by Starla Muhammad and Nisa Islam Muhammad
Several Caribbean countries are taking exception to U.S. pressure on them about remittance payments for the widely lauded Cuba medical assistance humanitarian program. Cuba vehemently denies the accusations being leveled by the U.S. Washington contends that the payment system.
That pays the medics a portion and sends the remainder to Cuba was an alleged “type of coerced labor and human trafficking,” enabling Cuba to bypass the crippling and unfair economic embargoes imposed on the island. The U.S. is also pressuring Caribbean nations to dismantle their participation in the program altogether.
And according to Al Jazeera, “no concrete evidence has been provided to support these claims” by the U.S. The U.S. has opposed the program’s efforts for years.
Caribbean countries are facing immense pressure from the U.S. to change the way they pay Cuban healthcare personnel. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with heads of state of several Caribbean nations in March and May of this year. The U.S. also began restricting and revoking visas of officials who support the medical missions program.
Antigua and the Bahamas are now reviewing their remittance process. Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis announced his country’s decision at a news conference after returning from a meeting with Secretary Rubio.
However, other Caribbean nations are pushing back against the pressure because of the tremendous help the Cuba program has been to their countries. Since 1963, over 600,000 Cuban health workers have provided care worldwide.
These medical teams, known as “armies of white robes,” travel globally to aid crises, particularly in developing nations. In the 2010s, Cuban doctors were pivotal in addressing cholera in Haiti and the Ebola crisis in West Africa. During the severe COVID-19 outbreak in Lombardy, Italy, Cuba sent medical teams. Caribbean countries have also benefited greatly.
In a March 20 press release, the Jamaican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith provided an update on its review of how Cuba remittances are handled which has been in place in that country since 1976 under a Memoranda of Understanding (MOU).
“Given the MOU’s expiration last year, we had already begun a review process before international concerns were raised. While we have identified a few areas for alignment with our own overseas labor programs, we are confident that the Cuban program is a legitimate bilateral cooperation program, not an example of trafficking, Johnson Smith asserts,” the press release stated.
According to reporting by Al Jazeera, the Cuban doctors in the program do not negotiate their contracts or working conditions, and there are areas for improvement, but the benefits of the program in serving underserved communities are evident.
Student Minister David Muhammad represents the Nation of Islam Eastern Caribbean region and is based in Trinidad. “Trinidad has always fully supported Cuba as a nation, and likewise, Venezuela, our closest neighbors, arguably.
While America has put such heavy pressure on Venezuela, and again, calling on governments within the Caribbean region to disassociate themselves with Venezuela, just like how they called on us to disassociate ourselves with Cuba. You have to have some resilience to stand in solidarity with Cuba,” he told The Final Call.
Several Caribbean nations are demonstrating this resilience.
Al Jazeera reported that Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called the U.S. position “unfair and unjustified.”
“We could not get through the pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors,” she said, the outlet reported in March. “Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Keith Rowley, warned that U.S. interference in Caribbean healthcare decisions was unacceptable,” and “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves highlighted the direct effect Cuban doctors have on patient care,” noted Aljazeera.com.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados’s Ambassador David Commissiong have also expressed continued support for the Cuban medical program.
An op-ed published on the Jamaican website WiredJa Online News titled, “CARICOM, Caribbean leaders stand firm against U.S. visa threats over Cuban medical program,” stated that the current U.S. stance is similar to a strategy used years ago, as explained by Ambassador Commissiong.
“Barbados’s Ambassador David Commissiong speaking on ‘Mornin Barbados’ television program, placed the current dispute in a historical context, recalling that 53 years ago, Caribbean prime ministers Errol Barrow, Michael Manley, Forbes Burnham, and Dr. Eric Williams confronted similar pressures when the U.S.
And the Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that the newly independent Caribbean nations refrain from recognizing Cuba,” the March 11 article stated.
“According to Commissiong, these leaders responded by asserting their sovereignty: ‘We are sovereign independent nations, and we will decide for ourselves what nations we will have relations with.’
Commissiong characterized Rubio’s current policy as ‘part of this continuing U.S. vendetta against Cuba,’ aimed at ‘regime change,’ and referenced a 1960 State Department memo by Deputy Assistant Secretary Lester Mallory.
Which allegedly acknowledged the popularity of Castro’s revolution and proposed making ‘life uncomfortable for the people in Cuba’ by undermining the government,” the op-ed noted, referring to the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.