 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we are joined by Dr. Aleda Guevara, daughter of the legendary revolutionary Che Guevara and someone who has travelled across the world speaking about peace, socialism and revolution. She has been in India and Nepal as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Cuban Revolution. We are also joined by Professor Sonia Surabhi Gupta from Jamia Mila, Islamia. Thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Aleda, the first question, so Cuba is going through a new phase in its revolutionary process right now. So the flame has been passed to a new generation. So how do you evaluate and new constitution has also been implemented? So how do you evaluate this as a continuation of the revolutionary process of Fidel and Che? That's exactly what, as you have said, the slogan that we have given in Cuba is that there is continuity. It's very easy to kind of see this continuity if one tries to, you know, kind of compare what was happening in Cuba and what is happening now. For example, when the revolution triumphed in 1959, Cuba had a 33% electricity. And today we have Cuban doctors working in more than 79 countries of the world. We had an infant mortality in 1959 of 60 for every thousand born. Today it is less than four per thousand. Earlier the best land tracts were in the hands of the United States. Today the land of the Cuban people is not negotiated. It is not for sale. Today we are masters of what we produce. And we use these resources in order to ensure that our people have free access to health and education. So why would we want to go back and retrocede to the past? There is nothing that stimulates us to go back to the previous situation. On the contrary, what we need to be doing is to better and making more perfect the social society that we have created because it is not a perfect social society. Every day we could be committing errors, but the only people who are capable of rectifying these errors are also the people of Cuba. And this dignity which the Cuban people have acquired makes us think only of the future and no way in the past. And this period has also seen a renewed right-wing offensive in the Latin American continent. So Venezuela is under siege. Right-wing governments are coming to power in Brazil, they are powering Argentina. But clearly the target of all this is also the Cuban Revolutionary process. So how do the people in Cuba see the resistance to all these trends in Latin America? We had this moment in the Latin American continent which was just so marvelous. People like Chavez, for example, a person like Chavez who went a little too early from us, but he has left his imprint on us. So you know I was in Venezuela and I was doing this television interview with a priest who was a very left-wing priest. So after the recording was over there was this young person who came and he said, you are saying very nice things, but my president is giving away the petroleum that is produced in my country. So I asked him, do you like the taste of petroleum? So that's what I told him. You can't eat petroleum. So what is your president doing? He is exchanging that petroleum for the cows that can give you milk, for rice that you don't grow and more than anything else he is sowing the seeds through the petroleum, sowing the seeds of solidarity in the Latin American continent. Today the Venezuelan people are actually receiving the results and the fruit of that solidarity. All the honest men and women in the continent are standing up in solidarity with Venezuela. In Cuba we have about 32,000 medical professionals including doctors currently working in Venezuela. So what does this mean that if Venezuela is attacked we have to also protect all these people of ours who are there? You know some time back the US government had started saying that we've got military stationed in Venezuela. It is just that they just don't make any effort to know us. It is no need for putting Cuban military in Venezuela. Because all our military professionals and personnel who are working in Venezuela can take up arms when it comes to it. I am trained to save lives. So we don't have to send armies. We are there to defend the Venezuelan people if the need arises. And you talked very powerfully about the role of solidarity. So in the past couple of weeks you attended events in Delhi, in Kerala, in Nepal. So could you also talk about the relevance of international solidarity today to the Cuban Revolutionary process also? It's absolutely important for us the role of international solidarity has been fundamental. Today Cuba is able to produce high quality medicines because there is a European organisation called MediCuba Europa that has broken the blockade. Today Cuba is able to produce high quality medicines because there is an European organisation called MediEuroCuba which has decided to break the blockade. I am a doctor, a pediatrician. At a certain time, in the middle of the special period that we call that time when the European socialist camp disappears, the situation in Cuba was very difficult. I am a pediatrician and during the special period when the socialist camp had disintegrated we went through a very bad time. We had serious children in the hospital but we couldn't buy the food for the whole family, that is, the one that is given to the child for the whole family. There was no way to buy that. So we had children who were gravely ill but we had no way to give them intravenous nutrition. We had contact with our friends from the south of Rome. Two days later we had packages of food for our children. They helped to save the lives of those children. There is no way to pay them, there is no way. So we immediately got in touch with our solidarity movement in the south of Rome and within two days we had the necessary nutrition available for our children and the lives were saved. There is no way we can pay back this kind of solidarity. That is why we have a great commitment ourselves to international solidarity because we have seen that it is the most humble people, it is the people with less resources who have given us solidarity when we needed it. And finally you have travelled across the world as a voice for peace and progressive values in socialism. So as you see this global right-wing resurgence, what is it that gives you hope and does it for resisting? Mira, yo soy una mujer cubana. I'm a Cuban woman. Tengo un apellido muy especial, eso es cierto. I do have a very special surname, that's true. Y ese apellido puede abrir algunas puertas. And this surname may open certain doors. Yo siempre estoy a disposición de mi pueblo. I'm always at the disposal of my people. Porque yo he ha recibido mucho amor de ese pueblo, lo menos que puedo hacer es dedicarle mi vida a ellos. I have got so much love from my people that the least I can do is to dedicate my life to them. Entonces, lo que Cuba necesite, yo estoy dispuesto a hacerlo. And therefore whatever Cuba needs, I'm ready to do that. Pero como Cuba me ha enseñado, mi pueblo me ha enseñado que patria es humanidad. Entonces estoy dispuesta a ayudar en lo que pueda, en cualquier parte. But as a Cuban, my country people, my country has taught me la patria es humanidad, meaning that the entire humanity is a fatherland. I'm ready to help out in any way, humanity in general. Te voy a contar algo, mira. Yo fui por primera vez a Chipre hace algún tiempo, como 30 años hace. Y me impresionó la ocupación turca en la tercera parte del país. So I'll tell you something very interesting. 30 years back I had gone to Cyprus and, you know, about the third of Cyprus is occupied by Turkey. Me han invitado varias veces a Turquía porque muchos turcos muy amigos de Cuba y muy admiradores de Che Guevara. So I've been invited several times to Turkey because in Turkey there are several men and women who are great friends of Cuba and admirers of Chilache. Yo no tengo la posibilidad de tirar al ejército turco de Chipre, no la tengo. I don't have the capacity to, you know, push out the Turkish army from Cyprus. Entonces me niego ir a Turquía por esa razón. And so I don't go to Turkey for that reason. No puedo hacer otra cosa, pero por lo menos eso lo hago. I can't do anything else, but at least I do that. Ahora me sacaron un pasaje por Turquía para regresar a Cuba. Now when I'm going back to Cuba, I have a ticket, which is via Turkey. Ya se lo dije a los chipriotas, ya hable con ellos, le explique la situación y no hay problema. And I explained to my Cyprus friends what is the situation, why I have to, you know, put foot in Turkey and, you know, things are all right. Lo poquito que un ser humano puede hacer, pero si lo hacemos, si todos hacemos ese poquito, seguramente podríamos vivir mucho mejor. What I'm trying to say is that all of us human beings can do these little little things. And these little little things, if you put it all together, they can actually become a huge resistance. Thank you so much. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching, use click.