Cuba calls for international solidarity with countries that were victims of slavery

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (ACN) Pedro Luis Pedroso, Cuba's permanent representative to the United Nations, called on Thursday for increased international solidarity with countries that were victims of slavery.

At the General Assembly meeting to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Pedroso said that this tribute becomes a formality if the root causes of inequality, exclusion, racism and discrimination suffered by millions of people, particularly those of African descent, are not addressed and solved.

He stressed that, as an example of Cuban solidarity cooperation, Cuba has sent more than 4,900 health professionals, in 56 brigades, to 40 countries and territories in support of its efforts to face COVID-19, especially to territories in Latin America and Africa, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry's website, Cubaminrex.

He also reiterated the importance of this meeting in the current context, marked by alarming manifestations of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia in some of the most developed societies.

The crime against humanity committed against the people we are remembering today is linked to the situation of structural inequality, racial discrimination, prejudice and exclusion that continues to affect, in the 21st century, people of African descent, said the Cuban diplomat.
He emphasized the inequality also marked by the pandemic, especially as regards the acquisition of vaccines against the disease by underdeveloped nations.

The crime against humanity committed against the people we are remembering today is linked to the situation of structural inequality, racial discrimination, prejudice and exclusion that continues to affect, in the 21st century, people of African descent, Pedroso concluded.