Egregious pressure on Cuba and Caricom states

There are two notable outreach programs in Cuba, despite the blockade.

The first is a medical program. This is two-fold. There is a free training and education program called CubaHeal. Cuba selects from applicants a number of aspiring young medical doctors and support personnel in various disciplines and trains and educates them. There is no cost, and everything is provided. The cost is that the doctor, once qualified, must go back to their community and spend at least two years in grassroots community medical practice. I met two students who were lovely and focused young women, committed to their program and entirely organized as to which community they would serve on completing their education.

Secondly, Cuba has supplied (exported, if you wish) medical doctors to surrounding countries. This is a state-to-state program economically good for Cuba, and the Cuban medical doctors gain experience in treating diseases that they would not normally encounter. I met a Cuban doctor in Africa, specializing in malaria in Central Africa. He was thrilled to find someone speaking Spanish, and we enjoyed our interaction.

The second program is Cuba’s ‘Yo Si Puedo’, Yes You Can! adult literacy program and education in the global South. This program teaches illiterate adults to read and write with basic numeric skills. And yes, I have met an adult woman who learned to read and write through this program.

During COVID-19, the LAC and specifically the Caribbean countries would not have survived if it was not for the Cuban doctors coming to help, and these countries are grateful. Cuba designed and manufactured its own COVID-19 vaccination, Abdala, at a very low cost, and the countries that reached out were able to withstand the pressure from Big Pharma to sign vaccination supply contracts at an exorbitant cost and extractive contract stipulations.

Cuba is still under extreme economic blockade from the US.

We’ve been speaking about the ongoing Continuance of Governance from the US but there is confusion about this even now.  The Magas believe that the US will withdraw from exploitive international relations or they don’t care, and they fully believe that their president is a peace-maker.  We need to note that the veils are beginning to fall and the honeymoon seems to be over at this stage, but this is another topic.  What has just been done to Cuba should tell you that the US is continuing its governance, which will remain equally extractive of and meddling in other countries. just because, for now, it still can project power in this manner.  To blockade Cuba shows a fear that is not rooted in reality, and it shows that the bullying and nastiness have not reduced for one moment.

The U.S. announced expanded visa restriction policy targeting Cuba’s global medical missions, labeling them “forced labor,” while also threatening visa restrictions for current or former Cuban government officials, foreign officials and their immediate family.

Recently, CARICOM foreign ministers expressed concerns over the policy when meeting with U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America in Washington D.C. and several leaders from Caribbean states also criticized this policy.  This meeting became downright acrimonious because the coercive message was that the Caricom countries should break their relationships with Cuba and if they don’t the US would cancel their visas.  (There is the issue of attending UN meetings, so this is not coercion without teeth).  Some Caricom leaders said in no uncertain terms that the US could keep their visas and put them where they fit best.

China’s spokesperson weighed in, and Mao Ning commented on this.

“I noted that the director of the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation of Cuba Dr. Michael Cabrera Laza said that, during the past 60-plus years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba, while overcoming its own difficulties, sent over 600,000 medical personnel to over 60 countries, provided medical services for over 230 million people and performed over 17 million operations and surgeries, which save the lives of more than 12 million people.

Cuba’s global medical missions have been welcomed by the governments and people of Caribbean states.

The false narrative of ‘forced labor’ has become a perfect excuse and hegemonic tool for the U.S. to suppress other countries.

Relevant measures of the U.S. is an extension and escalation of its over-60-year sanctions and blockade on Cuba.

China opposes coercive diplomacy and urges the U.S. to immediately stop the blockade and sanctions on Cuba in any names and to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, do more things that help improve relations with Cuba and deliver tangibly for the Caribbean states.”