On the occasion of Fidel Castro’s 97th birthday, this exceptional protagonist, first as a social activist, student and youth leader in Panama and later as a diplomat (2004-2009), shared with Prensa Latina experiences of his closeness with the lessons of those who, he estimated, became an inexhaustible source for the popular and democratic movements of the entire continent.
In Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, several Caribbean nations and Argentina, just to name a few, the progressive forces and those in favor of the dispossessed were inspired by the noble cause of the Cuban people, led by Fidel, the ex-diplomat noted.
The Commander-in-Chief’s spirit and example of never giving in to the growing attacks by the United States transcended Cuba’s borders and inspired other revolutionary leaders and social organizations in the region, Gómez said.
The triumphant Revolution in 1959 was a benchmark for our student struggles, in schools and universities, assured Gomez, who also held various responsibilities and later in the early years of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party, founded by General Omar Torrijos in 1979, he added.
Fidel and Cuba have always been in solidarity and consistent with Panama, and another sign is the support for General Torrijos at every international forum, and even recommendations, they contributed to the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaty in 1977, which allowed Panama to rescue the sovereignty of the Canal Zone, in US hands.
For Gómez, Fidel is also a vision of the future, as he demonstrated when in 1961, Cuba became the first country in Latin America to declare itself a Territory Free of Illiteracy.
However, he did not settle for this local conquest but promoted initiatives and innovative literacy programs such as “Yo sí puedo” (Yes I Can), which has allowed humble people with limited resources, indigenous people, workers and peasants to know how to read and write, he considered.
Gómez noted that the same thing happened in public health, a sphere in which Cuba exhibits a high scientific level of its doctors and their treatments, such as having produced five of its own vaccine candidates to fight Covid-19.
He recalled that the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro created the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, where he had the privilege of accompanying him at its first graduation, along with then Panamanian President Martín Torrijos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
For the first time, he said, descendants of Panamanian indigenous peoples and peasants and from other nations, including the United States, had access to this knowledge, and today they are highly acknowledged for their professionalism, humility, and scientific capacity.
However, the Cuban physicians and their humanitarian work also came to our countries in the most difficult moments of the pandemic to lend their hands, as part of the Henry Reeve International Brigade, Gómez recalled.
Personally, we contributed by sending to Havana the first hundreds of visually impaired patients who, thanks to Operation Miracle, recovered their vision, a precedent for the presence of Cuban ophthalmologists in Panama, he added.
Finally, Gómez praised Fidel’s teaching that in the midst of the most difficult circumstances due to the unfair and inhumane blockade by the United States, Cuba does not give up or abandon the founding principles of the project of social justice and equity that shares not what is left over, but the little it has.
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