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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Aleida Guevara: On the US Elections, ‘The Same Dog with a Different Collar,’</h1>
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<p>Edited by Nathallia Fonseca on November 18, 2024</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_28705" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28705" src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-20-aleida.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="200" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-28705" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Aleida Guevara during the activity of the G20 in Rio de Janeiro. photo: Wellington Lenon/MST</p></div>
<p><strong><em>Cuban Doctor Aleida Guevara’s interview with Brazil de Fato in the context of the G20 </em></strong></p>
<p>Following in the footsteps of her father, the Cuban Revolution
guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara, Aleida studied medicine in Cuba,
specializing in pediatrics.<span id="gmail-more-28690"></span> But above all
she is a communist revolutionary, as she likes to describe herself.
Present at the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Aleida Guevara, 63,
gave an exclusive interview to <strong>Brasil de Fato</strong>, in which
she talked about the economic blockade against Cuba, its effects, the
change of government in the United States and Brazil’s position on the
elections in Venezuela.</p>
<p><em>the latest news that arrived from Cuba to Brazil was precisely
about the passage of hurricane Rafael and the whole situation generated,
mainly about the energy shortage. What is the impact of the economic
blockade in this type of situation?</em></p>
<p>Aleida Guevara<strong>:</strong> The United States prevents oil
tankers from reaching Cuba. Last year they sanctioned more than 25
shipping companies and more than 60 airlines. In other words, it is
impressive that somehow these companies came to sell us oil, not to
donate it, to sell it, but even so we could not do it because the United
States imposes millions of dollars in fines. And they are afraid of
them. So <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/11/07/furacao-rafael-se-afasta-de-cuba-deixando-rastro-de-destruicao">the oil is not coming to Cuba</a>. Oil is coming from Venezuela, Mexico and Russia, above all.</p>
<p><em>You mentioned a general cost of the blockade for the Cuban economy. What is this cost?</em></p>
<p>Enormous. It is tremendous because after the pandemic we exhausted
the reserves the State had because we had to produce vaccines. Who would
sell us vaccines? Nobody. So <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2023/03/14/as-revolucionarias-vacinas-cubanas-um-fenomeno-do-seculo-21">we had to produce</a> and that meant that we consumed a whole series of resources that we had in reserve.</p>
<p>In addition, of course, we made the population stay at home for
months and they were paid their full salary. The State was left without
resources and was left in a very bad situation. Tourism has declined
significantly because the whole world has suffered from the pandemic and
the economic crisis is international.</p>
<p>But there is also a lot of pressure from the United States, inventing
false arguments, inventing things against tourism. Therefore, it causes
fear and a lot of economic pressure on the companies that bring tourism
to Cuba. There is an example worth mentioning, which is a Spanish
company, Meliá, which started with two hotels in Cuba and today has many
hotels because it won this right. Yes, it was the first company that
stood up to the United States and said: ‘I am not going to stop doing
business with Cuba. If you want to close the two hotels I have in Miami,
pay me the millions you owe me and that’s your decision.’ The U.S. then
realized it wasn’t that easy, but only because Meliá had the honesty to
stand up for its rights as a company. It’s not socialist or anything
like that, but it has dignity. And that has been very important for us.
Today Meliá does not have two hotels, today it has, I do not know, much
more than 20 hotels in the country and if it can have more, it will have
them, because it has truly earned that right.</p>
<p>So, by losing this number of tourists, in a way, the country’s
coffers are still half empty. So how do we pay for things? Because you
have already seen that the blockade makes all products in Cuba more
expensive. We have to have three or four intermediaries for someone to
sell us something. And these intermediaries increase the price, and when
it reaches us, it is much higher. And we have to pay for the blockade
simply because of that. We say that if the United States does not want
to trade with us, we should respect it, because that is a decision of a
country. But what we cannot accept is that this country tries to act so
that no other people in the world trade freely with Cuba.</p>
<p><em>Can the Cuban people imagine what this country would be like if the blockade did not exist?</em></p>
<p>It is clear! Every day of your life, but until when? Also, imagine
the amount of possibilities we would have, because the United States is
90 miles from Cuba. Of course, they would be our most natural trading
partner. And in the South there is a great food production, sometimes a
super-production that cannot be sold, and we would be magnificent
buyers, it would be a 24-hour business. But we would also sell our
tobacco, which they love, our coffee, our rum. We could make thousands
of exchanges, but they don’t have the desire to do it.</p>
<p><em>And the change of government that will take place in the United
States, the Democrats are leaving, the Republicans are coming back to
power. Does it change anything for the Cubans?</em></p>
<p>We say it’s the same dog with a different collar. The question is that this gentleman [ <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/11/06/donald-trump-e-reeleito-presidente-e-extrema-direita-volta-ao-poder-nos-estados-unidos">Donald Trump</a>
] is crazy, right? So we don’t know what he can do. Maybe he will come
with the news that, as a businessman, he wants to do something with
Cuba, who knows… Because that’s the way this gentleman is, he is
unpredictable. But, in any case, he is a danger, a serious danger, not
only for Cuba, for humanity, because this country [the United States]
has a destructive power and now that power will be in the hands of a
person who does not reason. This could be very dangerous.</p>
<p><em>Is it possible to draw a parallel between what Cuba has
experienced during the last 65 years and what is happening now in
Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran and so many other countries unilaterally
sanctioned by the United States?</em></p>
<p>Yes, of course we can compare, because it is the same problem. It is
the same technique that is trying to surround us, but that is not the
case now. Look, there is a memorandum from an American admiral in the
19th century that already says that Cuba should be completely blockaded
with its ships, close the possibility of trade, cause famines and
therefore diseases, decimate the population, so that they could rule.
And this is the technique that they have used for centuries and that has
been used today for any country that says no, that says no, and that
thinks of its country, its people and its dignity. This is what is
happening.</p>
<p><em>Brazil’s position after the elections in Venezuela has been
widely questioned by popular movements here in Brazil and in Latin
America, because it questions the security of the electoral process. How
do you assess this position?</em></p>
<p>This only serves the enemy. This makes me very sad. I am very
embarrassed that Lula has fallen into this situation. First of all,
because he has just recognized that he does not even have the right to
give an opinion on a problem of another country, because he would not
like us, nor any other country in the world, to give an opinion on
Brazil. So, if you don’t like something, how are you going to do it with
someone else? It is a basic principle of coexistence, pure and simple.
He may have his criteria and his way of seeing the world, which must be
respected. I have nothing to say about that. But you have to respect,
you have to learn to respect your neighbor, who is next door, even if
you don’t like him. We, for example, want to have relations with the
United States, although we have nothing to do with their government. But
we can make an effort and be in solidarity and respect the other
country, as long as it respects us, because it is a mutual principle. If
you want respect, you have to learn to respect. It is that simple.</p>
<p>That’s why it hurts so much. Brazil’s position in relation to the Brics also hurts so much, because Brazil <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/10/25/venezuela-critica-veto-do-brasil-a-entrada-do-pais-no-brics-gesto-hostil">refuses to allow Venezuela to join the Brics</a>.
This is unprecedented, truly unprecedented. And it is simply playing
into the hands of the United States of America, the enemy of all our
people. And Lula is not just any president, Lula is a president who
comes from the grassroots, who comes from the union struggle. Therefore,
Lula has to know what he is doing. This is very painful for us, really,
I say it sincerely. This hurt us very much and left us deeply
disappointed with Lula’s attitude towards Venezuela.</p>
<p><em>Finally, what is the role of popular movements and popular
organizations in the face of all these contradictions and this reality
we have just talked about?</em></p>
<p>Social movements are essential in the times we live in. Often, the
parties, especially those of the left, lose their popular support
because they stop working with the social movements. This is fatal,
because we, who consider ourselves leftists, exist for the good of the
people, and if the people do not recognize us, I always say: the left
must have the support and understanding of the people, because we fight
for them.</p>
<p>But of course, people are also tired of hearing things that do not
materialize. I say that the only thing that people believe without
seeing is religion, the rest has to be demonstrated. That is why we have
to work in this direction. If we are telling a humble population that
we are fighting for public health, then gentlemen, let us try to make
these people feel what public health is. The hospital that we have to
build, that we are going to work in this hospital and improve it, and we
are going to make public health a human right, which is what we want,
that is our objective. We have to start with grassroots work with our
people, with our people. That is why popular education is very
important, really, essential.</p>
<p>Here you have unique men, unique in that sense, so we have to be
guided by them, we have to work with them together with the people. I
always say that this is an enviable country because of the amount of
beautiful human beings it has. I am referring, for example, to my friend
and brother João Pedro Stedile. For me he is one of the most complete
men I have ever met. And he is not a communist, of course, I am. But for
me he is more than a communist, because he is a consistent man, who
dedicated his whole life to his people.</p>
<p>But well, in short, I really believe that here in this country there
are wonderful and extraordinary men and women. We have to make these
life stories better known to the people, to the new generations, so that
they feel proud to be Brazilian. It is not only the music and the
carnival that is important, it is much deeper. It is those human beings
who dedicated the best of their lives to try to make Brazil more
dignified, more complete, more beautiful.</p>
<p>When I came to Brazil for the first time, there was tremendous fear
in the streets, tremendous violence in São Paulo, with the windows
closed, all these things. I was stunned and said: it is better to die
trying to change this than to die of hunger. Then I started to think and
I said: well, I have a communist ideology, I come from another country,
with a somewhat regular culture, so it is possible that I am the only
one who thinks like that. Wrong! When I went to Rio Grande do Sul, there
was a sign on the wall that said: it is better to die conquering land
to feed my children than to die of hunger. So said Rosa, a woman from
the Landless Workers Movement. She was not a communist, perhaps she did
not even have a high school education. But that didn’t matter. She was
as much a woman and as much a mother as I am, and she reacted to life
because of that. That is why I tell you that there are many life
stories, of simple men and women of this people, that fill one with
pride, that fill one with strength and that must be rescued for the new
generations, so that a Bolsonaro never comes back. For example.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/11/17/mesmo-cachorro-com-uma-coleira-diferente-diz-filha-de-che-guevara-sobre-eleicao-de-trump-nos-eua">Brazil de Fato</a> translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English</p>
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