The brotherhood between two peoples.

By María Josefina Arce

Solidarity with the struggle of the Saharawi people for their free self-determination and independence is a principled position of Cuba's foreign policy, ratified in recent hours by President Miguel Diaz Canel, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Polisario Front.
  
The Front was born to fight first against Spain and then against Morocco, which still illegally occupies part of the territory of Western Sahara.
  
The establishment of diplomatic ties between the Greater Antilles and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, which is recognized by more than 80 states from all continents, dates back more than four decades.
   
In fact, Cuba was one of the first countries to recognize the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, and its support to that people has been expressed in different international organizations.

In declarations to the Prensa Latina news agency, the Saharawi ambassador in Havana, Omar Bulsan, affirmed that there is not a member of his people who does not feel respect, admiration and affection for the Cubans.
  
Our country has condemned any kind of violence against the Saharawi population and supported the repeated resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, which call for an end to the military occupation and therefore to the conflict that affects most strongly children, women and the elderly.
   
But Havana's support has also materialized in other areas such as education and health. Since 1976, more than two thousand young people from that African nation have graduated from higher education institutions in the archipelago.
    
Likewise, Cuban professors teach at the Simón Bolívar High School, founded in 2011 as an initiative of the governments of Cuba and Venezuela for the training of the new generations and to ensure that the Spanish language is not lost.
   
Cuban medical collaboration has been an essential component of the development of bilateral ties. A brigade of health professionals provides services in the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.
  
In addition, in the midst of the world health emergency caused by COVID 19, the authorities of the Caribbean nation sent more than 450,000 doses of the Soberana 02 vaccine to immunize the infant population, as a result of the effort and high professionalism of the Cuban scientific community.
  
Friendship, respect and solidarity distinguish the ties between the two peoples, united by an indestructible brotherhood that grows and strengthens every day.