By Roberto Morejón
The high-level Cuban delegation, headed by Head of State Miguel Díaz-Canel, present in New York brought to the world the voice of Cuba and the Group of 77 and China, of which Havana is president pro tempore, on core issues of the difficult international situation and the internal situation of the Caribbean archipelago.
Rightly described as intense, victorious and warm, the visit highlighted the comprehensive use of all the platforms granted by the 78th session of the UN General Assembly and parallel meetings.
The Cuban president spoke with clarity of argument about the thorny moment through which most of the nations of the global South are passing, caught in the aftermath of the pandemic and in the geopolitical and economic tensions of the present.
Díaz-Canel emphasized that developing countries, many of them poor, are not asking for handouts or begging for favors, but are demanding rights and a profound transformation of the current deeply unjust, anachronistic and dysfunctional international financial architecture, as he called it.
The week would bring new and warm meetings of the first president with sectors of the U.S. society, towards which Cuba has always reiterated good wishes.
Those held with scientists and promoters of environmental care and with artists and activists, all tenacious defenders of links with the people of the largest of the Antilles, despite the blockade of the U.S. government, stood out.
Díaz-Canel would pleasantly surprise the Americans gathered in the streets of New York, when he went to them and thanked them for demanding the end of the siege of the northern power.
The dignitary did not seem to have a break and exchanged with health workers, directors of institutions and volunteers, with whom he evoked how opportune it would be, if the blockade did not exist, to have a bilateral collaboration.
By the way, during his stay in New York, the Head of State offered to share the Cuban experience in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, because -he said- it imposed on us a sad and bitter lesson from which we are obliged to learn.
Among all the visitor's conversations, the one with U.S. businessmen stood out, to whom he explained the business opportunities, and with emigrants, to whom he underlined the aspiration to stimulate the links with the new generations of Cuban nationals living abroad.
As the statesman said, with them and with the Cubans living in the archipelago, the task is to achieve an even better country that protects and strengthens social justice.
