INDER, 61 years in favor of healthy sports practice in Cuba

This February 23, the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) will celebrate its 61st birthday and will do so as it has since its inception: advocating healthy sports as a right of all Cubans.

In the midst of the still difficult circumstances imposed by COVID-19, this organization will once again defend its social purpose and essence, namely to organize physical and recreational activities to promote people’s health.

INDER was established this day of 1961 under Act 936, and in March 1962 the new institution issued a Resolution prohibiting professional sports in Cuba to get rid of the mercantile system of the past, which led to a huge movement across the Island to improve people’s quality of life.

Small surprise, then, that Cuba boasts one of the best proportions in the world in terms of the number of physical activity and sports technicians per number of inhabitants, a large specialized technical force made up of physical education teachers, sports coaches, physical trainers, recreation promoters and others who serve about 11 million Cubans.

Always upholding the maxim that sport is the right and duty of the people, proclaimed by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz (1926-2016), such a mass effort keeps producing athletes who have boosted the country’s reputation in many international competitions.

It is not by chance that Cuba, an underdeveloped nation subjected to an unjust economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States, has earned in its own right a place among the sports powers of the planet, whether in the Olympic Games, Pan American Games or World Championships.

Therein lies the work of many men and women who devote their work to continuously creating champions, without neglecting the most important thing: society’s large-scale physical exercise.

Therefore, 61 years after the creation of INDER, there are reasons to celebrate and work even harder to preserve its achievements, with permanent emphasis on the well-being of everyone in Cuba, from children to seniors.