One of the brotherly diplomats in The Gambia is the Cuban Ambassador to The Gambia. His Excellency Sr Ruben G Abelenda, in this interview he had spoke on the good relationship between the Cuba and Gambia, impact of Cuba to African countries and vice versa, and also Cuba Medical Brigade in the country.
He also discusses more other plans in offing for the country. Read more of this discussion below.
The Voice: In brief, can you give an overview of the bilateral relationship between The Gambia and Cuba?
Ambassador: The relationship between Gambia and Cuba is excellent. The Gambian authorities and the people of The Gambia are very hospitable not only to me as a diplomat but also to Cuba Medical Brigade. The Cuba Medical Brigade as you know has been in The Gambia for more than 23 years and we will be here forever if the government and the people of The Gambia want us to be here.
Africans are indebted to Cuba so also Cubans are indebted with African people. Many African Slaves came to Cuba and fought for the Cuban independence and we are very grateful with the African people because of that. Next 28th February will be another anniversary of its birth and it is also about the solidarity.
Gambian doctors are going to study in Cuba and the scholarship was given to them by Cuban government for free.
The Voice: When you say Africa is indebted to Cuba and Cuba is indebted to Africa, too. Are you talking in regards of area of support African counties like Angola, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde got from Africa for the Independence?
Ambassador: Yes! Cuban People fought the independence of many countries that is why we have mutual gratefulness. We are grateful that we have to take care of the new generation should know that, there is a relation of blood of friendship.
The Voice: Cuba support is not limit to African countries alone, as its support is extended to Latin America Countries like Venezuela, one of the backbones of Cuba. Whatever, Cuba is supporting African countries but most of these countries still not get the philosophy of Cuba. Even the former president of Venezuela was going for treatment in Cuba and other stuffs. So when you look at where we are looking at now, Cuba supported most of the African countries but most of the African countries did not get the philosophy of Cuba. So how do you see the content of Africa working with Cuba?
Ambassador: African people are closer to Cuba people because we keep helping African countries and African people continue helping us as well. All African countries are together with Cuba in the fight against enemies with an all-time vote for the UN against the blockage that United State imposes and this blockage did not permit us to help more countries.
The Voice: How many Cuban Medical personnel do we have in The Gambia?
Ambassador: I cannot say exactly the actual figure but we have more than 150 Cuban Doctors in the country.
The Voice: We understand that when the former president of The Gambia was out of office, the current government released some of the Cuban doctor and some are in the country, while there are some Cubans working on their own. Is that true?
Ambassador: Yes, it is true. But now they are interested (in working with government) because the government requested from the Cuban government to bring in more doctors from Cuba. Gambian authorities are interested in bringing more doctors from Cuba because as Gambian government requested for more 100 doctors when the Covid-19 pandemic began. But then we already have a Cuba Brigade in the country and many other countries need, too. But when it is time to bring more doctors it will be made known to your medium that Cuban doctors are coming.
The Voice: You always come with medical Brigade to the country. Is there any effort to take Gambians to Cuba for study/training as medical personnel?
Ambassador: Cuba already approved two Gambian doctors that are going to study free in Cuba. They are supposed to leave for Cuba in February.
The Voice: In regards to the achievements of Cuba Medical Brigade in this country, can you share some of their success stories?
Ambassador: I wrote so many beautiful stories about the things Cuba Medical Brigade is doing in The Gambia. They are very beautiful stories of live safe human stories because Gambian people love Cuban doctors. I can say many stories of life safe cases.
We went to a place called “Pirang” for community assistant and we went with a group of doctors to assist the population because there is no hospital or health centre there. The people show us love. We safe hundreds of people per day without no break and we are going to do it again by supporting other communities.
The Voice: Let’s move on to Cuba commitment to the Covid-19 vaccine. What are some of the achievements so far made and which level is Cuba to produce vaccine for Covid-19?
Ambassador: At this moment, we have four vaccine projects. One of them is on the advanced stage. Even two of my doctors were vaccinated with that vaccine and they did not have any reaction, it is an item we are going to talk to Gambian government about.
We have doctors in all the regions of The Gambia and Gambia is one of the West African countries that have more Cuban specialists. New services have been improved, we are working for 2 years without vacation so Cuban medical personnel are doing a lot.
The Voice: But the issue here is that if Cuba has produced a Covid-19 vaccine and has been tested in Cuba. So why it is not popular, is it because of the embargo places on Cuba. Because we are only hearing of the American, European, Indian and the Chinese vaccines but no one is talking about the Cuban vaccine?
Ambassador: They are not talking about it because they don’t want the Cuba vaccine to be known by people. We have a very long story for producing vaccine for different portfolios. We have institutions and the bio-technology institutions that were created very long ago. And many vaccines have been produced there, used and sold also to some countries.
The Voice: So is Cuba vaccinating its citizen with their own made vaccine now?
Ambassador: Yes. Everything is Cuban and it is based on projects that have been used before. There are four vaccines and Cuba has also produced other preventive drugs. There are medicines we use in our protocols to help people in Cuba. We don’t have too many people dying because of the protocols. This year we are going to vaccinate all the Cuba population and we are going to take it to other countries, it is already approved to use in other countries.
The Voice: Mr Trump is now one of the former Presidents of USA while Mr Biden is the new President. Do you think your country will have any good relation with the Democrat?
Ambassador: First I will tell you why we are always talking about blockage. We talk about it because it affects us it is damaging our people. For example the budget for Cuba Embassy to The Gambia cannot be transferred from Cuba because of the blockage and this is something very serious. We have always told United State to remove the blockage because there are people that always say we are always arguing about the blockage.
Cuba government told United State to stop the blockage and we make it clear to them that Cuba government is at a disposal to have more relationship with the United State and we have nothing against them, it is a neighboring country.
Donald Trump was the president that gave sanctions more than 200 measures not only to Cuba, but to Russia, Iran and China, which made him the worst president of all government. It is anti-democratic Four hundred thousand people died of Covid-19 because of his irresponsible and the way he ruled when he was the president. What democracy can he teach us? We are waiting for the new government to continue the relation we had during the government of Barack Obama.
The Voice: In term of transfer you had mentioned, so how do you receive funds?
Ambassador: Cuba receives money through diplomatic post all because of the blockage. And this moment nobody can go because most of the airports are closed due to Covid-19, and receiving transaction from Cuba through the bank is very hard because banks are afraid of doing that.
The Voice: As an Ambassador, how do you look at the UN in the case of what America is doing to Cuba in the eyes of the UN?
Ambassador: With all pressures put on Cuba by the United State, we considered it that the United Nation has to be reformed. We don’t want them to stop existing but it has to be reconstructed again.
In United Nation, more than 25 resolutions against the blockage have been stated there all of them voted for the greatest part to stop the blockage but United State does not care about that. We believe now after Trump we will have a different world in a contemporary history because what Trump has done are very bad thing. Trump went out of the Paris agreement on the Climate and it is affecting US though we have nothing against them.
They want to teach us democracy, what kind of democracy can they teach us when around two hundred people went to the capital and every day we can see pictures and images of soldiers clashes with citizens. What kind of democracy can they teach us? We will not admit them to teach us anything about democracy because we are more democrat than them.
The Voice: When you started, you talked about youths, such as collaboration between Cuba and Gambia youths…
Ambassador: Now we are discussing with Ministry of Youth and Sports. We have a good relationship like I have with many authorities in the country. We want to see type of projects we can do for The Gambia.
My position here is to increase the population. With African we are going to keep having the best relationship. Gambia is a prioritize country for us because of the solidarity.
The Voice: You had talked about Medical Brigade, Youth and Sports among other issues, is there any plan your country is having for The Gambia journalists for intertwined program or study in Cuba?
Ambassador: In begin of last year when I visited all the Newspapers, we have plans to exchange experiences between Cuba journalists and Gambian journalists but Covid-19 breaks all the plans. So now we have to re think about it when we have the vaccine. Because Cuba media are publishing much information about The Gambia, also in The Gambia much information are publishing about Cuba.
I am very pleased with the treatment given to Cuba by the media and I really appreciate that and in Cuba anything written about Gambia is positive, and what the Cuban Medical Brigade is doing here I think it is a very good job that as well need to write about.
The Voice: Your Excellency, what could be your remarks for Gambians?
Ambassador: I love Gambian people this is my six missions aboard. I have been a journalist and now Diplomat. I worked as journalist for a news agency for some years and before The Gambia I have been to six countries which include Angola, Spain, and Peru. The Gambia is a country where I feel the best; the people have been very friendly. It is not because I am in The Gambia I tell this to every Gambian I talk to because it is a very friendly country.
The Voice: Thank you so much for the interview.
Ambassador: My pleasure!