Cuba: The numbers speak for themselves

Agustín Contreras

Using the banner of liberty, democracy and human rights the US attacked Iraq;  currently using the same banner which is now soiled with lies and tortured - a banner which has shocked the world - the US is preparing the grounds to attack Cuba and Venezuela.    

Some analysts dismiss these possible attacks as purely theatrical, relating to the election campaign.  Others believe that it is a plan being carried out by the hawks and the most reactionary wing of the right in Washington and the Pentagon; a plan which has been planned for some time now and which the reactionary forces within Washington is now waiting the right time to implement.

There has never been such a shameless use of pressure by the US in forcing countries to take action against Cuba on the "human rights" front as well as supporting NAFTA and the war in Iraq.  It should be added that the US has gone as far as demanding that the Columbian senators who represent the oligarchy in that country to pressure the OAE into condemning Venezuela.      


In Cuba, which has had to resist 45 years of war and economic blockade, there has never been a case of torture, political disappearance or assassination.  International organizations have never such an event because it has never occurred.  In Cuba not one newspaperman has ever been murdered or union leader disappeared.    

This contrasts greatly with the past neo-fascists regimes in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay - just to mention a few - all supported by Washington and where thousands of political murders and disappearance took place.

It is important to note the political assassinations of the indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico by paramilitary factions with ties to the government.  It is just as important to note that according to the National Planning Committee of Colombia, the statistics given by this organization is shocking to say the least.  According to the this organization, Colombia is the most violent country in the world.  According to the stats there are 59 homicides every day; that is, 1 every 24 minutes.  Only 10% never come in contact with the armed conflict.  In 2003 alone close to 80 union leaders and activists where murdered or have disappeared; this translates into the shocking statistics that out of every 10 union leaders murdered around the world, 9 are from Colombia.  It must be added that in 1997 the poverty line in Colombia was 55.70%; a figure which in 2003 rose to 66.30%.   

It is true that numbers sometimes speak for themselves:

In Cuba illiteracy is 0.2% while in Latin America it is 11.7%.

Infant mortality rate in Cuba is 6.2% while in Latin America it is 32%.

Life expectancy is 76.5% in Cuba while in Latin America it is 70 years.

Primary school enrollment in Cuba is 100% while in Latin America it is 92%.

Secondary school enrollment in Cuba is 99.7% while in Latin America it is a dismal 52%.

While 100% of the students in elementary school achieve grade level only 76% achieve it Latin America.

In Latin America 12% of the population is illiterate, that is 42 million do not know how to read and write.  Furthermore, there are 110 million people who never finished elementary school.  None of them Cubans.

 There are 860 million absolute illiterates in the world.  None of them Cubans.  Let us not count the political illiterates, as this would be a huge amount.

In Cuba there are 590 doctors for every 100 thousand persons, while in Latin America there are only 160 doctors for every 100 thousand.  

Cuba has the highest percentage of doctors per person in the world.

Aids in Cuba is only 0.05% while in Latin America it is 0.5%.

According to UNESCO Cuba has the lowest illiteracy rate and the highest matriculation rate of all the countries in Latin America.

In a report given by UNESCO in 1999 on education encompassing 13 Latin American countries, Cuban students rank number one in knowledge in all subject areas.   In Cuba, based on a population of approximate 11 million, more than 500 thousand have a university degree; 4 million are currently enrolled in a university.


In 2003 CEPAL (UN org) points out that 20% or 102 million people in Latin America and in the Caribbean live in extreme poverty.  None of them are Cubans.

In Honduras 67% of the population live in brutal misery.  None of them are Cubans. 

In Latin America, 54 million in Latin America have malnutrition.  None of them Cubans.

In Mexico 34% of the children below 5 years old suffer chronic malnutrition. 

In Guatemala this figure reaches 50%.

Every 7 seconds a child below 10 years old dies of hunger.  None of them Cuban children.

According to the UN 842 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition.  None of them Cubans.

One must add that there are no Cubans that have been tortured, assassinated or disappeared as a result of their political views.

What human rights is the US speaking of?  Are these the same rights that, Cheri Honkala, the director of Union for the Rights of People in Kesington, USA, alluded to when she stated that 80 million poor people in the US do not have social programs to aid them; and 42 million do not have any health program. 

For two essential reasons Venezuela is another objective of US disinformation and attack.  On one side we we have the oil and the "bad example" given by a government which enjoys massive support and which has put into place social programs which would astonish many. 

The government of Hugo Chavez Frias which has often been the target of negative press not only within that nation but internationally as well, has taken on the task of eradicating illiteracy by 2005. 

The illiteracy program has gone so well that it is estimated that by the middle of July Venezuela will announce to the world that it will join Cuba as a nation free of illiteracy.  The knowledge to read and write and to deal with numbers has given new hope to those who had none.  In June thanks to the program "Mision Robinson" 1,500,000 Venezuelans have learned to read and write.  It must be added that the objective of providing primary education to all children - which was to meet it's goal in 2005 - has already met it's goal.

At this very moment the project, known as Mision Barrio, designed to provide doctors and clinics to neighborhoods, is responsible for more than 36,420,000 free consultations; 25,620,000 of these free consultations took place within the neighborhood clinics while the remaining 11,160,000 were home visits.  One important thing to note is that the medicine distributed to the sick patients were free.  One must add that in these mainly poor neighborhoods, before the Revolution Bolivariana the only things they had were government neglect, private - often unaffordable medical attention - and hopelessness.

Just as important is the great strides in the construction of low cost housing in urban and rural areas; the distribution of land to farmers and indigenous people; as well as new employment opportunities given by the project "Mision Vuelvan Caras", and new employment in the new cultural and sports programs.

With the example given by Cuba and Venezuela where the human being is the priority, these are the ones that they want to condemn for human rights violation? 

The United States, the champions of lies and deception, super-champions in violating the human rights of it's people and people around the world, thru it's network of mass communication - all subordinates of multi-nationals and accommodated with Washington and the military has a vicious campaign against these two countries.  Two nations who offer the most hope to the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.  I am sure that the people of this continent and the world will not permit an injustice to be perpetrated against these two countries.

The governments that recently voted against Cuba on the human rights front should look at themselves in the mirror.  If they do they will see the sad state - the hopelessness - that exist in their own country.

One should not waste time in pointing out those who compete to see who is the best bootlicker of Bush.  One of the best bootlicker is senator Enrique Gómez Hurtado.  It must be made clear that while Venezuela is taking gigantic steps to achieve tangible human rights and where a truly participative democracy is taking place, Mr. Hurtado has conveniently ignored the assassination of labor leaders, human rights activists, among others in Latin America, opting instead to try to push through an OAE bill condemning Venezuela.   

While the media ignores the truth and often distorts it, they main concentration is to promote the virtues of wild consumerism.  They fill our televisions with things that glorify drugs, gangs and violence - including murder.  The mass media give ample time to things that are superficial, things having very little cultural value, while giving very little time to things that promote and raise our cultures.  They drug us each day with their news aligned with the multinationals and with their constant films into thinking that they are always the good guys, with blacks, Hispanics, Asians, indigenous people and Muslims being the bad guys, the bandits and the terrorists.        

The mass media defend to the hilt Bush, Blair, Aznar, Fox and Uribe, etc.  All their lies are disseminated quickly around the planet as sacred words, words which are given as absolute truths.  It makes one angry and sad how some in the media and some intellectuals with an incompressible attitude defend the Apocalypse, they defend what the Pope described as savage neo-liberalism - or as some who have studied the issue - the neo-liberal terrorism which is being experienced in Latin America.     

Since childhood I have always respected reporters and intellectuals.  I do not say that they are all the same.  However, what is needed is that they take the banner of truth as their own and that they unite with the people in relating the drama of people's lives.  While I was writing this piece I couldn't stop thinking of a graffiti I saw on a wall in the city of Buenos Aires, written after the failure of neo-liberalism, written after a decade of promises and lies it said:

"Don't piss on me and say it is raining"