Latin America
Related: About this forumTrump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick Worldwide
Published on
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
by Common Dreams
So great is the admiration for Cuban doctors that a global campaign has sprung up to award them the Nobel Peace Prize.
by Medea Benjamin, Leonardo Flores
A team of 85 Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in Peru on June 3 to help the Andean nation tackle the coronavirus pandemic. That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced another tightening of the sanctions screws. This time he targeted seven Cuban entities, including Fincimex, one of the principal financial institutions handling remittances to the country. Also targeted was Marriott International, which was ordered to cease operations in Cuba, and other companies in the tourism sector, an industry that constitutes 10 percent of Cubas GDP and has been devastated globally by the pandemic.
It seems that the more Cuba helps the world, the more it gets hammered by the Trump administration. While Cuba has endured a U.S. embargo for nearly 60 years, Trump has revved up the stakes with a maximum pressure strategy that includes more than 90 economic measures placed against the nation since January 2019. Josefina Vidal, Cubas ambassador to Canada, called the measures unprecedented in their level of aggression and scope and designed to deprive the country of income for the development of the economy. Since its inception, the embargo has cost Cuba well over $130 billion dollars, according to a 2018 estimate. In 2018-2019 alone, the economic impact was $4 billion, a figure that does not include the impact of a June 2019 Trump administration travel ban aimed at harming the tourist industry.
While the embargo is supposed to have humanitarian exemptions, the health sector has not been spared. Cuba is known worldwide for its universal public healthcare system, but the embargo has led to shortages of medicines and medical supplies, particularly for patients with AIDS and cancer. Doctors at Cubas National Institute of Oncology have had to amputate the lower limbs of children with cancer because the American companies that have a monopoly on the technology can't sell it to Cuba. In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. blocked a donation of facemasks and COVID-19 diagnostic kits from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.
Not content to sabotage Cubas domestic health sector, the Trump administration has been attacking Cubas international medical assistance, from the teams fighting coronavirus today to those who have travelled all over the world since the 1960s providing services to underserved communities in 164 countries. The U.S. goal is to cut the islands income now that the provision of these services has surpassed tourism as Cubas number one source of revenue. Labeling these volunteer medical teams victims of human trafficking because part of their salaries goes to pay for Cubas healthcare system, the Trump administration convinced Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil to end their cooperation agreements with Cuban doctors. Pompeo then applauded the leaders of these countries for refusing to turn a blind eye to Cubas alleged abuses. The triumphalism was short lived: a month after that quote, the Bolsonaro government in Brazil begged Cuba to resend its doctors amid the pandemic. U.S. allies all over the world, including in Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Honduras and Peru have gratefully accepted this Cuban aid. So great is the admiration for Cuban doctors that a global campaign has sprung up to award them the Nobel Peace Prize.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/16/trump-hammers-cuba-while-cuba-cures-sick-worldwide
grumpyduck
(6,232 posts)But where's the MSM in reporting what the Cuban doctors are doing? Not enough ad revenue?