• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 05 / 26 / 2011

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Wednesday, 25 May 2011 10:03 Source: Prensa Latina. Cubans Reaffirm Solidarity, Friendship with African Peoples Guantanamo (Solvision).- Cuba on Wednesday is celebrating Africa Day by strengthening its ties of friendship, solidarity and cooperation with the peoples of that continent. On May 25, 1963, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was created, and then became the African Union in July 2002. Now, it is immersed in putting in place structures and mechanisms to develop that impoverished geographic area.

Although several African leaders have the political will to seek lasting solutions to longstanding problems, their economies continue to be dominated by foreign powers and institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Those institutions set conditions for aid to fight poverty, and this only aggravates the hardships of those nations, with more looting, hunger and armed conflicts, ignoring the fact that Africans have the right to a more just, more equitable world, and the most convenient use of their own wealth.

Cuba demonstrates respect for that continent and is expanding its links of collaboration, which began with support for national liberation movements that emerged in the 1960s, contributing with its own blood to the independence of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Angola, among other countries.

After contributing to the freedom and sovereignty of many peoples, Cuba, by mutual agreement with those governments, started with its modest resources to support the social development of those territories, something denied by former colonial powers.

Thousands of Cuban experts currently work in Africa in the construction of infrastructure, sports, education, agriculture and biotechnology, and Cuban pharmaceutical products successfully contribute to fighting preventable diseases.

In a recent gesture of solidarity, Cuba rejected at the United Nations the double standard of some governments in terms of protecting civilians in the context of aggression against Libya by countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

Source: www.solvision.co.cu/english/