US blockade affects development of teaching and research programs at Cuban universities

HOLGUIN, Cuba, Jun 22 (ACN) The development of scientific research promoted by the University of Holguin(eastern Cuba) is one of the most affected branches within the teaching programs of that student center, due to the tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed for six decades by the United States against Cuba.

Alexander Pozo Cardona, a student of mechanical engineering and president of the University Student Federation (FEU) at the university, told Cuban News Agency that the effects of this hostile policy can be seen in the lack of the necessary resources in the laboratories created to carry out the practices related to this specialty.

He also pointed out that the research lines of the theses of future graduates of mechanical, civil and agricultural engineering have to be directed towards other profiles such as pedagogy, humanities and literature, due to the lack of the required technologies to carry out their scientific projects.

The blockade also affects the work of branches and sectors related to science in this eastern province, especially those associated with the Center for Environmental Research and Services (CISAT by its Spanish acronym), with negative impacts on access to equipment for the analysis of samples, mainly in archeology, natural resources and other fields, said Wilder Carmenate, director of that institution.

The hostility of the criminal U.S. policy also has a negative impact on the exchange and contracting of scientific-technical services, among them, the characterization of sea grasses, diagnosis of sandy beaches and biodiversity studies, he added.

In spite of the genocidal blockade, condemned worldwide, Cuba has made remarkable progress in biopharmaceutical production, the development of mobile applications, patient care in neonatology, oncohematology and nephrology, among other specialties, and the high quality of the graduates of higher education through scientific research programs.