Castries/The United States has taken another step in its pressure on Caribbean countries that maintain ties with Cuba by demanding that Saint Lucia prohibit its nationals from studying medicine in Havana.
“I have a big problem. Many of our doctors were trained in Cuba and now the United States has said that we can no longer do it, which increases the pressure on an already overloaded health sector,” said the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Phillip J. Pierre, on Monday.
At a meeting of the second World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Castries, Pierre said this is “a serious problem” that must be addressed.
“Most of the local doctors have been trained in Cuba. We also have Cubans who come to work. So I have an important matter on my hands,” he lamented.
Pierre cited geopolitical pressures from the United States as the driving force behind this unprecedented change, while urging the diaspora and innovative local initiatives to help the country confront these new challenges.
“Most of the local doctors have been trained in Cuba. We also have Cubans who come to work. So I have an important matter on my hands.”
Cuban medical missions have become one of the main sources of tension between the United States and several Caribbean countries, following the measures promoted by Washington against this system through which Havana sends teams of medical personnel to dozens of countries.
Last month, the US Embassy in Barbados declared that the Cuban regime’s “medical missions” program, which has benefited several Caribbean countries, “is based on coercion and abuse.”
In mid-January, Antigua and Barbuda announced that it had recruited a group of 120 nurses from Ghana to reinforce the health system in the face of pressure to no longer have Cuban professionals.
Another example was the Bahamas, whose Government reported last June that it was suspending the hiring of Cuban health personnel and canceled its current contracts with a Cuban employment agency.
At the beginning of pressure from Washington, members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), including Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas, defended Cuban medical missions as vital to their health systems, but are being forced to capitulate.
