ARTICLE
BY FIDEL
Duty calls
Our country did not hesitate one minute in
responding to the request made by international
bodies for support to the struggle against the
brutal epidemic which has erupted in West Africa.
This is what our country has always done, without
exception. The government had already given
pertinent instructions to immediately mobilize and
reinforce medical personnel offering their services
in this region on the African continent. A rapid
response was likewise given to the United Nations
request, as has always been done when requests for
cooperation have been made.
Any conscious person knows that political decisions
which involve risks to highly qualified personnel
imply a high level of responsibility on the part of
those who call upon them to fulfill a dangerous
task. It is even more difficult than sending
soldiers, who have also done so as their duty, to
combat and die for a just political cause.
The medical professionals who travel to any location
whatsoever to save lives, even at the risk of losing
their own, provide the greatest example of
solidarity a human being can offer, above all when
no material interest whatsoever exists as a
motivation. Their closest family members also
contribute to such missions what they most love and
admire. A country tested by many years of heroic
struggle can understand well what is expressed here.
Everyone understands that by completing this task
with maximum planning and efficiency, our people and
sister peoples of the Caribbean and Latin America
will be protected, preventing expansion of the
epidemic, which has unfortunately already been
introduced, and could spread, in the United States,
which maintains many personal ties and interactions
with the rest of the world. We will happily
cooperate with U.S. personnel in this task, not in
search of peace between these two states which have
been adversaries for so many years, but rather, in
any event, for World Peace, an objective which can
and should be attempted.
Monday, October 20, at the request of several
countries in the area, a meeting will take place in
Havana with the participation of important
authorities who have expressed the need to implement
pertinent measures to prevent the spreading of the
epidemic, and combat it in a rapid and efficient
manner.
Caribbeans and Latin Americans will be sending a
message of encouragement and of struggle to the rest
of the world's peoples.
The hour of duty has arrived.
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 17, 2014
9:23 p.m.
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