Cuban-Haitian Solidarity

Earthquake experts will supplement the 400 physicians Cuba has in neighboring Haiti.

An unusual cold snap is plaguing Cuba, as is the absurd claim by the United States that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism. But all that is overshadowed by the earthquake disaster in neighboring Haiti, where Cuban assistance teams are doing their best.

Cuban priorities have been thoroughly reshuffled by the earthquake in Haiti. Cubans no longer worry about the current cold wave bringing them morning temperatures in the 39 to 48 degree range. Even daytime highs have difficulty reaching the 70-degree mark. Meteorologists never tire of saying that this isn’t the start of the dreaded climate change; they have statistics going back a century or more with which they can prove that this isn’t the first cold snap through which Cuba has lived. In 1970 and 1993, for example, Cubans had to dress like the Inuit. The perfidy of the Obama administration, as under George W. Bush, charging Cuba with being a state sponsor of terrorism is also off the table. No country other than Cuba has been targeted more often with charges of harboring terrorists who, in reality, usually operate from American soil. The Washington Post brushed off the terrorism charges as “absurd.”

Their number one priority right now is the earthquake that struck Haiti, less than 50 miles off Cuba’s east coast, causing massive destruction. And it struck right in a densely populated region where even government buildings, considered solidly constructed, collapsed. No people in Latin America or the Caribbean are more poverty stricken than the Haitians.

People on Cuba’s eastern shore stayed remarkably calm, but their government’s civil defense reacted swiftly with preventative measures in the event of a possible tsunami. Forty thousand residents were evacuated to higher ground. Helicopters, equipped with powerful loudspeakers, directed the evacuation from the air and gave information, such as oceanic conditions between Haiti and the windward islands, in order to prevent the spread of panic. The eastern part of Cuba experiences minor tremors relatively often, but not so as to threaten buildings or human life.

Cuba is immediately sending 60 seismologists who gained valuable experience while assisting in the aftermath of the great quake in Pakistan. Four hundred physicians and paramedics have already been working for months in Haiti. Now, Cuba’s number one priority is solidarity with the Haitian population. The extent to which Cuba is willing to go in helping is shown by the fact that Havana is permitting U.S. aircraft to use Cuban airspace for its rescue efforts. American aircrafts may now use Cuban airspace between Guantanamo and Miami in evacuating the injured, thus saving some 90 minutes flying time.