‘In Cuba Capital is not above Human Rights and the Lives of the People’ – Chavista Chronicles from Caracas interview with Dr. Valia Rodriguez
Caracas, December 14, 2020 (OrinocoTribune.com)— In this new episode of “Chavista Chronicles from Caracas” we had the pleasure of interviewing Valia Rodriguez, a Cuban doctor residing in UK and co-producer of the new documentary film Cuba and COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity, that depicts how Cuba has heroically battled COVID-19 in the midst of an upsurge of the US blockade.
Dr. Valia Rodriguez is a Cuban medical doctor and neuroscientist currently residing in the United Kingdom, where she is an associated professor in neurophysiology at Aston University.
Before moving to the UK, she worked for 25 years in the Cuban Neuroscience Center located in the Scientific Pole of Havana where she was a professor and senior titular scientist. She was a consultant in critical care neurophysiology at Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical-Surgical Hospital.
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Helen Yaffe and Valia Rodriguez are the featured characters in this excellent documentary that covers the most important issues concerning Cuba’s healthcare system and their fight against COVID-19. The film covers developments made by Cuban science with their four COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including Soberana 1 and Soberana 2, and the solidarity work of the Henry Reeve Medical Brigades that have saved thousand of lives during the pandemic, overcoming the smear campaign launched by Washington against the Cuban doctors participating in it. All of this was accomplished amid a tightening of the criminal US blockade and sanctions against the island.
We asked Dr. Rodriguez four questions, and at the end she posed us a few questions, that we value because they allowed us to talk about the Cuban-Venezuelan relationship and Venezuela’s battle against COVID-19.
Our questions were:
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1. Can you give us some hints about your new documentary?
2. Was it difficult to produce the film under current COVID-19 limitations, and can you tell us about your touring plans for the promotion of the documentary?
3. We know that in Cuba as well as in Venezuela the material conditions of millions have been affected by US blockade and sanctions. How do you evaluate the spirit of Cubans and the prospects for our brother country?
4. How do you compare the COVID-19 response in socialist or progressive countries to the response in capitalist countries to the north.
At the end of the interview Dr. Rodriguez asked the following questions:
1. How has COVID-19 impacted Venezuela? How has this been affected by increased aggression in the Trump period?
2. There has been some news regarding the use of the Sputnik vaccine in Venezuela. Is there a plan to start vaccination or to participate in the clinical trial of the vaccine?
3. What is the status of the Nabarima offshore oil facility near Trinidad and Tobago, that was at risk of causing an oil spill recently?
Orinoco Tribune invites you to hear the answers to the questions, and more, by watching the video of the interview above.
Cuba & COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity is produced by DaniFilms in collaboration with Belly of the Beast Cuba. English subtitles embedded, select subtitles/CC for Spanish subtitles.
If you would like to donate to buy material aid for Cuba’s healthcare system, please do so here.
Featured image: Cuba & COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity. Poster courtesy of DaniFilms in collaboration with Belly of the Beast Cuba,
OT/JRE/SL
