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BACKGROUND: Data about performance measures (PM) in patients with ST segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) in low- and middle-income countries is really scarce. One of the reasons is the lack of appropriate measures for these scenarios where coronary intervention is not the standard treatment. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a set of PM and quality markers for patients with STEMI in these countries. METHODS: Two investigators systematically reviewed existing guidelines and scientific literature to identify potential PM by referring to documents searched through PubMed from 2010 through 2019, using terms "Myocardial Infarction", "STEMI", "quality indicator", and "performance measure". A modified Delphi technique, involving multidisciplinary panel interview, was used. A 15-member multidisciplinary expert panel individually rated each potential indicator on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) during three rounds. All indicators that received a median score ≥4.5, in final round without significant disagreement were included as PM. RESULTS: Through the consensus-building process, 84 potential indicators were found, of which 10 were proposed as performance measures and 2 as quality metrics, as follows: Pre-Hospital Electrocardiogram; Patients with reperfusion therapy; Pre-hospital Reperfusion; Ischemic time less than 120 minutes; System delay time less than 90 minutes; In-hospital Mortality; Complete in-hospital Treatment; Complete in-hospital Treatment in patients with Heart Failure; 30 day-Re-admissions; 30 day-mortality; Patients with in-hospital stress test performed; and, Patients included in rehabilitation programs. CONCLUSION: This document provides the official set of PM of attention in ST segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction of the Cuban Society of Cardiology and Cuban National Group of Cardiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delineates a distinctly post-1960s expression of hunger and desire for food in Cuban and Egyptian cultural production. Hunger has always been present in aesthetic renditions of everyday life in both locales. Following the early-1960s socialist expansion of the role of the state, a new expression of hunger for animal protein emerged that relied on vegetarian tropes and parodied official discourse. Expressions of this "new hunger" captured the contradictory state of being conditioned, through state food programs, to see the consumption of animal products as the epitome of a healthy diet that endows one with the status of being "developed" and "modern" while simultaneously not being afforded satisfactory access to those food items due to conditions beyond one's individual control. In such contexts, the average citizen is primarily vegetarian and not by choice, while those with access to power live the promised dream of carnivorous plenty. This article analyzes several political speeches, cartoons, jokes, and songs to map the rhetorical and aesthetic characteristics of such satiric expressions and demonstrate how they were informed by the growing gap between early revolutionary official promises of food for all and actual food shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn the past three decades, Cuba has extended opportunities for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) to establish operations within its predominantly centrally planned economy. Many MNEs have seized this opportunity and established their presence in Cuba, resulting in FDI inflows reaching up to 2 per cent of GDP in certain years. In our paper, we aim to assess the impact of MNEs’ activity on local companies, with a specific focus on productivity spillover effects. Additionally, we analyze how institutional factors influence the strength of these effects. Our data collection involved conducting questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with MNEs operating in Cuba and experts on the Cuban economy. Our findings reveal that MNEs introduce new technology and knowledge to Cuba, thereby positively influencing the local development. We have confirmed the existence of vertical spillover effects, as certain MNEs provide direct assistance to local companies with whom they collaborate. The extent of these spillover effects is heavily contingent on Cuba’s institutional framework. Local regulations mandate that MNEs cooperate with local companies for various operations, such as expanding product distribution across the country, thus amplifying the impact. Conversely, spillover effects through labor mobility are limited, as there is a low rate of transition from MNEs to local companies among the local workforce. Stringent legal constraints further hinder interaction between MNEs and the Cuban private sector, thereby limiting the broader spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the inventive everyday digital practices that Cubans have put into place to surf the waves of digital scarcity. The paper itself is an experiment in what Donna Haraway calls SF stories (Science Fiction, Speculative Fabulation or Speculative Feminism). We will engage in a process of speculative narrative exploring stories about digital practices in Cuba by connecting them to the animal world. Through the use of metaphors belonging to the world of aquatic creatures emerging in our collaborators' stories, we will address everyday digital practices as symbiotic assemblages. We argue that the speculative mixture of fabulation and aquatic metaphors can function as an antidote to simple dualistic reductions, perhaps offering a critical understanding of the meaning of digital technologies outside Western deterministic and dualistic categories. Part of a larger project on digital culture in Cuba, this paper aims to present a speculative work of fabulation where the animal world meets technology, creative writing and situated stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute with initial reflections on the adoption and regulation of cryptocurrencies, as well as blockchain technology in the case of Cuban socialism. It is assumed that both the cyclical crisis and the structural crisis represented by capitalism on a global scale contribute to the presence of this technology in Cuba. To this end, we seek to contextualize the regulation of crypto-activities in a planned economy and understand how this has resulted in the expansion of technology-based enterprises and projects supported by blockchain technology. Finally, with the contribution of the Political Economy of Communication, it is questioned to what extent cryptocurrencies can really solve the crisis of the Cuban system when democratization manifests itself only in the sphere of circulation, relegating the concentration of power and wealth that manifests itself in the productive sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yoselin Benitez Alfonso, a professor in interdisciplinary plant sciences at the University of Leeds, shares her journey and passion for plant science. Growing up in Cuba, she developed a love for nature and later pursued a degree in chemistry in Spain. Despite not having a biology background, she taught herself plant biology and became interested in plasmodesmata research. She is motivated by her love for research, the success of her students, and the impact of her contributions to teaching and diversity. She considers her father and various mentors as role models and enjoys reading papers on plasmodesmata research and plant symbiosis. Her favorite plant is the olive tree due to its symbolism, climate resilience, and economic significance. Yoselin is also involved in the Black in Plant Science Network and has received recognition for her leadership and academic achievements. [Extracted from the article]

Statues of the Virgin Mary have been embarking on various types of movement and migration for centuries. They are the fixed points around which religious activities are carried out in communities in Spain and Latin America and play significant roles in the personal and social lives of their devotees. Until recently, however, scholarship has largely overlooked the potential richness of what religious material cultures can tell us about religious transformation in Latin America. This paper therefore offers a theoretical and methodological advance by way of a ground-up, 'material' approach to understanding religious change through the religious statues themselves. It utilises the statue of the Virgen de la Regla in Chipiona, Spain as a node on a map from which to trace the lines of movement from Spain into Cuba where a replica of the same Virgin, another nodal point, is worshipped as both Virgin Mary and Santeria Orisha Yemayá. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cuban Revolution has inspired the guerrilla struggle in Latin America. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was directly involved in processes that contributed to the organization of guerrilla forces in various Latin American countries. In this article, we argue that already at the beginning of the 1960s Guevara started to help organize and coordinate the organization of the revolutionary armed struggle in the Latin American continent. He considered that local socialist revolutions would not be able to survive if these were not accompanied by revolutionary struggle in other parts of Latin America. This paper presents Guevara's ideas on the necessity of continental revolution, in the context of United States military interventions in Latin America. It describes in detail Cuba's and Che's involvement in the organization of various guerrilla activities in South America, and demonstrates that guerrilla processes in Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina were the first stones for the development of continental guerrilla warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on recent scholarly interest in Latin America's Cold War, this paper breaks new ground in using a broad range of original documents from previously largely overlooked voices – the foreign ministries, parties, and security services agencies of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Romania – in discussing Cuba's Cold War involvement in Central America and the Caribbean from the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party until the U.S. Grenada invasion. The candid reports provided by contemporary East European observers help us attain a more nuanced picture of Havana's complex policy dilemmas as it sought to negotiate and navigate between its vast ambitions, limited abilities, Soviet bloc restraint, and the ever-present threat of a U.S. invasion. Finally, further in line with the latest advancements in the globalized Cold War historiography, in hearing the voices of Moscow's junior partners, this article casts the events surrounding the tumultuous period in a broader Transatlantic setting beyond the shadows of the superpowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses why Cuba, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia attempted to establish air transport agreements with Chile, as well as their objectives and those of their airlines. It also examines the response of the Allende government and other Chilean key actors. The paper shows that the interest in signing these agreements lay in the Socialist bloc countries. Their reasons varied depending on their particular situation and foreign policy goals. By contrast, Chile saw the negotiation of agreements as a means of strengthening its ties with the Soviet bloc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will show how fashion practice in contemporary Cuba plays out as revolt in the face of two productive axes: the mythological machine of the Cuban Revolution, and that of capitalist accumulation. After establishing how the revolt is formulated within historical materialism, pointing out the need for its demythologization, the shared ontological foundations of the capitalist and the socialist models in their horror of the nonproductive are established, in order to show how this ethos is articulated with the revolt, a figure which guides our approach insofar as it differs from dissent. Once the framework is outlined showing how the Cuban State's sartorial socialization mechanisms contributed to the making of the symbolic-mythological machinery, the groundwork is laid for the socio-historical elements that enable the emergence of a new subjectivity traversed by the representational-specular intersectionalities which are key to our analysis. From the radical perspective of uselessness, waste and potlatch, this essay will then go on to situate the Cuban fashion praxis as destructive revolt that subverts and breaks with the historicist narrative of both capitalism and the Cuban Revolution. In order to illustrate this argument, the paper examines specific examples from among contemporary Cuba's fashion practitioners in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial facilities are vulnerable to the strike of natural phenomena. Their effects on these facilities can cause great economic losses and trigger other process that threat human health and contaminate the environment. Tropical cyclones are one of the most harmful natural phenomena to Cuba because of its recurrence and destructive force. Determining the frequency and intensity with which them might affect important economic places, is vital in order for facilities to get adequately prepared and minimize damages. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to characterize tropical cyclones that have affected Mariel's Special Development Zone (ZEDM in Spanish), where are located more than 50 companies from different economic sectors with great significance to Cuba. It was created a tool that allows to study the tropical cyclones that have affected this area in the 1851-2020 period according to their formation area, intensity, frequency and probability of occurrence. Results shown that the studied area is highly affected by category 1 and 2 hurricanes, with September and October's average paths. This information is useful for optimizing the risk assessment in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of tsunami and storm boulders on the rocky shores of the Balearic Islands was an unknown topic until a decade ago. As a result of several trips to the Caribbean, we observed deposits of boulders called "camellones de tormenta" and "huracanolitos" that resemble those located at the top of the Balearic Islands cliffs. Inspired on those caribean blocks, we started to analyse the Balearic ones. This paper summarizes the state of the art on both: cliff-top boulders from Caribbean and those from Balearic Islands. We characterise their shape, dimensions and weight, as well as the type of wave necessary for their emplacement at the cliff-top. We conclude that most of the cliff-top boulders present along the Balearic Islands rocky coasts are related to tsunami events generated by seaquakes along the Algerian coast. All of that without underestimating the action of the high-energy wave events that rework part of these boulders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatialities of anti‐imperialist praxis are increasingly fraught with innumerable challenges that require complex epistemological considerations. As borderless US‐based militarisation regimes proliferate globally at an unprecedented pace, embedding their political‐territorial control more securely through state and logics of neo‐imperial extractive capitalism, they have prevailed through the strategic discourse of "progress, security and freedom". This paper explores the geopolitical workings of Caimanera, the town closest to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO), as a counter‐hegemonic project to US imperialism. Referred to as the First Anti‐Imperialist Trench in Cuba—a territory lying within the shadow of one of the world's most notorious prisons and oldest military bases—Caimanera's history is fraught with tension since the base was first established by the US in 1903. Since the triumph of the 1959 revolution, the base continues to be held against the will of the Cuban people and is strongly denounced as an illegal occupation. Based on archival material, landscape analysis, and visits to Caimanera in 2015, 2017 and 2019, this paper explores how the anti‐imperialist geopolitical suburb has historically evolved through the territoriality of its governance and actions. This anti‐imperiaist geopolitical suburb is explored as a conceptual form and mode of praxis drawing insights from Fidel Castro's theorisation of the "Battle of Ideas", whereby the production of oppositional space in response to imperial threats and aggression is tackled through complexities of the city‐building process and the cultural ideological resistance of its closely interwoven educational landscape. The anti‐imperialist geopolitical suburb as a space of subaltern geopolitics creatively attends to the complex task of sovereignty and boldly promulgates a movement towards peace and solidarity in the larger transnational region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the preservation of knowledge for the future generations is one of the problems in the world because the information is increasing fast as a result of the development of science and technology. In the case of the nuclear activity, the scientific and technological accumulated experiences should be preserved taking into consideration the new applications of the nuclear energy in different sectors of the human activity. For this, it is necessary to know the experts who work on different topics. This paper presents a performed study to obtain criterions from Cuban nuclear professionals about the conditions and principles to take into consideration for the selection of an expert in nuclear sciences and technologies. Appling Delphi method, it was obtained that years of experience, publications, participation in scientific events and scientific degree are more accepted criterions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a gender analysis of the main scientific and technological activities carried out by specialists linked to nuclear applications in the nuclear sector and the Cuban nuclear science and technology program. All existing information regarding participation and leadership in science and innovation projects was collected, including projects implemented with the International Atomic Energy Agency, scientific publications, the Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies Agency (AENTA) Awards, Cuban Academy of Science Awards, National Innovation Awards, AENTA Branch Forum, international awards, state scientific-technological protection services - radiological surveillance and specialized productions. The analysis has been carried out for the period between 2000-2022, corresponding to the last 22 fiscal years in which there has been an increase in the active participation of women in the nuclear sphere, with the aim of contributing to the decisions in the design of policies and their implementation in the nuclear field for the empowerment of Cuban women in this sector, and with special contribution to the future actions of the Network of Cuban Women in the Nuclear, known as WiN Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a wide array of original documents collected from Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian and Serbian diplomatic, party and security services archives, reflecting Havana's foreign policy during the Cold War. The article's narrative follows Cuba's Cold War foreign policy in the 1970s. Through its multipolar archival research methodology, the paper aims to help us acquaint a more nuanced and fuller picture of the complex and evolving character of Cuba's Cold War internationalism as seen through the eyes of Moscow's East European allies, marking a clear departure from existing literature mostly engaging Soviet or American sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a comparative study between the structures, regulation and challenges of small and medium size businesses (SMEs) in Australia and two Latin American jurisdictions - Chile and Cuba - with the object of exploring ways in which SME-propitious ecosystem can be configured in an unprecedented crisis situation. It examines the legislation, bodies and regulation in place which deal with SME issues, including consumer protection, and the differing contextual considerations, taking cognizance of the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the paper explores ways in which SMEs can be assisted and advised of their legal rights, including the provision of clinical and advisory support at a university level, and considers the steps taken by governments in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To compare practices and learn from them the research utilizes three case studies and contrasts the issues faced in an emerging economy such as Cuba with more established frameworks such as Chile and Australia, both OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her book Casas del Vedado (1983), Cuban author María Elena Llana explores themes and compositional strategies of non-realistic literary traditions that have remained in force in Latin America to date. In this paper I analyze one of her stories, "Claudina", with the aim of obtaining an understanding of her specific poetics in the general framework of supernatural fiction in our continent, as well as the symbolic meaning of the supernatural used by the author in this short story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to understand the significance, from a cultural and political point of view, of the presence of the Beatles' music in Noticiero Icaic Latinoamericano in a context of restrictions on the dissemination of rock music in Cuba, at the same time that the youth protagonism was flourishing and the cultural products aimed at youth were proving to be indispensable, to the Cuban government, to stimulate political engagement and the formation of the "new man". Through the research and analysis of the soundtrack of several editions from the period between 1965 and 1972, marked by Beatlemania, we reflect on the use of songs, in their multiple formats and versions, demonstrating the different roles that the music assumes, when combined with the visual material, in dialogue with the bibliography on the subject. We aim to demonstrate how this polysemic musical score, sometimes permeated with ambiguity, sometimes with explicit political discourse, allows us to explore the potentiality of Noticiero as a historical source of the Cuban Revolution, so marked by searches, clashes, and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Cuba and its position in global politics by means of geopolitics/geoeconomics. These two concepts are used to describe the current international political dimensions and how different nations attempt to control their position within global power politics. Geopolitics has always been related to the energy economy and energy policy. Cuba has throughout history been heavily connected to the states located in its neighbourhood as well as the international power politics. In this article, we illustrate the impacts of geopolitics and further explain the Cuban dependency on international global politics through Cross-Impact analysis (CIA), especially in terms of its version called Express Cross-Impact Technique (EXIT), developed at Finland Futures Research Institute. Three alternative scenarios are the results of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A National Innovation System (NIS) supposes updated, continuous, and collaborative work between different agents, so the value chain approach fits perfectly with this NIS conception. The sector selected to illustrate our proposal is the biotechnological industry because of its structure in technology-based companies and its contributions to de Cuban GDP. This is the first research that works in a proposition of NIS for Cuba. The objective of this paper is to suggest a NIS for Cuba based on the value chain of its biotechnological industry. We follow a benchmarking methodology. First, we analyze nine international NIS experiences from developed and developing countries. Then, we highlight several items to be applied to the Cuban proposed NIS by analyzing five indicators: regulations, technology and innovation policies, financial systems, business activities, and research and education systems. The proposed NIS shows links between funding, production, service, and scientific sectors based on the biotechnological industry. It is considered beneficial for the three most important actors in a nation (companies, government, and society) because it allows a profitable and durable solution for economic and social troubles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a wide array of original documents from over 20 archives in Eastern Europe, the US, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, this paper traces the complex interplay between Havana's revolutionary ideology and pragmatic state instincts which governed Cuba'a relations with the Soviet bloc from the ouster of Fulgencio Batista until the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It overviews their relations by hearing the candid voices of Moscow's closest East European allies (Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia) regarding Cuba's continuous transformations. Additionally, the views of the other East European socialist states, which were not among Moscow's closes backers, namely Albania, Yugoslavia and Romania, are also taken into account. In so doing, this paper seeks to enrich our understanding of the complex trajectory Cuba, the Soviet Union and the remaining East European socialist states underwent in their struggle against the common enemy, the United States. It also seeks to paint a more nuanced picture of the interplay between the realist imperative of state survival and the ideological drive of revolutionary expansionism, which marked Havana's relations with the East, the West and the South throughout the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very little is known about the investment climate and operations of MNEs in Cuba due to limited data provided by the Cuban government. In this paper, we explore the investment climate in Cuba and identify factors that limit the activities of MNEs. We also assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the future prospects for MNEs in Cuba. Our research is based on questionnaires and semi-structured interviews in MNEs operating in Cuba. MNEs consider low macroeconomic stability, the impossibility of acquiring real estate, access to financing and the movement of capital, and profit repatriation as the most problematic factors for their business activities. On the other hand, IPR protection, corruption, the skills and education of the available workforce and the availability of electricity were assessed as the least problematic. Less than half of the MNEs interviewed found positive changes concerning the investment climate in Cuba during recent years. This implies limited prospects for economic growth in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the way Cuba was represented in noticeable online media in connection with Bernie Sanders' aspirations to become the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election. Traditional anticommunism and a historical one-sided view on Cuba in the press, as well as widespread conceptual confusion about "socialism" in US society, converged against Sanders over the run-up to the nomination, especially at a crucial moment in February 2020 when he was the frontrunner and was interviewed by CBS. The paper analyses the reaction of the online press to Sanders' comments on Cuba during the interview, but also considers other US press reports during 2019 as well as specialised literature on the topic. Discourse Analysis parameters are brought forward to highlight ideological discourse representations in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the origins of research in chemical sciences at the University of Orient, and the first chemical degree course in Cuba. The peculiar origin of the career, as a consequence of the orientation to research towards basic science, promoted by Dr. H. Harry Szmant from whiting the career of Industrial Chemical Engineering, is demonstrated. The creation, purposes and evolution of the Chemical Research Center at the Universidad de Oriente are analized. It is argued that the early decision to organize the Chemistry Conference in 1964, the first on the country, arose from identifying the need to divulgate the results and promote exchange among scientists, It is shown that this event served as platform for the creation of the Cuban Society of Chemistry and the Cuban Journal of Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the life and political thought of the Afro-Cuban, communist, feminist activist and lawmaker Esperanza Sánchez Mastrapa and her historical context. The article builds on the existing literature by using new periodical and archival sources from institutional collections of communist organizations and personal correspondence with feminist leaders. The paper's main objectives are the following. First, to demonstrate that Sánchez Mastrapa simultaneously engaged with Afro-Cuban, feminist, and communist organizations. Second, to illuminate how these platforms offered a productive space for some women activists like Sánchez Mastrapa to conceptualize a simultaneous critique of racism, capitalism, and patriarchy. And third, to analyze how she used these institutional platforms to articulate an early intersectional feminism as part of a growing transnational left-wing movement fighting in favor of Black, poor, women workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the present paper is to systematize the contributions of more than 15 15 years teamwork around the understanding of communication as a field of complex inter and transdisciplinary reflections, built on the research practice of the Center for Cuban and Caribbean Social Studies “Dr. José A. Portuondo ”, from the Universidad de Oriente (Cuba). To systematize the results, a large volume of data contained in 49 undergraduated and postgraduated investigations, 60 scientific articles, 8 books, 15 book chapters, as well as the empirical experience accumulated in dozens of communities, cultural projects, social institutions was analyzed., local governments, unions, companies, scientific events among others, where research results have been socialized and introduced. A complex conception of communication of a socio-anthropological and micro-cultural nature is proposed, which is already located in the analysis of the media, cultural management, socio-cultural relations, politics and local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the V International Conference “Antropología 2000”, two researchers presented a hypothesis in which they identified three pictographs of Cuban rock art as ideographic expression of the myth of “the creation of the sun and the moon” in the Antillean aboriginal cosmogony. The purpose of the present work is to review the published versions the paper and to provide complementary evidence through the critical examination of the cosmogonical notes of Fray Ramón Pané and their comparison with the Arhuaco myth “Yuí/Tima”, the Desana myth of the creation and a variant of motif 751 of the Motif-Index of Stith Thompson. Using the structural method, a synchronic reading of the mythical compositions is made, isolating their mythemes and correlating them analytically. As main results, it was possible to identify significant parallelisms between the cosmogonical notes of Pané and the continental compositions, obtaining a pattern that points to the linkage of the distinctive accentuation between the mythical subjects with the aboriginal social structures and with the identified rupestreme. In this way it was possible to conclude that the hypothesis presented by the Cuban researchers can be partially revitalized in the light of new evidence; corroborating the thesis of cultural continuity between the Antillean aborigines and their continental ancestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the general state of health care provision for small-scale miners in the city of Potosi, Bolivia. Then, I present an overview of the contrast between the "usual" form of treatment and their experiences with Cuban doctors. I follow this with an examination of the Potosino General Strike in 2015 which included demands to change the current state of the health care system. Here I argue that part of that "re-examination of societal values" which Feinsilver (Cuban Studies 41: 85–104, 2010) argues necessarily occurs in countries who host Cuban doctors, that miners' experiences with a kinder, more humane, form of public health care, shaped their ongoing demands for dignified forms of care. Finally, I conclude with some comments on their use of the concept "trato humano" and its relevance for political discussions about value for health. This paper demonstrates that beyond simply providing a fundamental service, the kinds of medical practice that Cuban doctors provide in Potosi is what makes them truly revolutionary in the context of a hyper for-profit medical health care system. It is constructed from fieldwork I completed in Bolivia with small-scale miners during several trips from 2011 to the present, and 18 months intensive fieldwork in the city of Potosi with small-scale miners, from 2016 to 2017, and again with retirees for a month in 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of moral economy can be applied to all types of economies as they all involve conceptions of the 'common good' that determine who gets what, why and how, and who is responsible for this distribution, eg state or private actors. In this paper, we use the concept of moral economy to demonstrate how particular morals and logics shape public health governance in Cuba, comparing these with market liberal contexts. The paper draws from ethnographic and interview data from Cuba to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Cuban agri-food governance, against the backdrop of market liberal approaches. While Cuban interviewees justified their activities in terms of Cuba's moral economy of collective need, there were also instances when the socialist moral economy conflicted with individual needs and aspirations. We conclude that, despite its faults, Cuba's holistic approach to food and agriculture illustrates how ecological approaches to public health might work in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the project for the Introduction of Technologies for the Diagnosis and Treatment of cancer in our country, the Cuban Cyclotron Project was carried out, which included the structural design of the building where a medium energy particle accelerator is installed and the rest of equipment and facilities for the production of positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals, the preparation of the production plan and the development of various stages until the start of operations. It is the first time in Cuba that a center for the production of radiopharmaceuticals of this type is set up, which is subject to compliance with specific radiological safety requirements and good practices so that the facility is safe and sustainable in the future. This paper presents the experience carried out over ten years to design and build a production center that meets the production expectations of the Ministry of Public Health to improve early diagnosis capabilities for cancer and other chronic non-communicable diseases. As a result, a facility has been built in Havana where the first cyclotron in Cuba was launched at the Specialized Center for Diagnosis and Therapy, which has a production capacity to distribute radiopharmaceuticals to the capital and other provinces of the country; as well as export to countries in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the ending of the XVIII century, there are in Cuba a distinguished group of People with a great monetary power and interested in culture. Colonial authorities don't feel safe with this people who has something in common: they are afro-descendant. This s the main argument for create a politic oppression designed for destroy this economic elite. This was created against the colonial system and they were involved in polemic actions like La Escalera Conspiracy in 1844. But colonial authorities just can pull down their economic power, not their ideas. With this paper, from the view of the oppression against black people, we want to give light about the resistance and the educational level that black Cubans reach in the most significant time within the process of creation of the whole Cuban identity between 1844 and 1898. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper invites a critical reflection, from a decolonial perspective, on the importance of considering gender in the approach to mental health problems. From a methodological point of view, this critical position includes consideration of the hermeneutic condition of the intersection between gender, race and other social historical determinants. It also explores the development and the incorporation of a gender perspective as an expression of decolonial thought, in approaches to mental health in the Cuban context. The paper draws on the critique of colonial thought in relation to psychology and gender. It analyses the history and the development of these ideas from the academic experience developed in the East of Cuba, a place on the periphery, a context that is distant and distinct from Havana, which is often seen as the main scientific centre and point of reference. As such, this paper includes a critique of colonial power with respect to the geographical location of the profession of psychology. In this way, it contributes to the central objective of promoting awareness of decolonial thinking, with an emphasis principally on gender and as a way to favour the professional development of clinical psychology in all of Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the historical trajectories of South-South and triangular cooperation and its dimensions in Latin America. Based on this information, the paper intends to assess the framework’s role as an instrument of public diplomacy in developing countries, which enables participating countries to strengthen their international presence and establish strategic alliances with other countries. Building on the theoretical perspective of the framework, the study analyzes specific Cuban cases of South-South cooperation, linking them with the characteristic elements of public diplomacy, and assesses their impact on international development cooperation. In conclusion, the paper contends that Cuba and South Korea should explore the possible concrete links between the elements of international development cooperation and those of public diplomacy, and seek opportunities to foster South-South cooperation as part of public diplomacy. This will help developing countries to discover and establish new forms of exchanges between them and strengthen their cooperative relations with partner countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cuban biotechnology industry is producing cancer immunotherapy, in particular, therapeutic vaccines that actively stimulate the immune system to stabilise the tumour. These products aim to transform metastatic malignancies into a chronic disease. Since 2010, this therapeutic concept has been integrated within a public health experiment, consisting of the large distribution of immunotherapies, including in primary healthcare centres, to enhance access and assess its effectiveness on a wider population of patients. Such experimental intervention, consisting of post-marketing clinical trials, has focused only on lung cancer, one of the most widespread and lethal cancers on the island. Combining interviews with ethnographic observations focusing on care performed by professionals, patients, and their relatives, this paper analyses the experience of lung cancer chronicity under this type of immunotherapy in Cuba. It shows how a certain form of continuity is made between prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination to shape a new temporality of cancer care, through the integration within primary care, constant access to biotechnology, and multiple care practices directed to strengthen the immunotherapy's efficacy. If vaccinal chronicity remains fragile due to its experimental dimension and the fact that long-term survivorship is still an exceptional phenomenon, lung cancer patienthood is deeply transformed through a shared effort of the people and the state to provide more stable, meaningful, and inclusive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the individual conditions of journalistic production in two independent medias of the media-partisan structure in Cuba. These can be considered among the most internationally recognized Cuban media. In the research, in-depth interviews with 40 journalists. It was found that these conditions are marked, fundamentally, by the confluence in the two media organizations of young graduates of journalism courses in the country with a multiple spatial location, and different referents and professional trajectories. A professional identification with the functions of journalism to inform, monitor power, participate in social debate and show society in its diversity, among others, was also detected. In addition, personal concerns were found about the violence against independent journalism on the island. It was concluded that these conditions materialize in terms of an anti-authoritarian professional discursiveness (and representation) shared by journalists. A comparison with the findings of inquiries located in other national spaces is proposed in the conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, 50 Cuban doctors have worked in Pacific Island countries (PICs), while 250 Pacific islanders have studied medicine at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba, nearly doubling the medical workforce in some countries. Although Cuba has pursued an extensive South-South Cooperation (SSC) programme in health around the globe for 60 years, the relatively recent presence of Cuba in the Pacific is intriguing. The programme is based on what Cuba has called the "multiple coincidences" and shared experiences between Cuba and PICs as Small Island Developing States facing common challenges. Proponents argue Cuba's expertise in providing community-based and human-capital oriented care health care in low-resource environments could provide a suitable model for meeting the health goals and needs of PICs. Moreover, Cuba's medical cooperation is grounded in an ethics of solidarity and offers a clear example of social justice-oriented south-south cooperation which aims to both address immediate humanitarian need and to transform power structures that limit the accessibility and availability of sustainable health care within partner countries. Yet despite this there has been little research on Cuba's approach to medical cooperation in the Pacific. This paper addresses this gap, drawing on Maussian gift theory to argue that the Cuban 'gift of health' provides much needed capacity in health while building the dignity of both partners. As a theory of solidarity with distinct Pacific roots and which links clearly to the solidarity-based model of Cuban cooperation based on egalitarianism and relationship, gift theory provides an explanation for the presence of Cuba in the Pacific and highlights the importance of equitable relationships and dignity in development partnerships, providing theoretical roots to the idea that there might an alternative to traditional models of aid and development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of Science and Technology-Based Innovation (STI) policies in Cuba should be traced to 1961, with the so-called Literacy Campaign that declared the Nation as the First Latin-American Country Free from Illiteracy. From this moment to our days, Cuba has developed a significant Research and Development (R&D) infrastructure and committed human resources on Science, Technology and Innovation. This paper explores the links among Cuban Science, Technology and Innovation System and National Education System for the achievement of scientific technical achievements, within the context of the actualization of Cuban Model for Economic and Social Development. Also, It takes into consideration the role of education and training within a learning economy and Mode 1 to Mode 2 knowledge production process transition. A comprehensive approach to national, sectorial and local innovation systems actors and interactions with education and training experiences is discussed, as well as general reflections regarding Innovation and Education within the National Economic and Social 2030 Plan, which may contribute to a better understanding of the role of education within the Cuban National System of Technology and Innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cojímar Formation, --Lower Miocene (upper part) to Middle Miocene (lower part)--, is a unit in Western Cuba well known for its extensive development and exposure outcrops. It has been widely used in bioestratigraphic studies. However, paleoecological studies on this unit through foraminifera, both planktonic and benthic species, are considered insufficient. The richness and variety of microfossils, especially foraminifera, has allowed us to address the paleoecological aspect. In this paper, the sedimentary environment is established. Besides the systematic classification of these species was updated and the biozonation re-evaluated from planktonic foraminifera. A detailed sampling, from material taken every 15 meters was fulfilled along with a compilation of all species of foraminifera reported for the studied unit. The micropalaeontological analysis allowed the identification of 40 taxa of planktonic foraminifera grouped into 12 genera, being the most representative Globigerina, Globigerinoides, Orbulina, and Globorotalia. Moreover, 226 taxa of benthic foraminifera belonging to 102 genera were determined. These included: Lituolida, Loftusiida, Textulariida, Lagenida, Rotaliida and Miliolida suborders. The main genres represented were Cibicides, Cibicidoides, Cibicobis, Uvigerina, Angulogerina, Anomalinoides, Planulina, Bolivina, Amphistegina, Lenticulina, Nodosaria, and Textularia. Cojímar Formation corresponds to a deep platform, which was determined from the benthic microforaminifera (Uvigerina, Lenticulina, Marginulina) analyzed. Thanatocenoses developed in outer neritic to upper bathyal depths between 100 m - 500m. New reports of both planktonic foraminifera species for that unit as small benthic, such as Anomalinoides flintii, A. trinitatensis, Planulina valued cf. P. mantaensis, Catapsydrax cf. C. dissimilis, Globigerinoides cf. G. obliquus, Globigerinoides primordius, and Hastigerina praesiphonifera were evaluated. As a contribution Gyroidinoides cibaoensis taxon is here first reported to Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of social spending in Cuba, considering that this serves as a reference to analyze the importance assigned to social policy in a country. For this purpose, it starts with the analysis of Cuba's current situation in comparison with Latin America, based on the use of different social performance indicators. Likewise, a synthetic indicator of such performance is constructed as a measure of effectiveness and is compared with the expenditures spent for such purposes, as a measure of efficiency. It is found that Cuba is the most effective country in the region, but at the same time the least efficient. In order to face this challenge, a set of policy reflections is synthesized to contribute to the improvement of equity in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the complex sugar trade between Cuba and the East European Socialist states (the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary) from the Cuban revolution in 1959 until the dissolution of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in 1991. To Cuba, selling its sugar to the Socialist states at above-world market prices was an expression of East European states' socialist solidarity. To the bloc states, it was a form of economic aid to Cuba. This formulation not only went against the preferred form of exchange within the CMEA, namely cooperation based on mutual interest but also incensed the Cubans who felt the revolution was entitled to the support of all Socialist states from Berlin to Moscow. Amid this complicated relationship, the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev posed a serious challenge to Cuba, which was unprepared to face the free market. The result was a loss of foreign markets and a severe domestic crisis known as the Special Period. This work seeks to provide a new reading of the ebb and flow between Cuba and its Socialist trading partners, relying on the views expressed in the candid reports of the East European diplomats and experts, who were involved in the day-to-day managing of their respective states' economic relations with the Caribbean nation. It is based on original research in foreign ministry, party, and security services archives of the East European states. It also utilizes primary material originating from the Cuban foreign ministry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the popular triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and declaration of its socialist character in 1961, a form of Cuban socialism has been in power. The historical trajectory of Cuban socialism in power has moved through periods of fierce independence and debate about a particular Cuban model of socialism, close and disciplined political and economic alignment with the former Soviet Union, and renewed periods of critical debate following its collapse. A constitutional commitment to building Cuban socialism was ratified in 1976, and continues in 2018, with no so-called "transition" to capitalism following the collapse of "historical socialism." This article focuses on approaches of the Cuban state toward popular discussion and debate, and the potential for popular debate to support Cuban socialism and its legitimacy in power. Following an overview of some key historical events and cycles related to popular debate about Cuban socialism, the paper returns to contemporary events, including the 2018 presidential and National Assembly elections. The paper concludes by arguing that there are indications of expanded debate within Cuba, and a reconsideration of the role of official media in this debate, with the potential to contribute both to the ongoing development of Cuban socialism, and more broadly to debate about socialism in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El profesor José Rafael Estrada González es considerado el "Padre de la Neurología cubana". Su formación como neurólogo y neuropatólogo en el Massachusetts General Hospital de EE. UU., después de graduarse como médico en la Universidad de La Habana, junto a su reconocido intelecto, hicieron que fuera pionero en el desarrollo de la Neurología en el país desde comienzos de la década de los cincuenta. Al triunfo de la Revolución, el Ministerio de Salud Pública lo designó para organizar los servicios neurológicos y neuroquirúrgicos, junto a los escasos especialistas de Neurocirugía que quedaron en el país. Fundó el Hospital de Neurología en enero de 1962, en el puesto de director, que a partir de 1966 pasó a ser el Instituto de Neurología y Neurocirugía. Se distinguió como neurólogo, docente e investigador, y sus enseñanzas se han extendido no solo a las generaciones de neurólogos y neurocirujanos, sino también a toda la comunidad de neurocientíficos que formó. El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo describir algunos aspectos de la trayectoria del Prof. José Rafael Estrada González en lo que concierne a su vida personal, como médico, científico, educador y revolucionario. Professor José Rafael Estrada González is considered to be the father of Cuban Neurology. His training as a neurologist and neuropathologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA, after graduating as a doctor at the University of Havana, together with his renowned intellect, made him a pioneer in the development of Neurology in the country from the beginning of the fifties. At the triumph of the Revolution, the Ministry of Public Health appointed him to organize neurological and neurosurgical services, alongside the few neurosurgery specialists that remained in the country. He founded the Neurology Hospital in January 1962, in the position of director, which from 1966 became the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. He distinguished himself as a neurologist, professor, and researcher, and his teachings have extended not only to generations of neurologists and neurosurgeons, but also to the entire community of neuroscientists that he trained. The present paper aimed to describe some aspects of Prof. José Rafael Estrada González path in regard to his personal life, as a doctor, scientist, professor and revolutionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses disaster risk management as a complex social process and its evolution since the 1990s. It focuses on the particularities of the Cuban model and the measures applied to improve prevention, preparation, response and recovery actions, endorsed in a set of legal documents. The article highlights the international recognition of the Cuban model and its successful results in the application of a series of measures, including the requirement that institutions carry out disaster risk studies. Also noteworthy are the hazard, vulnerability and risk studies (PVR) developed at the territorial level, the compatibility of the economic and social development of the country with the interests of Civil Defense, and the implementation of Management Centers for Risk Reduction. Likewise, the article draws attention to the development experienced by research, which has evolved from the Macroproject to the Life Task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]