• Díaz-Canel Checks Projects in Eastern Cuban Province

    Díaz-Canel Checks Projects in Eastern Cuban Province

  • Agroint Maintains its Commitment to Territorial Development

    Agroint Maintains its Commitment to Territorial Development

  • A New Beginning Lights up Palancón (+Photos)

    A New Beginning Lights up Palancón (+Photos)

  • Lastre, Professor Emeritus!

    Lastre, Professor Emeritus!

Las Tunas News

Civil Works on La Herradura 1 Wind Farm …

The civil construction of the La Herradura 1 wind farm, located on the northern coast of the province of Las Tunas, is nearing completion. This progress paves the way for...

Valdés Mesa Visited Municipalities Sout…

The Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa, began his second day of work in Las Tunas with a visit to the development area of the Melanio Ortiz agricultural...

Las Tunas Transporters Have Their Delega…

The Cuban Workers Central Union (CTC in Spanish) has been immersed in the organic process of its 22nd Congress, scheduled to be held next April in Havana. The trade unions...

Maikel's Contribution to the Tobacco Cam…

Maikel Cruz del Sol's land is a luxury because of the quality of the soil and the attention it receives daily. For this reason, he was responsible for producing the...

The Freedom Caravan Returned to Las Tuna…

A caravan of young people and veterans traveled this morning through Las Tunas, from Cañada Honda to El Yunque, materializing the reissue of the libertarian delegation that in January 1959...

Collective Effort in "Colombia…

In the framework of the Provincial Act for the 66th anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution, held in the Tunas municipality of Colombia, new works of economic and social...

We Recommend

Cuba News

Cuba Holds Bastion 2024 Strategic Drill

Cuba is holding the Bastion 2024 Strategic Exercise from Wednesday to Friday, January 24, as part of its defense preparedness.

Cuba Remains Unyielding Despite being Re…

Cuba remains determined not to give in and to continue fighting despite the reinstatement of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and other interventionist actions against it.

Cuba Reiterates Commitment to Regular, O…

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Friday reaffirmed Cuba's commitment to dialogue and cooperation as a way to achieve regular, orderly, and safe migration.

MINFAR Declares People Involved in Accid…

The Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) declared 13 combatants officially dead on Wednesday, after being killed in a fire in a warehouse of war material in the...

Cuba Hosts Innovation for Development Fa…

The Havana-based Conference Center is hosting the Innovation for Development Fair, from this Wednesday to January 17, as part of the activities to mark Cuban Science Day.

Investment Program Improves Cuban Airpor…

Cuba will raise the level of operations of its main international airports this year as part of the aviation development program until 2030, a source from the Ministry of Transportation...

World News

Features

has to deal with the increase in import prices of medicines, reagents, medical instruments, disposable material, equipment, and spare parts.Cuba is currently forced to purchase medications in distant markets. It has to deal with the increase in import prices of medicines, reagents, medical instruments, disposable material, equipment, and spare parts.

Havana, Cuba.- Young engineer Solainy Fajardo Araújo, Director of Imports of the Import and Export Company of Medical Products of the Ministry of Public Health (MediCuba S.A.), knows the drill very well.

She told Juventud Rebelde that not only has the blockade against the island intensified during the government of President Donald Trump. Its extraterritorial nature has increased even more.

"It is not enough for the U.S. government to apply the blockade directly against Cuba; it also sanctions or severely fines entities from other nations that carry out commercial operations with our country, for which we receive more and more refusals, not only from trading companies and factories but also from banks, shipping companies, and even airlines during the negotiation process," he said.

"We are surprised with refusals issued with no previous notice, even at the time of execution of a contract, or at the time of moving the goods to our country," Fajardo Araujo explained.

"They do not inform us that from as of a specific date, they will stop their businesses with us. Their decision comes all of a sudden and that is when Cuba has to look for alternatives to guarantee the arrival of what we need for the people's medical care," she said.

MediCuba S.A. has made requests to 57 U.S. companies for the acquisition of supplies. So far, 50 of them have not responded, and three have claimed that, due to the blockade, they cannot meet the island's request.

Juventud Rebelde reported that upon contacting the U.S. company Promega Corporation to obtain supplies of inputs for the diagnosis of genetic diseases the Cuban company was told that based on resolutions issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, trade sanctions are applied to industries based in that country that sell products and provide services and/or technology to Cuba.

The Bruker company also refused to sell the spectrophotometer, the equipment needed to quantify substances and microorganisms, and Stryker has not responded to the request for extensible stents, used in limb-conserving surgery or for salvaging upper and lower limbs, which is why the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology has had to resort to fixed prostheses, said Fajardo Araujo.

For the purchase of new drugs for cancer treatment, Cuba has contacted several companies and has not received a response either.

The Director of Import of Medicuba SA added that the purchase of the percutaneous aortic valve prosthesis, a minimally invasive implant method, which would benefit annually about 60 patients over 70 years old with aortic valve disease of degenerative origin, was requested to Boston Scientific.

"That entity has not yet responded, nor has Zimmer Biomet, which was asked to sell knee, hip, and dental prosthesis to the island." (RHC)