Paris, April 28 (RHC)-- The French association Cuba Linda has called for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve medical brigades, deployed in more than 20 countries to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The French group said that "the international community is witnessing the solidarity of health professionals who leave their own country to provide services and share experiences in other parts of the world, which in the case of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus even reach the heart of Europe.

According to the organization founded in 1998 to promote friendly ties with the island, the media cannot hide a gesture that comes as a surprise to many in Europe, but is well known in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where thousands of doctors from Cuba have been saving lives since the first years of the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.

In 2003, Fidel Castro said in Buenos Aires that Cuba was sending doctors, not bombs, and two years later the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics was formed.  The aim of the special brigade was to assist those in New Orleans who were left abandoned to their fate after Hurricane Katrina.  The same U.S. administration that refused to help its own people, rejected Cuba's offer to help in 2005.

Earthquakes, cyclones, heavy rains and epidemics have since impacted nations on several continents -- including Pakistan, Indonesia, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Haiti, Nepal, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- with many of their inhabitants served by the medical contingent.

Cuba Linda pointed out that Norwegian trade unions nominated the medical brigades for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, for their work in West Africa to confront Ebola.  This army of white coats is now involved in the battle against COVID-19 in several countries, including Italy, Andorra and France (overseas departments), despite the criminal blockade by the United States.

In this sense, Cuba Linda highlighted the existence of other voices in the planet that are calling for the recognition of these doctors.  The group created, together with French friend of Cuba Louis Michel Bonnemaire, the public Facebook group "Prix Nobel pour les brigades medicales cubaines," which we invite everyone to join.