Latin America sabotages Cuban medical aid under imperialist pressure

A series of countries across Latin America are cancelling the medical aid programmes they receive from Cuba, after pressure from the US to strangle the island continues. While the United States sets the Middle East ablaze, they denounce the ‘atrocities’ committed by one of Cuba’s main exports: healthcare.

The Cuban medical brigades

Since the revolution in 1959, Cuba has sent 600,000 doctors to 160 countries to alleviate humanitarian crises, emergencies and natural disasters.

In 1960, medical aid was sent to Chile after the Valdivia earthquake. In 1963, a brigade was sent to Algeria to cover medical services after the exodus of French doctors following the victory of the independence movement. This was the first official Cuban medical brigade sent abroad. Today, Cuban medical brigades operate in 15 Algerian provinces, mainly to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

It is estimated that Cuba’s medical presence extends globally with more than 24,000 doctors deployed in 56 nations. This collaboration covers Latin America (including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico), various parts of the African continent (including Angola, Mozambique and Algeria) and the Middle East, with a notable presence in Qatar, which is currently caught in the crossfire since the US’ attack on Iran.

Despite the challenges Cuba faces, which have also led to a deterioration of the health system, the island maintains the highest proportion of doctors in all of Latin America, nine for every one thousand inhabitants. That’s three times more than the United Kingdom!

Imperialist pressure

Beyond solidarity and international prestige, Cuba’s medical programme is one of the ways in which Cuba generates income from abroad. The export of professional services accounts for 40 percent of the island’s foreign income. Currently, the export of medical services is the largest source of foreign currency in Cuba, due to the disruption to the tourism sector. The island receives around £4 billion annually for its medical services.

As part of the criminal imperialist blockade, several US administrations have previously sabotaged the programme. From Bush in 2006 to Trump in 2017, the US implemented the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, whereby Cuban doctors abroad would obtain a residence permit in the United States if they left their posts.

Marco Rubio declared that the doctors’ programme is ‘human trafficking’ and ‘forced labour’, as the money from the programme is sent to the Cuban government. The Trump administration must be very familiar with human trafficking, considering the president’s proximity to world famous paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein!

Rubio said:

“Cuba’s labour export programmes, including medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime and, in the case of Cuba’s medical missions abroad, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country.”

He failed to mention that the United States deprives ordinary Cubans of medical care due to the lack of supplies and energy caused by the criminal blockade imposed on the island for more than 60 years. Not to mention that most US citizens struggle to access healthcare in their own country!

Following pressure on Mexico to stop supplying oil to Cuba, this is another measure to isolate and economically suffocate the Cuban Revolution to the point of collapse. The energy shortages have interrupted scheduled surgeries, and transportation to and from life saving treatments like dialysis.

The criminal policy of the United States is similar to that of medieval sieges, when a city or castle was surrounded and forced to surrender due to starvation.

Under threat of visa cancellation, the Bahamas, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and Guyana have announced that they will cancel or reduce their Cuban medical brigade programmes. Jamaica, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia and Barbados have also been pressured by the US, and after the imperialist aggression of 3 January, the Cuban medical mission in Venezuela is also in danger.

Healthcare without Cuba

Many governments in the region, completely servile to US imperialism, have decided to end these programmes and follow Washington’s line at the expense of their own population.

In Guatemala, a note from the US embassy on social media was enough to cut the programme. The government announced in February that they would gradually replace Cuban doctors with Guatemalans. This is not an act of benevolence towards the Cuban government, but a way to buy time for the pathetic Guatemalan health system. Guatemala has one of the lowest public health expenditures in the entire American continent. Rates of child malnutrition, infant mortality, and maternal mortality are extremely high. Almost 42 percent of the Guatemalan population are treated by Cuban doctors, primarily the indigenous population.

Deep corruption in Guatemala’s public sector has left hospitals, if there are any, without medical supplies or staff. Young Guatemalan doctors are not going to take these jobs, leaving thousands of people without access to healthcare, particularly paediatrics, ophthalmology and gynaecology.

In Barbados, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has, so far, resisted the pressure from the US, as she rightfully admitted that Barbados could not have survived the COVID-19 pandemic without the Cuban brigade.

Honduras has already sent the Cuban doctors home, as part of what the president simply called “a matter of foreign policy”. In only two years the Cuban brigade in Honduras carried out 10,000 surgeries.

A few weeks ago, we pointed out that the destruction of the Cuban Revolution and its achievements would be a loss for the working class of the world. Beyond the symbol that Cuba represents for young people and workers in Latin America and the world, it is also a direct and imminent threat to access to healthcare throughout the region.