Caribbean in matters is a weekly series of Daily Kos. I hope you join here every Saturday. If you are not familiar with the region, consult Matters Caribbean: Getting to know the Caribbean countries.
Last week, we took a look at the Criminal activities of the Trump administration in the Caribbean who may have the underlying motivation to try to access Massive reserves in Venezuela. It is not the only Caribbean vendetta owned by the current bad administration in Washington. Secretary of state Marco Rubio continues to grind his ax against Cuba, but he based his political rise in power on the back of the anti-Castro elements of the Florida on the right. His appointment as secretary of state was No good news for Cuba.
Al Jazera Covered the current repercussions on the Cuba program to send doctors abroad:
The United States has announced that it revoked the visas of Brazilian, African and Caribbean officials about its links with the Cuba program which sends doctors abroad, which Washington described as “forced work”.
The United States has appointed two Brazilian officials from the Ministry of Health, Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who revoked their visas for working on the Brazilian program, or “more doctors”, which was created in 2013.
In a statement on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said sanctions had been imposed on officials “involved in obtaining the Cuban coercive export program, which he said” enriched the corrupt Cuban diet and deprives the Cuban essential medical care people “.
“The Ministry of State has taken measures to revoke the visas and impose restrictions on visas on several officials from the Brazilian government, former officials of the Pan -American Health Organization (PAHO) and family members for their complicity with the work export program of the Cuban regime in the program but Medicos,” said Rubio.
In a previous statement, Rubio also announced restrictions on visas for African officials, without specifying the countries involved, as well as the Payïbes de la Grenada, for the same reasons.
Granada pushed these actions, as Jacqueline Charles reported it for the Miami Herald::
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Grenada repels the statements of the US State Department according to which the Oriental Caribbean Nation, which has had a long -standing relationship with Cuba, operates Cuban doctors and other health professionals in order to enrich the Communist regime.
The English -speaking nation, which is still struggling to recover from the Hurricane Beryl in category 4 last year, is one of several countries which were distinguished this week by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio for visa restrictions because of what he called “the complicity of officials in the high prices of the Cuban regime, the medical professionals are” rented “.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Grenada, Joseph Andall, rejected the idea that Granada is taking advantage of doctors who are part of Cuba’s foreign medical brigades. “Regarding the accusations of so-called forced work and human trafficking, we will never be part of this nature,” Andall said. “Granada respects all international conventions and protocols concerning the protection of human dignity, and we are completely convinced that the Cuban medical program with us is completely above the board of directors and in accordance with our international standards on labor and human rights. So we have no qualms about being able to defend them. ”
This question was also discussed this week at the United Nations General Assembly on Global Health and Foreign Policy:
“Global Health is a universal right for the rich and the poor,” said the representative of Venezuela, speaking on behalf of the group of friends to defend the United Nations Charter on the improvement of international cooperation and multilateral efforts to meet the challenges of global health and promote equity in health for the realization of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. “No country or region acts in isolation […] Will be able to meet the urgent needs of their people, “he said.
In addition, he condemned the “unilateral coercive measures” as “mass violations of human rights” and urged their immediate repeal, while denouncing the efforts of the United States to discredit Cuban medical cooperation and praise Cuban doctors to save lives in the world.
Left publications denounce the position of the United States. Wt whitney jr. wrote for Coupon::
The session of the United Nations General Assembly on August 25 on world health and foreign policy heard the Cuban ambassador Yuri Gala López. The senior UN Cuba official said that “we have helped prepare tens of thousands of doctors from various countries in the world.” He denounced the inclusion of the United States of Cuba on his list of sponsors of state terrorism, and then turned to “the Sanderous US campaign directed against our medical services”.
“Selfishness must be banished from international relations, and unilateral coercive measures which have a negative impact on the enjoyment of the right to health must be eliminated,” he insisted. But its generalities do not leave the anti-human, cruel and cynical nature of a new American mode of attack on Cuba. Now, the United States is impressing Cuba for providing health care to the world, to practice international solidarity.
We urge readers to sign a petition requiring the current American assault on Cuba’s medical missions stops. The Bay Area Cuba Solidarity Network and the US-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition collaborated in the presentation of the petition.
He calls on the US government to end “the American slander campaign against Cuba’s medical brigades” and to remove “visa restrictions on countries that contract with the essential health services”. The petition with its signatures will be given to elected officials of the United States government and to the delegations of the various countries belonging to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
This American position against Cuban doctors has roots that pass decades. Let’s never forget the Hurricane Katrina and how Cuba helped medical aid. Manolo de los Santos writes for Shipping of peoples::
In New Orleans, while desperately overworked health care providers had a hard time lacking a critical lack of drugs, equipment and staff, the Cuban government made its official offer on September 2. result. While the US government won, a small island nation, blocked and vilified by Washington for decades, has extended an immediate and complete offer of help. Fidel Castro announced that Cuba was ready to send a medical brigade of 1,586 doctors, equipped with 36 tonnes of medical supplies, to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was not a conditional offer, and it was not for profit. It was a gesture of unconditional solidarity, rooted in the values of the Cuban people, by offering help to those who need it, whether suffering from natural disasters or colonialism.
“We would be honored to send our doctors,” said Fidel. “We could move them by plane in groups of 100, and they could arrive within 12 hours of the authorization of the authorization.” Doctors were ready to work in the most difficult conditions, which not only brings medical expertise, but also fields in the field and decades of experience in the provision of free and socialized health care to millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They were even ready to defy dangerous waters to reach those that are blocked. It was the emerging stadium of what would soon become the International Medical Brigade Henry Reeve, a testimony of Cuba’s unshakable commitment to global health.
The Henry Reeve brigade, named after a young American volunteer from Brooklyn, New York, who fought Cuban independence in the 19th century, was officially formed shortly after Katrina. Its mission: to provide medical assistance in disaster situations and serious epidemics all over the world. While the Bush administration finally rejected Cuba’s help of aid to Katrina, citing “logistical challenges”, the reason given was a lack of complete diplomatic relations with Cuba, an assertion that sounded hollow since the Bush administration had just accepted Taiwan’s help, with which the United States also lacks complete diplomatic relations. It was a barely veiled excuse rooted in geopolitical animosity.
I admit that knowing Trump’s obsession to win a Nobel Peace PrizeI laughed when I saw that. It would be a poetic justice if the Henry Reeve brigade received the price that Trump seems to think of being his due.
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