating floods which hit Guantanamo province on October 20 as a result of Hurricane Oscar, Cuba was struck by major natural disasters that exacerbated the serious difficulties they are already facing due to the inhuman and genocidal blockade imposed by the U.S.
On
Wednesday, November 6, Rafael, a category 3 hurricane with wind speeds
of up to 185 kilometres per hour, struck central Cuba. At least 70,000
people were evacuated from the path of the storm before it made
landfall, with the result that no fatalities have been reported. The
storm took Cuba's
power grid offline as a result of damage from the storm to power lines,
as well as damages caused by the U.S. blockade which have severely
affected the infrastructure of the power grids. Already by Thursday,
November 7, heroic recovery efforts on the part of the population had cleared off a
great deal of the garbage and debris and power had already been
restored to the eastern part of Cuba, less severely affected than the
western half.
During recovery efforts in the wake of hurricane Rafael, two earthquakes shook the country on Sunday, November 10, followed by ongoing aftershocks. The provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma in Cuba's southeast were struck by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake at 10:50 am and another 6.8 magnitude earthquake at 11:59 am. The epicentre was located just off Cuba's southern coast. Landslides and damage to houses and power lines were reported but no deaths.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls on its members and supporters to contribute to hurricane and earthquake relief efforts spearheaded by the Canadian Network on Cuba to provide Cuba with the aid that it urgently requires at this time. The Party also calls on them to organize and join activities aimed at ending the U.S. blockade and getting Cuba off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. There is no time like the present to declare through our deeds at this acute hour of need, Cuba We Are With You!
CPC(M-L) salutes the heroic Cuban people and their leadership who are courageously and diligently undertaking the rescue and recovery efforts.
Update on Recovery Efforts in Cuba
Meeting of National
Defense Council, November 9, 2024
A November 12 report from Granma International titled "A frontal assault against the effect of hurricanes and earthquakes" informs on the work of Cuba's National Defense Council in recovery efforts. Granma reports on a meeting the Council held on November 11:
"The
President of the National Defense Council (CDN), Miguel
Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, highlighted the intense work being
carried out in Granma and Santiago de Cuba provinces in response to the
effects of Sunday's earthquakes, in the proximities of Pilón;
the work being waged in
Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque to recover from Hurricane Rafael; and
the work being carried out by Guantánamo's people to erase the
traces of Hurricane Oscar.
"In view of the current seismic situation, special measures have been adopted in Santiago de Cuba for this whole week, including the amplification of information to the population, in which, after overcoming the psychological effect of the tremor south of Pilón, the perception of danger is decreasing, informed the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia." She also emphasized the necessity to remain alert, Granma informs.
She informed that the National Center for Seismological Research (Cenais) has registered more than 1,130 aftershocks, more than 50 of them perceptible to humans.
"According to preliminary data, in Santiago de Cuba, more than 230 houses were affected by the earthquake in the municipalities closest to the epicenter. Damages are reported in some state, educational and health institutions, among others," she said.
Dealing with the damages caused by hurricane Raphael in Artemisa, November 9, 2024
Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, presented information about the situation in Granma province. He highlighted the organized response that the political and government authorities of the province have given in the face of the earthquake. The work of the members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the Ministry of the Interior, Public Health, the Electrical Union and the rest of the institutions has been exemplary.
"In Granma province they have acted with professionalism and speed in the face of this unexpected event of great magnitude," he said.
The President of the Provincial Defence Council in Artemisa, Gladys Martínez Verdecia gave an update of the situation in that province. She said that more than 5,700 people had had their electricity restored; that 60 per cent of the population had access to telephone land lines restored, and 40 per cent had cellphone service restored. Meanwhile, running water had been restored to 17 per cent of the population.
"We can already see some progress," said. She also reported on the restoration of Public Health facilities, the distribution of food, on the work in agriculture where work brigades are being incorporated to help in the recovery of the irrigation machines.
Dealing with damage to irrigation machinery, Artemisa, November 12, 2024
Among other information, Martínez Verdecia pointed out that 4,000 square metres of zinc roof tiles and 60 tons of cement will arrive in the province shortly.
In
Mayabeque province, also in western Cuba, the report informed that the
electrical grid had been 77 per cent restored, although the
municipality of Quivicán was still completely without power.
Regarding the reestablishment of communications, the president of Mayabeque's Provincial Defence Council, Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, commented that in spite of the efforts made, there is still not as much progress as desired. The situation is still complex as concerns the water supply, he said.
President Díaz-Canel inquired about the sanitation work in the towns and municipalities, as well as about the progress of the work to reestablish the water service.
He was informed that in Havana, some 90 people continued to shelter in 11 institutions; that 850 houses were affected; and that electricity was about 90 per cent restored.
The people of Cuba "have accomplished real feats," the Secretary of the Communist Party in charge of Organization, Roberto Morales Ojeda, said.
President Díaz-Canel stated that the most important thing at this point is to complete the most complicated part of the recovery. It is very important to focus on the issues of water and electricity, since there are people who have already been without those services for four days, he said.
"I believe that a lot of work has been done in these days," Díaz-Canel said, emphasizing the need to continue making efforts to mitigate the damage in the shortest possible time. The President has himself visited the sites which suffered the most damage and witnessed the great effort being carried out by the population including the youth and students and working people in every sector of the economy, as well as the Armed Forces and Civil Defense.
The
fact that the population is kept abreast of all the recovery efforts
and specific challenges the skilled personnel repairing the electric
grid face, and that the people are fully involved in the clean up and
repair efforts and in making sure their neighbours have the food,
water, health care
and everything they need, instills confidence in the people. Far from
the people's experience giving credence to the claims of the Biden
administration that Cuba's difficulties are due to the government's
economic mismanagement, the words spoken by President Díaz-Canel
to the television
station Telesur when asked what he wanted to say to the world, are inspiring.
"[...] unlike [what was said by] many people in the international press who wanted to show that Cuba was in a total collapse, we are standing, we are fighting and we are going to get out of this as we have gotten out of others, and we are going to get out because there are the young people committed to their Revolution, to their people, there are the people and there are the Revolutionary Armed Forces: that unity that we have, which is very difficult to see in the whole world, is the reason for our victories," Díaz-Canel said.
Working to overcome
damage done to crops, in particular bananas and cassava, by
the
hurricane.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca • Email: editor@cpcml.ca