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Creating a health crisis in Cuba: objective of the war against its medical cooperation

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Cuba has sent more than 400 thousand health workers to 164 countries in six decades.

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During this pandemic, 3.800 health workers have helped in 39 nations, saving more than 12.000 lives.

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There´s no other similar example in history of massive international medical cooperation.

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But what do we read about it in the press? The life stories of these tens of thousands of people,

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their experiences of dedication and altruism in jungles or favelas,

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their reflections on solidarity, poverty or injustice? Not even one.


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Agencies and media only make news is the "report"

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of an extreme right-wing NGO (called Prisoners Defenders)

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that maintains that everything is a "million-dollar business of the Cuban regime"


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with a pattern of "mass slavery".

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The US government provides the alleged "report" with the objectives, funds, data and testimonies:

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600 former aid workers -400 in total anonymity, without a name-, for whom

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in a most part were granted political asylum. The prize: visas, money and job offers in the US.

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Prisoners Defenders loot? A part of the three million dollars from a program of USAID,

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the US Development Agency, aimed to –in textual words-

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"investigate, compile and analyze" information against Cuban medical missions.

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In any case, 200 or 600 testimonies obtained with prizes and money

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are a very poor harvest compared to the tens of thousands of Cuban health professionals

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who would never abandon for money the vulnerable communities they serve.

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Washington is on the offensive to destroy Cuban medical cooperation

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with four objectives. One, the electoral objective: loyalty to donors 

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and the hard vote of the Cuban-American extreme right-wing in the state of Florida.

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Two, the diplomat one: straining Cuba's relations with the countries receiving cooperation.

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Three, the ideological one: staining the image of solidarity of Cuba in the world,

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strengthened after the recent shipment of medical aid to Italy.

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And the fourth, the objective of economic warfare. The Department of State works tirelessly

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to close each and every one of the Island's sources of income or supplies:

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tourism, remittances, fuel, foreign investment...

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The destruction of international medical agreements seeks to cut the means of income

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with which Cuba has managed to sustain its public health system.

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Let´s remember a part of Cuban medical cooperation –the cooperation developed in very poor nations-

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is paid for Havana. In other countries, the costs are shared. 

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And in others with higher incomes, Cuba receives a payment for services.

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The aforementioned “report” extrapolates this last case to the whole of Cuban cooperation, ignoring the first two.

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"The Cuban regime - they tell us - exploits its professionals(...),

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using them to buy financial and political support (...) and keep its tight economy afloat".

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But which people of the "regime", what pockets,

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to what accounts would the benefits of this supposed great "business" go?

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The mentioned "report" doesn´t include the slightest evidence of a single Cuban leader,

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official or intermediary who has received said "benefits".

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Because if they existed, they would have already been provided by the US intelligence agencies,

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which know that the funds received through cooperation, in addition to improving the economic conditions

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of the cooperating personnel and their families,guarantee the Cuban Public Health budget.

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In other words, with a part of its medical cooperation,

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Cuba not only serves vulnerable populations in countries of the Global South.

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In addition, it guarantees medical services for more than eleven million people on the island

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and the employment of 479 thousand in the health sector.

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It supports cooperation in the poorest countries and also

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the scholarships from the Latin American School of Medicine, which has already trained 30.000 professionals from 115 countries.

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It is the most honest formula that Cuba has found to sustain its free health care system,

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in the face of the brutal US blockade, which cuts off its exports, impedes trade,

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vetoes all credit for development and drives away investment.

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The president of Prisoners Defenders, the businessman Javier Larrondo,

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declared with exultation that “the (Cuban) regime is technically bankrupt and without a treasury.

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It´s the beginning of the end”.

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Thus, he uncovered the objective of this supposed "Spanish human rights NGO"

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as presented by the press (17)- and the true undercover cabinet of the State Department:

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to dynamite the income of the Cuban health system, until it caused its collapse and generated a health crisis on the island.

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Translated and subtituled by Laura V. Mor.