The success of the healthcare system in Cuba is widely acknowledged, even among adversaries, critics and enemies. Before the triumph of the Socialist Revolution in 1959, Cuba faced persistent shortages of medical workers and had few hospitals. In fact, Cuba’s many poor people often had no access to healthcare services whatsoever, particularly those residing in rural and remote areas of the island. Meanwhile, it was not uncommon for people to sleep on the floor at the few hospitals that the country did have. Accordingly, one of the main goals of the Cuban revolutionaries was to establish a good health care system that would be available to everyone. In fact, they believed that it was the duty of the Revolution to provide the people of Cuba with excellent universal health care services. Shortly after they prevailed, the socialist government essentially launched an ‘attack against diseases,’ and implemented measures so that the nation could effectively ‘save thousands of lives from tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, diseases that kill thousands of children every year, and can be caught by any child in any family.’ On October 17, 1962, Fidel Castro stated that this would be accomplished by:

preventing these diseases through vaccination. And in this way we will continue to combat disease after disease, and will go on decreasing the number of epidemics, the number of deaths, the number of victims. In this way we will work at fulfilling this worthy goal: to move from therapeutic medicine to preventive medicine.

Fidel Castro advanced the efforts of his socialist government aimed at improving Cuba’s health care system by establishing new medical schools throughout the country, introducing new services and ideas, sending family doctors to remote areas, building and expanding hospitals and polyclinics, and investing in scientific research. Consequently, Cuba has domestically developed and produced vaccines to treat a variety of ailments, including meningitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type B. Cuban ‘vaccines have international prestige, made evident by the fact that hundreds of millions of doses manufactured on the island have been supplied to more than 40 nations.’ In fact, Cuba was the first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop COVID-19 vaccines, named Soberana 02 and Abdala. 

The international medical mission has been a cornerstone of the Cuban Socialist revolution for more than six decades. That is to say, Cuba has been active in providing practical foreign aid to countries that are unable to meet the health care needs of their citizens since 1959, primarily in Latin American and Africa. The highly-trained doctors that Cuba has sent to these areas provide free medical care, including medical exams, surgeries and operations, births, and vaccinations. At the same time, the island nation has also been providing ‘scholarships for foreign students to study medicine, nursing, dentistry, and medical technicians,’ so that they could assist in ‘establishing and staffing their own medical schools’ back home.

Over the last six decades, more than 400,000 Cuban health workers have operated in 164 countries, providing support during epidemics, natural disasters, shortages of health care staff, and health crises. During that time, they provided more than ‘1.2 billion consultations, attended 2.2 million births and performed more than 8 million surgeries.’ For example, between 1998 to 2010, ‘Cuban medical professionals have worked in Haiti, conducting more than 14 million patient visits, 225,000 surgeries, 100,000 birth deliveries, and saving more than 230,000 lives.’ During that period, Cuba was the first country to send medical aid to Haiti after it was struck by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and by Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004.

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Cuban doctors arrive in Italy to combat COVID-19. Photo: RT

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Subsequently, Cuba also sent doctors to Haiti shortly after it was hit by a large earthquake in 2010. In 2005, Cuba deployed ‘a team of highly experienced disaster-relief specialists comprising 2,564 doctors (57% of the team), nurses, and medical technicians’ to Pakistan after it experienced a massive earthquake. Cuba also sent ‘its specialized medical brigades’ to ‘China after the May 2008 earthquake, Indonesia after the May 2007 earthquake, Bolivia after the February 2008 floods, and Peru after the December 2007 earthquake.’

Additionally, ‘Cuba has provided disaster relief aid to Armenia, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, and most Latin American and Caribbean countries that have suffered either natural or man-made disasters.’

Furthermore, ‘Cuba established 61 small eye-surgery clinics in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, and Argentina; and Cuba extended the program to Africa, establishing clinics in Angola and Mali.’ 

Image: Margaret Chan (Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

During 2014-2016, Cuban doctors played a significant role in combatting a serious Ebola outbreak in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. When that outbreak began, ‘the WHO appealed for medical personnel to help in West Africa but few answered the call. Havana, though, responded immediately. Significantly, Cuba was the first country to respond to the UN appeal and had the largest medical contingent.’ Specifically, Cuba dispatch the Henry Reeve Brigade, which has the mission of providing medical care in cases of natural disasters and medical epidemics around the world. In 2014, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization stated:

‘I am extremely grateful for the generosity of the Cuban government and these health professionals for doing their part to help us contain the worst Ebola outbreak ever known. This will make a significant difference in Sierra Leone.’ She also added that ‘Cuba is world-famous for its ability to train outstanding doctors and nurses and for its generosity in helping fellow countries on the route to progress.’ 

More recently, Cuba provided medical workers to 39 countries that were overwhelmed by the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, the Italian government requested Cuban medical assistance when it experienced a major crisis in healthcare provision early in the pandemic, with help arriving at the end of March 2020. According to Fabiana Dadone, former Minister of Public Administration in Italy, this was ‘an extraordinary example of solidarity and collaboration Cuba’s support to combat the COVID-19 in the Piedmont region.’ This is not surprising, given Cuba’s commitment to combatting doctor shortages around the world by providing free medical school to students from various developing countries at Havana’s Latin American Medical School, which is the largest medical school in the world. Cuba’s dedication to sending health care workers to wherever they are needed is all the more impressive when considering its dire economic circumstances, brought on the by the U.S. embargo. In fact, its record in this regard puts the wealthiest and most developed countries to shame.

On June 3^rd, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an American-born Cuban descendent, who is virulently anti-socialist, anti-Castro, and anti-Cuban sovereignty, announced the imposition of ‘visa restrictions on several Central American government officials and their family members’ for their involvement in bringing Cuban medical personnel to their countries. Although the stated rationale for enacting these measures was combatting the ‘forced labor and the exploitation of Cuban workers,’ this decision was not taken in the name of freedom or the protection of human rights. Rather, it is a new weapon designed to further weaken and destabilize Cuba’s socialist regime after the Trump administration returned to power. In fact, President Trump ‘acted on his first day in office to keep Cuba’ on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). Shortly thereafter, on February 4^th, the U.S. government began moving illegal immigrants to Guantanamo Bay at the U.S. Naval base. Speaking on this subject, president Trump stated that ‘Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst,’ as he revealed plans to deport up to 30,000 criminal migrants from the U.S. to Cuban territory. On that same day, Secretary of State Rubio met with with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves in San Jose, Costa Rica, and stated that the ‘regimes that exist in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba are enemies of humanity.’

A few days later, on February 10^th, Rubio met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship in Argentina, Gerardo Werthein, with topics of discussion including ‘opportunities to stand up for democracy and human rights and against criminal regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.’ Then, on March 26^th, Rubio discussed the Cuban Medical Cooperation Programme with the Jamaican Government, and stated that Cuban doctors ‘basically operate as forced labor in many places.’ However, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, did not share this view, as he stated that:

In terms of Cuban doctors in Jamaica, let us be clear:  The Cuban doctors in Jamaica have been incredibly helpful to us.  Jamaica has a deficit in health personnel, primarily because many of our health personnel have migrated to other countries.  We are, however, very careful not to exploit the Cuban doctors who are here.  We ensure that they are treated within our labor laws and benefit like any other worker. So any characterization of the program by others certainly would not be applicable to Jamaica.  We are ensuring that our program complies with all the international laws and standards to which we are a party to.

Socialist Cuba has always strived to achieve a more humane and just world order, characterized by solidarity and cooperation among all human beings. During a 2003 visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Fidel Castro underscored Cuba’s commitment to preserving human life when he said:

Our country does not drop bombs on other countries, or send thousands of planes to bomb cities; our country has neither nuclear weapons, nor chemical weapons, nor biological weapons. The tens of thousands of scientists and doctors in our country have been educated in the philosophy of saving lives. It would be totally contradictory to their formation to ask a scientist or a doctor to work producing substances, bacteria or viruses capable of causing the death of other human beings…Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors have offered their services on internationalist missions in the most remote and inhospitable places on the planet. I once said that our country could not and would not ever launch preemptive attacks against any dark corner of the world. On the other hand, our country has sent badly needed doctors to the darkest corners of the world…doctors are not intelligent weapons…

The actions of the Trump administration demonstrate the vindictive and destructive nature of its policy towards Cuba. Despite its lofty rhetoric, the current U.S. government is not interested in advancing democracy, liberal values, free-trade, human rights or any other humanitarian causes on the island, nor does it genuinely care about the interests of ordinary Cubans. Rather, its goal is to strengthen its interventionist and imperialist policies in order to further suffocate Cuba with the intent of overthrowing the government and gaining complete control over the island. Essentially, the Americans would like to return Cuba to the status of a vassal state, as existed before Fidel Castro (1926-2016) and his fellow revolutionaries toppled the repressive regime of Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973), one of the most brutal dictators in Latin American history who transformed Cuba into a police state from 1952 to 1959 with full U.S. backing. 

The world has seen immense progress and development in areas like science, technology, economics, and the social and political sciences, since the success of the Cuban Socialist Revolution in 1959. However, there has not been very much progress in the vision, ideas, views, and goals of the American approach towards Cuba, as successive U.S. administrations have shown little interest in facilitating a lasting and peaceful coexistence between the two countries. Since the early days of the Revolution, Washington has consistently and stubbornly employed tactics aimed at destabilising and destroying Cuba’s socialist regime, including propaganda, creating or exacerbating shortages, funding and training Cuban exiles to organize terrorist attacks and sabotage the island’s economy, invasions (e.g., the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961), assassination attempts (e.g., the CIA orchestrated a total of 638 assassination attempts on Fidel Castro during his lifetime), and chemical and biological warfare. The longest and most vicious, cruel, coercive, inhumane, destructive, and shameful economic and financial blockade in all of human history has only one goal: regime change. Even though the Castros are gone, the Cubans continue to reject American imperialism and exploitation, because they want to continue existing as a sovereign nation without having to bow down to the dictates of a foreign power. 

Secretary of State Rubio wants America to directly control Cuba’s wealth, natural resources, and domestic and foreign policies. To achieve this outcome, he has advocated for strengthening the economic blockade that is already suffocating the island nation in order to exacerbate the misery of desperate Cubans. This could explain the recent U.S. decision to impose ‘visa restrictions on several Central American government officials and their family members’ for their involvement in bringing Cuban medical personnel to their countries. If Cuban doctors are prevented from operating internationally, it will ultimately be the populations of those countries in need of their assistance that suffer the consequences of inadequate care, especially the poor, people living in rural and remote areas, refugees, and victims of natural disasters. In addition to patients being deprived of the quality care provided by Cuban doctors directly, the health care systems of those countries that depend training received from Cuban medical staff will suffer shortages of domestic health care professionals. They will also miss the important role that Cubans play in establishing health care facilities (e.g., clinics, diagnostic laboratories, hospitals) and medical schools. Furthermore, health researchers in these countries could miss out on the benefits they receive from exchanges of scientific knowledge and research findings with their Cuban counterparts. 

The world has much to learn from Cuba’s international collaboration in humanitarian projects, as well as its acceptance of free universal health care as a key component of human rights. Unfortunately, the Trump administration is continuing the American tradition of directedly violating the freedoms and rights of Cubans by means of its cruel blockade. Now, it has gone even further, extending its targeting to include the many people around the world that benefit from the health care aid provided by Cuba. These efforts aimed at destroying Cuba’s international medical mission could be described, in the words of Fidel Castro, as ‘a crime against the people, against the sick, against the unfortunate, against those who suffer.’

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Birsen Filip holds a PhD in philosophy and master’s degrees in economics and philosophy. She has published numerous articles and chapters on a range of topics, including political philosophy, geo-politics, and the history of economic thought, with a focus on the Austrian School of Economics and the German Historical School of Economics. She is the author of The Rise of Neo-liberalism and the Decline of Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and The Early History of Economics in the United States: The Influence of the German Historical School of Economics on Teaching and Theory (Routledge, 2022).

She is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image: When Italy was hit very hard at the start of the corona pandemic, they were assisted by a brigade of Cuban doctors. Photo: Italian Development Cooperation Agency

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