Within this matrix, it serves as a conduit between nations far and near, bridging the gap between one another and contributing to both human and national development.
This reality is what attracted the new Cuban Ambassador to The Gambia to embark on a familiarization tour of the media in the country.
On his visit to The Point recently, Ambassador Lazaro Herrera Martinez said the media is a major player in bringing nations closer on the platform of development, as it serves as a channel to strengthen relations between two countries, in this case between his country and The Gambia.
The following is an excerpt from the interview he granted The Point’s Managing Director and the editor during his recent courtesy call on the paper.
Your Excellency Ambassador Martinez, what is the purpose of your visit to The Point newspaper?
First of all, allow me to express my gratitude for giving me this opportunity to come here to visit The Point. My purpose of visiting your office is, first of all, to establish good relations between the Cuban Embassy and The Point, taking into account the importance that we attach to the relations with the media. The media is a channel to let the people know more about Cuba and also a channel to strengthen the relations between our two countries.
In this specific case, The Point; this is because The Point is one of the most important newspapers in The Gambia. We read every day The Point through its website and also the written newspaper, and it is very important not only for the Gambian people but also for the foreign diplomats residing in The Gambia.
So I decided to come here as I have decided to go to other newspapers as part of the media community here in The Gambia, just because of the importance of the media, and the strengthening of the relations between The Gambia and the rest of the world; in this case the relations between The Gambia and Cuba.
So I am very happy to be here, to try to make the Gambian people know more about the Cuban reality. The Cuban Embassy is open to any kind of information required regarding my country. My purpose here is to let the people know about Cuba, and to try to bridge a friendly relations between our two countries. And the media is very important for the purpose.
How would you explain the relations between The Gambia and Cuba?
First of all, let me tell you, The Gambia and Cuba have brotherly relations between the two countries, based on common history; because we, Cuba and The Gambia, have a common root. In our veins we have African blood also; we have many common interests and purposes; so we have a very good base for the brotherly relations we have settled down on all of these years from the establishment of relations between our two countries.
Cuba has always been trying to offer any kind of support it could to The Gambia. The same - The Gambia has also offered support to the Cuban interests and the Cuban causes in the international arena; and based on that we have several very fruitful and brotherly relations between our two countries.
Just to give you some examples. In public healthcare, we have been contributing to the improvement on the medical services in The Gambia.
But we have many other fields we can either exchange experiences or contribute to the development of The Gambia. Now we have more than 100 doctors in almost all the regions and corners of The Gambia – we also have nurses, technical and medical collaborators in The Gambia. And we are also trying to strengthen the relations and collaboration in other fields such as agriculture, medicine, education and sport. In general we are trying to go ahead to strengthen more on these relationships.
So personally I am optimistic about the future of the relations between our two countries based on these common interests, common history, common purposes, mutual understanding, and respect for each other. These are good bases for the relations between our two countries.
Recently, you have restored diplomatic relations with America. What is your reaction about that?
We, and I personally, welcome this new period of the relations between our two countries. It is just the beginning of a process, which will be long, difficult; but it seems to me that if the mutual respect prevails we can go ahead with the relations.
Now we are in the process of establishing or normalizing diplomatic relations, which means the first step to establishing or opening embassies in both capitals.
Now we have an intersection, which is like a mechanism or window for restarting the relations between the two countries. Through this intersection, we are going to normalize our relations and establish and open embassies in both sides. But to do that it is necessary to solve some problems: one of the problems, which is mostly elementary, is to let Cuba to have the opportunity to use any financial institution in the US or US bank to operate, which is the most normal thing in any diplomatic institution.
Any embassy that cannot operate with the bank cannot work. In fact, since about two years ago the consular section of Cuba cannot operate because we don’t have any bank in the US to be able to operate with Cuba. So we have to solve this problem, and fortunately the US government, the Obama Administration, and personally President Obama has declared his willingness to solve this problem.
The second problem is to get Cuba out of the list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism, a list on which Cuba should never have been.
It has been lifted?
No, it is not, because this process has different steps: one is the decision of the President, but the President has to submit this decision to the Congress and then the Congress may or may not approve this decision – of course, in the end, the President can use his executive prerogative to decide; but one of the steps is to submit this decision to the Congress.
The Congress has 45 days to decide yes or no, whether they should take Cuba out of this list or not. But the problem now is: the majority in the US Congress is the Republicans and many of them – I can tell, most of them - are against the President’s decision to establish relations with Cuba and to get Cuba out of this list.
So it could happen that the Congress decides ‘NO, we disagree; we don’t want to take Cuba out of the list’; therefore, we have to wait for 45 days. Of course, it could happen that tomorrow they can say ‘Yes’.
In the first place, we should never have been on this list, because we have suffered many terrorist actions. Exactly 3,478 people died because of terrorist actions against Cuba. About 2009 people have been disabled for life because of terrorist actions against Cuba, and thousands of others have also been wounded for this; so what kind of terrorists are we?
In this specific case, The Point; this is because The Point is one of the most important newspapers in The Gambia. We read every day The Point through its website and also the written newspaper, and it is very important not only for the Gambian people but also for the foreign diplomats residing in The Gambia.
So I decided to come here as I have decided to go to other newspapers as part of the media community here in The Gambia, just because of the importance of the media, and the strengthening of the relations between The Gambia and the rest of the world; in this case the relations between The Gambia and Cuba.
So I am very happy to be here, to try to make the Gambian people know more about the Cuban reality. The Cuban Embassy is open to any kind of information required regarding my country. My purpose here is to let the people know about Cuba, and to try to bridge a friendly relations between our two countries. And the media is very important for the purpose.
How would you explain the relations between The Gambia and Cuba?
First of all, let me tell you, The Gambia and Cuba have brotherly relations between the two countries, based on common history; because we, Cuba and The Gambia, have a common root. In our veins we have African blood also; we have many common interests and purposes; so we have a very good base for the brotherly relations we have settled down on all of these years from the establishment of relations between our two countries.
Cuba has always been trying to offer any kind of support it could to The Gambia. The same - The Gambia has also offered support to the Cuban interests and the Cuban causes in the international arena; and based on that we have several very fruitful and brotherly relations between our two countries.
Just to give you some examples. In public healthcare, we have been contributing to the improvement on the medical services in The Gambia.
But we have many other fields we can either exchange experiences or contribute to the development of The Gambia. Now we have more than 100 doctors in almost all the regions and corners of The Gambia – we also have nurses, technical and medical collaborators in The Gambia. And we are also trying to strengthen the relations and collaboration in other fields such as agriculture, medicine, education and sport. In general we are trying to go ahead to strengthen more on these relationships.
So personally I am optimistic about the future of the relations between our two countries based on these common interests, common history, common purposes, mutual understanding, and respect for each other. These are good bases for the relations between our two countries.
Recently, you have restored diplomatic relations with America. What is your reaction about that?
We, and I personally, welcome this new period of the relations between our two countries. It is just the beginning of a process, which will be long, difficult; but it seems to me that if the mutual respect prevails we can go ahead with the relations.
Now we are in the process of establishing or normalizing diplomatic relations, which means the first step to establishing or opening embassies in both capitals.
Now we have an intersection, which is like a mechanism or window for restarting the relations between the two countries. Through this intersection, we are going to normalize our relations and establish and open embassies in both sides. But to do that it is necessary to solve some problems: one of the problems, which is mostly elementary, is to let Cuba to have the opportunity to use any financial institution in the US or US bank to operate, which is the most normal thing in any diplomatic institution.
Any embassy that cannot operate with the bank cannot work. In fact, since about two years ago the consular section of Cuba cannot operate because we don’t have any bank in the US to be able to operate with Cuba. So we have to solve this problem, and fortunately the US government, the Obama Administration, and personally President Obama has declared his willingness to solve this problem.
The second problem is to get Cuba out of the list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism, a list on which Cuba should never have been.
It has been lifted?
No, it is not, because this process has different steps: one is the decision of the President, but the President has to submit this decision to the Congress and then the Congress may or may not approve this decision – of course, in the end, the President can use his executive prerogative to decide; but one of the steps is to submit this decision to the Congress.
The Congress has 45 days to decide yes or no, whether they should take Cuba out of this list or not. But the problem now is: the majority in the US Congress is the Republicans and many of them – I can tell, most of them - are against the President’s decision to establish relations with Cuba and to get Cuba out of this list.
So it could happen that the Congress decides ‘NO, we disagree; we don’t want to take Cuba out of the list’; therefore, we have to wait for 45 days. Of course, it could happen that tomorrow they can say ‘Yes’.
In the first place, we should never have been on this list, because we have suffered many terrorist actions. Exactly 3,478 people died because of terrorist actions against Cuba. About 2009 people have been disabled for life because of terrorist actions against Cuba, and thousands of others have also been wounded for this; so what kind of terrorists are we?
