We’ve reprinted the letter below, not so much for vanity’s sake as for accuracy -we’ve included the sentence omitted by the Press. A small omission but nonetheless one that does subtly alter the context of our original.
“While I reluctantly accept that the days of the erudite and insightful editorial have, with the current fetish for ‘opinions pieces’, gone; it is nevertheless saddening to witness Fidel Castro’s legacy dismissed in the rhetoric of the US State Department [editorial 21/02/08].
Cuba's critics seem simply unable to acknowledge the significant contribution of this tiny island to the education and healthcare of millions around the world. A million people from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, as just one example, have recovered their vision thanks to the free eye-surgery programme Operation Milagro jointly conducted by Cuba and Venezuela.
No lesser statesmen than Nelson Mandela has described the contribution of Cuban Internationalist to the fall of the racist South African regime as unparalleled, going so far as to cite the battle of Cuito Cuanavale as the “turning point in the struggle to free the continent and our country from the scourge of apartheid”.
Indeed the so called sanctions of Cuba are not only in breach of the WTO regulations but are condemned by all at the United Nations bar the US and a handful of it’s vasal states.There is, in short, another story to be told and it remains a pity that it has not been told in the Press.”
> Solomons sends 25 students to Cuba for medical training
> Cardinal Bertone extols Cuba’s Latin American Medical School
