Page 30 - Nile Explorer Issue 007

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I n 2005, following Hurricane

Katrina disaster in the US, Castro
offered to send 1,500 doctors to the US
to help with the relief effort. A special
group of healthcare professionals was
formed for the task called the Henry
Reeve medical brigade, named after an
American who supported the Cuban
independence forces in 1868 and died in
combat for the cause. But US president
George W Bush never got back to month. According the Cuban govern-
Castro and the doctors and nurses were The US State Department wants coun-
redeployed elsewhere. It’s this same tries to reconsider asking Cuba for help ment it keeps a large percentage of the
brigade which has now gone to Italy. in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. overseas salaries to finance the island's
"Cuba offers its international medical free health care system.
Just as it happened then 2005, Cuba is missions to those afflicted with For nearly 60 years, Cuba has been
offering to send doctors to more coun- #COVIDʔ19 only to make up the sending healthcare professionals
tries struggling with the coronavirus. money it lost when countries stopped
But the US State Department says, participating in the abusive program," around the world. It does this in solidar-
ity with those in need, but also as part of
countries should not accept their help tweeted an account for the US State a concerted campaign of medical diplo-
from Cuba, unfortunately, however, the Department Bureau of Democracy, macy and to make money to help the
situation on the ground in many coun- Human Rights and Labor. country survive an ongoing US embar-
tries, including the developed world is
such that health care systems are The recent surge in requests for help by go.
strained to the point of collapse, and other countries, following the COVID Since the very early years of the Cuban
Cuban health care "brigades" have been 19 outbreak has marked an abrupt turn- revolution, its former leader, Fidel
invited to assist. around of interest in Cuban medics Castro, made clear that universal
after hundreds of them were sent home
While the US will certainly not accept from medical missions in Brazil, Ecua- healthcare and internationalism would
Cuban doctors, for own reasons—US dor and Bolivia in recent years, this was be key to the country’s strategy. Based
on the socialist concept that everyone
has maintained an embargo on Cuba after the US criticized Cuba's medical should have the same opportunities in
since the 60s—Italy, the new epicenter assistance programs, accusing them of life, Cuba believed these ideals should be
of COVID 19 quickly accepted Cuba’s exploiting health care workers and applicable at the global level. The Cuban
offer, becoming the first country in the spreading propaganda.
developed world to ever accept assis- programme was born out of an interest
tance from a developing country. Cuba offers some countries free medical to export its revolutionary socialist
Beyond Italy, Cuban medics have been assistance out of solidarity, while other ideals, first to Africa, and later to South
deployed to assist medical workers in countries pay for the services. The America and the rest of the world.
Venezuela, Nicaragua, Suriname, Jamai- workers who deploy typically receive Cuba sent its first long-term mission of
ca and Grenada. On Tuesday, Cuban only about 20% of the salaries the host Cuban doctors to Algeria in 1963, a
officials released video of a field hospital countries pay for their assistance -- a country facing a territorial conflict with
its health care workers had built in reduced wage, but much more than Morocco. Since then, Cuba has sent
Lombardy, Italy, one of the regions hit Cuban doctors earn in hospitals back more than 400,000 healthcare profes-
hardest by the coronavirus. home, where a top salary is about $60 a sionals to work in 164 countries,

30 | The Nile Explorer 006