IAN Cummings’ recent letter on conditions in Cuba (ViewPoints, October 23), would be more interesting if he gave an accurate account instead of a one-sided one.

He talks of a Cuban worker’s take-home pay but omits to mention the ‘social wage’ that every Cuban gets in the form of free health care from birth to death, which has produced one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world. Nor does he explain that every Cuban has a right to free education from primary school right up to, and including, university level.

All children in Cuba attend school, an amazing statistic for a developing country.

The requirement to have an exit visa, originally introduced to stop the brain-drain to the United States, which grants Cubans immediate asylum, residency, work permits and a quick path to US citizenship, which it offers to no other country in the world, has been lifted for the majority of Cubans travelling abroad.

Mr Cummings acknowledges the improvements in Cuban life but appears to think the changes to their economic system, done in full consultation with trade unions and other bodies before coming into force, are because they are moving towards a free-market economy – the moribund economic system that we endure, which has resulted in financial collapse, a parasitic and corrupt banking sector, acute homelessness and destitution, debt and misery for millions.

Now why would the Cuban Government wish to inflict that on its people?

Carol Stavris, Secretary, Oxford Cuba Solidarity Campaign