US Activists Meet with Cuban Scientists

Havana, Aug 29 (ACN) US journalist and film maker Abby Martin said that visiting Cuba and exchanging with scientists here about how they keep researching despite local limitations and hardships is a moving experience.

Martin visited the Havana-based Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB) accompanied by a group of activists including Manolo de los Santos, founder and co-director of The People’s Forum and by Benjamin Samuel Becker, Chief Editor of BreakThrough News.

The visitors learned about the newest projects at the scientific institution such as pharmaceuticals like Heberprot-P, Heberferon, Nasalferon and the local COVID-19 vaccines.

Martin described as inspiring the efforts of Cuban scientists to preserve the people’s lives in a world where big pharmaceutical conglomerates take health as a mere business. There is much manipulation in this respect in the United States; only when you have this kind of exchanges you can understand how much humanism and commitment are behind each achievement of the Cuban scientific community, she said.

The director of Biomedical Research at CIGB, Doctor Gerardo Enrique Guillen, explained about the difficulties caused by the hostile policy maintained by Washington against Cuba, which hinders professional exchange, access to resource, technology and funds which are necessary to advance scientific research.

Behind Cuban scientific research lies much of the strategic vision of Comandante Fidel Castro, who push science forwards to address the problems of underdevelopment and the unfair world economic order, Guillen noted.

The Cuban Genetic Engineering and Biotech Center was founded July 1, 1986 as a large research-and-production compound outfitted with modern technology, production capacity and prestigious scientists.