Artists and Intellectuals defend health agreement as U.S. diplomat meet with regional governor.

On Thursday, Italian artists and intellectuals denounced U.S. pressure aimed at halting the collaboration of Cuban doctors in the region of Calabria.

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“Our country is also suffering the attack of the United States, which seeks to force us not to collaborate with Cuba in any way,” states an editorial published in the newspaper Il Faro di Roma, signed by Rita Martufi, Salvatore Izzo, and Luciano Vasapollo, members of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity (REDH).

In the editorial titled “Doctors, Not Bombs: The Challenge of Cuba and Calabria to Criminal U.S. Interference and the Battle for Our Health Care,” they denounced that the charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Mike Hammer, met with Calabria Gov. Roberto Occhiuto on Feb. 23.

Following that meeting, Occhiuto reaffirmed that Cuban specialists are an indispensable resource for the stability of the regional health system, which had hospitals and emergency rooms at risk of closure before the arrival of the Cuban support.

Lawmaker Angelo Bonelli, leader of the parliamentary alliance between the parties Green Europe and the Italian Left, urged Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to “counter the undue interference of a foreign nation in our country’s internal affairs.”

The textg reads, “Hammer, go home! A message directed to the U.S. diplomat in Havana, who is on a mission in Italy to demand the expulsion of Cuban doctors from Calabria.”

Currently, Cuban doctors and health workers provide services in 29 hospitals across the provinces of Vibo Valentia, Catanzaro, Crotone, Cosenza and Reggio Calabria.

Since the arrival of the first group in late 2022, the presence of these professionals has increased with new groups that arrived in 2024 and 2025, addressing critical shortages in one of the Italian areas with the greatest economic difficulties.

The Calabria region faced a health crisis for years that kept hospitals and emergency rooms on the verge of closure, leaving entire communities without basic services. The lack of health care has been reversed thanks to the incorporation of hundreds of Cuban doctors into the regional public system.

Supporters of the agreement say that amid the recovery of the local health system, there is an external attempt to weaken a model of humanitarian cooperation grounded in solidarity.

This approach to assistance was defined by Comandante Fidel Castro as the highest expression of revolutionary commitment to humanity.

The text reads, “Doctors, not bombs: Cuba and Calabria’s challenge to U.S. criminal interference and the battle for our healthcare.”

“In the United States, the world’s richest economy and a country that is not economically blocked by any power, only 51% of the population can access and afford quality health services,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

“But its diplomats dedicate themselves to traveling through countries where Cuban professionals and personnel provide medical services. The mission of the tour is to try to put an end to such a necessary and humane service,” he added.

Recently, Cuba’s ambassador to Italy and permanent representative to United Nations agencies in Rome, Jorge Cepero, presented his credentials to Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

After the official ceremony, both dignitaries held a private meeting in which they reaffirmed their shared willingness to deepen the ties of friendship, respect and cooperation that unite the two nations.

Within the framework of solidarity that characterizes relations between the two countries, they recalled the work of the two Cuban brigades belonging to the Henry Reeve Contingent, which assisted Italy during the most critical moments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: Il Faro di Roma – PL

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