Cuba and Mexico: close brothers in Our America

The first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, has arrived in Mexico on a working visit to attend the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum. It is not the arrival to one more destination, but a new contact with a true extended homeland and its children.

MEXICO CITY - “We will never tolerate anything against Mexico, we will feel it as our own, we will know how to be faithful to the friendship forged by centuries of history and beautiful common principles! Thus, more than diaphanous, was the way in which Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz made reference to the special relationship that unites two nations.

That declaration of brotherhood -where Fidel reminded everyone that for Cuba, Mexico is not just another destination, it is not a strange place but rather an extended homeland- was heard in a Cuban-Mexican Friendship Act held on August 2, 1980. And that passage was recalled by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, when he took part -in September 2021- in the civic-military parade on the occasion of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores.

On Mexican soil, the dignitary arrived from the Caribbean island and delivered a rich speech that portrayed the exceptional history between the two countries. His words began by stating -also very clearly- that “among all the brothers that Our America has given us, Mexico counts, for many reasons, as one of the most dear to Cuba”.

In a comprehensive listing, Diaz-Canel mentioned the poetry of Cuban Jose Maria Heredia -his emotional lyrics affirming “how beautiful is the land inhabited by the brave Aztecs”-; the unique ties between Jose Marti and Mexican land; the suffering born of the Spanish conquest; the independence efforts; “the notable Cubans who left their blood and their names in the History of Mexico”; and that the brother country was the first to “recognize our armed struggle and to open its ports to ships with the flag of the lone star”.

Regarding this last episode, President Diaz-Canel Bermudez stated in his speech that such recognition “was approved by the Congress, was sentenced by Juarez, and was thanked by Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the President of the Republic in Arms, in a memorable letter to his Mexican counterpart”.

The Head of State recalled that “a select group of Mexican soldiers arrived in Cuba to contribute to the formation and training of the nascent Liberation Army”. Cespedes had written to the “Meritorious of the Americas”: “Some Mexican gentlemen have come here and have shed their generous blood on our soil and for our cause, and the whole country has shown its gratitude for their heroic action”.

There are many facts that have formed the history of this endearing brotherhood: it is the Mexican friend Manuel Mercado, to whom Jose Marti dedicates his unfinished letter and extends his anti-imperialist position; it is Julio Antonio Mella falling in the Aztec capital, pierced by a bullet; it is the boys of the Centennial Generation finding shelter and regaining strength to resume the struggle for Cuba; it is the land from which the Granma Yacht sailed; and it is the natural and undeniable sympathy that the sons of Mexico feel for the 1959 Revolution.

“Faithful to its best traditions - recalled Diaz-Canel in his speech - Mexico was the only country in Latin America that did not break relations with revolutionary Cuba when we were expelled from the OAS by imperial mandate”.
And in a very busy route of coincidences and mutual support, in a saga so rich that it does not fit in a handful of lines, this reporter is reminded of the faces of the sons of Mexico, the firefighters and rescuers who came to Matanzas to help extinguish, in 2022, the fire at the Supertanker Base; and it may seem natural, but it is a gesture that shines for the courage and empathy, the permanent and firm accompaniment to Cuba in its struggle against the imperial blockade, and the aid in medical supplies and food to alleviate the combined effects of that blockade and the COVID-19.

As a result of the above, in a two-way road, some 3,000 Cuban doctors have arrived in 23 Mexican states in these times; and close to 200 professors from the Caribbean country train future health specialists in Aztec soil, while hundreds of children of the nation of Juarez are trained in Cuba as professionals in that field. This is one example, among many others of brotherhood, that unites the two nations.

TRAVEL AND NATURAL PROXIMITY
For the first time in its history, beloved Mexico will have a woman in its presidency: Claudia Sheinbaum; and the event is the reason for President Diaz-Canel to attend, this October 1st, the inauguration ceremony. The arrival of the Cuban leader is part of the natural closeness that marks both countries.

In these years as a dignitary, Diaz-Canel Bermudez has visited Mexico on more than one occasion: to participate, in November 2018, in the inauguration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; for the first official visit, in October 2019; to attend as guest of honor to the civic-military parade for the Mexican Independence Day and to participate in the VI Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, in September 2021; and to arrive to the State of Campeche, in February 2023, where the Cuban president received the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, in degree of Collar, delivered by AMLO.

In October 2023, the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba arrived in Mexico to participate in the “Palenque Meeting: for a fraternal neighborhood with well-being”, a meeting convened by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with the aim of addressing the issue of migration.

President Andres Manuel has concluded his term of office, which was distinguished by a marked humanist spirit, and whose compass north was marked -with results- by taking millions of human beings out of extreme vulnerability. Now the responsibility as President corresponds to Claudia, a scientist born in 1962, who upon receiving signs of her triumph in the elections expressed in her first speech: “I do not stand alone, we all do, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters”.

For this particular moment, and for all the history lived, Mexico continues to be very special for Cuba. This is what in 2018, from the Palace of the Revolution of the Republic of Cuba, President Diaz-Canel argued from gratitude, from the most heartfelt memory, in an interview granted to Patricia Villegas, president of Telesur: “Mexico is a very important country. The Centennial Generation found a place in Mexico to prepare for the war in Cuba. Mexico maintained relations with Cuba when many broke off”.

In other words: Mexico is the brother that has always been there for Cuba. And viceversa.
(Taken from the site of the Presidency of Cuba)