It is encouraging to see heads of government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), including our own Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, lining up behind Cuba and singing from the same proverbial hymn sheet, following threats by the recently installed Donald Trump administration to impose visa restrictions on countries hiring Cuban medical doctors.
Not for the first time since taking office in January, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been the purveyor of the threatening news, warning on this occasion that this particular group of “trusted” healthcare professionals, who have been delivering vital services to the region for decades, has been engaged in “forced labour” and a form of “human trafficking.”
“The United States is expanding its Cuba-related visa restriction policy, and the State Department has taken steps to restrict visa issuance to Cuban and complicit third-country government officials and individuals responsible for Cuba’s exploitative labour export programme,” said Rubio, adding that the US will promote accountability for the Cuban regime for oppressing its people and those who profit from forced labour.
However, like Dr Rowley, and indeed other Caricom leaders, we are not about to rush to any such judgement, or squander 52 years of unbroken diplomatic friendship on the altar of expediency.
In fact, we prefer, in the absence of any material evidence of trafficking and exploitation with respect to the Cuban medical doctors who live and work among us, to focus on the successes of the programme through the years.
To say that the Caricom-Cuba relationship has been tried, tested and proven, is an understatement.
Ironically, the threats hanging over Cuba today are not at all dissimilar to those which existed in December 1972, when four brave Caribbean countries—Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago—ended Havana’s global isolation through the establishment of formal diplomatic relations.
Since then, a grateful Havana has been a pillar of support for this region, particularly in the area of healthcare, with thousands of Caricom nationals—including late prime minister Patrick Manning—undergoing medical procedures in Cuba and touting its value.
Additionally, hundreds of Trinidadian nationals have travelled to Havana and benefited from its free eye care programme.
Under the Cuban scholarship programme, South-South cooperation has further flourished and deepened, with hundreds of students having graduated from Cuban universities with medical sciences specialities, mostly as medical doctors.
Moreover, Cuban doctors have become an essential part of this region’s healthcare system. Many of them have been working in T&T since July 2003, as part of the Cuban Medical Brigade established by now deceased Cuban president Fidel Castro, with Cuban authorities estimating that roughly 1,200 medical workers have completed missions in T&T since the arrangement began.
Caricom’s current stance in support of embattled Cuba should, therefore, come as no surprise, even in the face of the shifting tectonic plates of geo-politics.
We appreciate that in the political realm, everything is not always as it seems and that for every action there is a reaction.
However, as independent nations, we must be allowed to ultimately make our own choices, especially in circumstances where rhetoric appears to be drowning out reason.
As it pertains to the current claims about Cuba, our hope is that cooler heads will prevail and that the tenets of multi-lateralism will be allowed to stand, so too our tried and proven friendships. After all, united we stand, divided we fall.