Italian friends of Cuba defend Nobel Prize for island's doctors

Ciego de Avila, June 9 (RHC)-- The president of the Italy-Cuba Friendship Association, Irma Dioli, confirmed the support of her organization for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve Cuban Medical Contingent.

Through a message via Internet to the radio station Radio Surco in the central Cuban city of Ciego de Avila, the Italian activist expressed her support for the campaign promoted by personalities and organizations at the international level, for the kindness and love of the medical brigade that rendered its invaluable services in Lombardy.

She also denounced the infamous campaign of lies against Cuban doctors, orchestrated by the U.S. government.  She affirmed that the doctors only save lives, and it is for this reason that from Italy, many senators and parliamentarians counteract the immoral and discrediting campaign against the Caribbean island.

The Henry Reeve Brigade returned to Cuba on Monday after more than two months of intense and productive work in the Italian region.  The group, made up of 52 Cuban health professionals, traveled to Lombardy to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, in the midst of a severe health crisis in that country.

The Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade for Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics was founded in August 2005, as an initiative of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to provide aid to the population affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans -- an offer that the White House of George W. Bush rejected.

Since its inception, it has assisted nations hit by health disasters, such as cholera, Ebola and Covid-19, or natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes and storms.