Mexico has just sent Cuba a total of 1,400 pairs of shoes as a donation, which will be distributed by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). According to its national coordinator, Gerardo Hernandez Nordelothe footwear will go to “homes for children without family protection in the country.”
The news, widely reported by the official press as a “show of the ties of friendship and brotherhood that unite both peoples” against “the United States blockade,” is accompanied by photos showing recycled cardboard boxes from Mexican supermarkets and some than another of the almighty shopping site on-line Amazon –which Cubans cannot access–, all of them closed, so it is not possible to know if the shoes are new or used and what quality they present.
In the past, a similar experience ended with plastic shoes on the feet of Cuban elementary school children, which filled them with sweat and were a source of fungus in the tropical heat.
The donation, which also included 300 kilos of medical supplies for Pinar del Río and Helvex hardware for the Faustino Pérez hospital in Matanzas, was managed, reported the official press, by the José Martí Residents Association in Mexico and by the Va por Cuba Solidarity Coordinator. When asked by this newspaper, however, Va por Cuba sent any question related to donations to the Island’s Embassy in Mexico.
Just a few days ago, a batch of a thousand gas stoves also arrived on the island for those affected by Hurricane Ian, which devastated the western area at the end of last september. The devices were donated by the manufacturer himself, the Mexican Delher.
The North American country began a growing rapprochement with Cuba after the rise to power of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The latest show of sympathy by the Mexican president for the regime was the announcement, last week, of the intention to import Cuban gravel to finish its mammoth and controversial Mayan Train in the Yucatan peninsula.
The president has also spoken out against what he calls blocking from the United States to Cuba and has asked to eliminate it on numerous occasions.
In addition, there are almost 500 Cuban doctors in Mexico. distributed in several statesin remote or violent areas of the country, by virtue of the agreement that López Obrador signed on his last visit to the island, last May.
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