Vol. 77/No. 30      August 19, 2013

Doriscat Jean Guimy was part of a delegation of seven from the Friends of Cuba Club in Leogane, Haiti. “Our club formed in 2006 to work with Cuban doctors to help people get medical care and to help Haitian youth obtain scholarships to study, including in Cuba and Venezuela,” he said. “Together with the Cuban doctors, we’re organizing a free mobile health clinic Aug. 28 and that will also be an opportunity to inform people about the Cuban Five.”

“I think it’s important to be here for solidarity,” said Martín Jaimes, a telecommunications worker and union activist from Bucaramanga, Colombia. “Cuba is an example of resistance.” He described the challenges union members face in Colombia, including intimidation and murder by paramilitaries.

“Before there was only one hospital and two private clinics in the entire state, and they were horrible,” said Angelica Figuera, from Delta Amacuro in northeast Venezuela. “Now with the Cuban doctors we have good health care,” she said, referring to the 32,000 Cuban medical personnel working in Venezuela.

“I came to the conference to learn,” Silvana Cedeno, 24, told the Militant. “There isn’t a campaign for the Five where I live in Ecuador, but I have been explaining to people the lies about Cuba. I’m a member of the Socialist Party in Ecuador,” Cedeno said, “and I work in defense of workers in my country. The government of Ecuador recently banned temporary agencies by law but it is not actually happening. People who speak out against subminimum wages or the use of temp agencies are often fired.”

— NAOMI CRAINE AND JACOB PERASSO