MIAMI, United States. – The vice president of Colombia, Francia Márquez, denied that the Cuban government was a dictatorship during an interview with Vicky Dávila, director of the magazine Week.
Initially, when asked about the term to define the island’s regime, Márquez avoided a conclusive answer. “But why? In other words, it has been a blocked dictatorship, a dictatorship as you say, but it does not send weapons. Send doctors. Isn’t that something to admire?” she said.
Later, when the journalist insisted, the vice president argued: “You have put the qualifier, I do not put it that way. I don’t put it that way… I respect the autonomy of each people and the sovereignty of each people. Each town decides how to organize itself politically”.
“They can say what they want, but they can’t cover the Sun with a finger. While other countries send troops and weapons to many nations, Cuba sends doctors and they cannot hide that. A country blocked for more than 60 years sends doctors to other nations, ”she repeated.
Likewise, Márquez blamed the United States for the serious crisis that the Island is going through.[El pueblo cubano] It has not been able to decide because it has been blocked, it has been blocked by powers,” he said. “It has been blocked by the United States,” she stressed.
At another time, when the director of Week alluded to the long period of government of Fidel Castro, the Colombian vice president evaded the issue of Cuba and referred to her own country: “Have we not had it here? [la dictadura]Vicky? With results where inequity and inequality is the largest in the world… the dictatorship and democracy of a country is not measured only by the electoral,” she said.
For her, whether or not a dictatorship exists “is not measured only by the electoral, it is measured by the social transformations, it is measured by the guarantee of the rights of society.”
“I admire the health system [cubano], which supported the professionalization, blockade and all, of thousands of citizens, including Colombians. Because more than 1,000 have been trained there and here they have not had the opportunity, in our nation and in our country. They have had it in another blocked nation or dictatorship, as you say, ”he pointed out.
In February 2023, during an official visit to Cuba, Márquez asked the United States Government to remove the Island from the list of State sponsors of terrorism. In addition, he assured that Cuba was a country that was committed to peace and that it should not be sanctioned.
“We support the demand to lift the blockade,” said the Colombian lawyer and politician, who assured that Cuba had contributed “enormously to Colombia’s progress in finding peace.”
