The author is a Portuguese doctor who participated in two international medical cooperation missions in Cuba and shares his personal experiences in the country. During these visits, he was hospitalized for almost a week at the Cira Garcia clinic in Havana due to renal colic and acute renal failure, where he received multidisciplinary treatment with competence and humanism. He visited hospitals, the Manuel Fajardo faculty of medicine, health centers, the botanical garden, the museum dedicated to Che Guevara in Santa Clara, and other tourist sites such as the Malecón and Revolution Square.
The author acknowledges that in Cuba he found no freedom or democracy, and reports difficult situations he witnessed, such as people being arrested for speaking with foreigners, young people without a future, and the impossibility of some citizens accessing stores even when they had money. However, he questions why the same Portuguese politicians and digital influencers who advocate penalties for Cuba do not do the same regarding other countries where Portuguese people vacation, such as the Dominican Republic or Egypt, which also have similar political regimes.
The author states that the US economic and political embargo against Cuba has been in place since 1959 and cites right-wing columnist Esteves Cardoso, who wrote that the European Union should help Cuba. He concludes that Cubans are affable and affectionate human beings, despite the sub-human conditions in which they live, and that they do not deserve the disdain of developed countries or the boycott of their quality of life, whether by action or omission. He argues that being a humanist may be politically incorrect, but it is being human.
