Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel received this Monday in Havana U.S. actor Danny Glover, who was an active member of the solidarity campaign for the freedom of the 5 Cuban agents―Five Heroes―imprisoned for more than fifteen years in United States.
Glover has been in Cuba since Saturday to attend as a guest the graduation ceremony of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), among which there are 10 students from the United States.
“Welcome dear friend Danny Glover. See you soon,” Díaz-Canel wrote on his Twitter account after the arrival in Havana of the actor, also known for his stand as a human rights activist.
Díaz-Canel and Glover talked about “the importance of promoting artistic exchanges between Cuba and the United States, based on existing historical and cultural links,” said the state-run Cuban News Agency.
The Caribbean island’s president expressed to Glover his “concern about the negative impact this area has suffered, as a result of the rollback in bilateral relations.”
Díaz-Canel also reiterated Cuba’s will to “advance” with the broad sectors that in the United States favor the improvement of ties between the two nations.
Danny Glover was accompanied at the meeting by the director of Cultural Studies and Communication at the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington DC, James Early, the Councilmember of the city of Sacramento, California, Allen Warren, and Dr. Luther Castillo, a Honduran doctor who graduated from ELAM.
The vice president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Noemí Rabaza, and the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs US director general for the United States, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, also participated in the meeting.
It’s a joy to be spending my birthday in Cuba! https://t.co/XQl2W3x2sl
— Danny Glover (@mrdannyglover) July 22, 2019
Since the arrival of President Donald Trump to the White House in January 2017, U.S. policy towards Cuba has progressively hardened and the rapprochement promoted by his predecessor, Barack Obama, has been rolled back.
That rollback has included measures such as the ban on cruise travel, more restrictions on Americans’ travel to Cuba, the reduction of diplomatic staff at the U.S. embassy in Havana and the activation of Title III of the Helms Burton Act, which allows filing lawsuits in that country’s courts for expropriations after the 1959 Revolution.
Danny Glover has traveled to Cuba on numerous occasions. In 2016 he was decorated with the Medal of Friendship, awarded by the Cuban Council of State for “his tireless struggle and collaboration” with the island.
On this occasion, the U.S. actor will participate this Tuesday in the graduation ceremony of 10 students from his country from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in the House of Friendship in Havana.
Also present in the ceremony will be Gail Walker, executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) Pastors for Peace, an organization that oversees the program of young Americans at ELAM, along with family members of the new professionals.
