Trump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick
Not content to sabotage Cubas domestic health sector, the Trump
administration has been attacking Cubas international medical assistance,
from the teams fighting coronavirus to those caring for underserved
communities in 164 countries.
by Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores
June 16th, 2020
By Medea Benjamin and
Leonardo Flores
Ateam of 85 Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in Peru on June 3 to help the
Andean nation tackle the coronavirus pandemic. That same day, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo announced another tightening of the sanctions screws. This
time he targeted seven Cuban entities, including Fincimex, one of the
principal financial institutions handling remittances to the country. Also
targeted was Marriott International, which was ordered to cease operations
in Cuba, and other companies in the tourism sector, an industry that
constitutes 10 percent of Cubas GDP and has been devastated globally by the
pandemic.
It seems that the more Cuba helps the world, the more it gets hammered by
the Trump administration. While Cuba has endured a U.S. embargo for nearly
60 years, Trump has revved up the stakes with a maximum pressure strategy
that includes more than 90 economic measures placed against the nation since
January 2019. Josefina Vidal, Cubas ambassador to Canada, called the
measures unprecedented in their level of aggression and scope and designed
to deprive the country of income for the development of the economy. Since
its inception, the embargo has cost Cuba well over $130 billion dollars,
according to a 2018 estimate. In 2018-2019 alone, the economic impact was $4
billion, a figure that does not include the impact of a June 2019 Trump
administration travel ban aimed at harming the tourist industry.
While the embargo is supposed to have humanitarian exemptions, the health
sector has not been spared. Cuba is known worldwide for its universal public
healthcare system, but the embargo has led to shortages of medicines and
medical supplies, particularly for patients with AIDS and cancer. Doctors at
Cubas National Institute of Oncology have had to amputate the lower limbs
of children with cancer because the American companies that have a monopoly
on the technology cant sell it to Cuba. In the midst of the pandemic, the
U.S. blocked a donation of facemasks and COVID-19 diagnostic kits from
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.
Not content to sabotage Cubas domestic health sector, the Trump
administration has been attacking Cubas international medical assistance,
from the teams fighting coronavirus today to those who have traveled all
over the world since the 1960s providing services to underserved
communities in 164 countries. The U.S. goal is to cut the islands income
now that the provision of these services has surpassed tourism as Cubas
number one source of revenue. Labeling these volunteer medical teams
victims of human trafficking because part of their salaries goes to pay
for Cubas healthcare system, the Trump administration convinced Ecuador,
Bolivia and Brazil to end their cooperation agreements with Cuban doctors.
Pompeo then applauded the leaders of these countries for refusing to turn a
blind eye to Cubas alleged abuses. The triumphalism was short-lived: a
month after that quote, the Bolsonaro government in Brazil begged Cuba to
resend its doctors amid the pandemic. U.S. allies all over the world,
including in Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Honduras, and Peru have
gratefully accepted this Cuban aid. So great is the admiration for Cuban
doctors that a global campaign has sprung up to award them the Nobel Peace
Prize.
A Cuban medical worker disinfectants his hands before he boards a bus at the
Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, June 8, 2020. Yamil Lage |
AP
The Trump administration is not just libeling doctors, but the whole
country. In May, the State Department named Cuba as one of five countries
not cooperating fully in U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The main pretext
was the nations hosting of members of Colombias National Liberation Army
(ELN). Yet even the State Departments own press release notes that ELN
members are in Cuba as a result of peace negotiation protocols. Cuban
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the charges dishonest and
facilitated by the ungrateful attitude of the Colombian government that
broke off talks with the ELN in 2019. It should also be noted that Ecuador
was the original host of the ELN-Colombia talks, but Cuba was asked to step
in after the Moreno government abdicated its responsibilities in 2018.
The classification of Cuba as not cooperating with counterterrorism could
lead to Cuba being placed on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list,
which carries tougher penalties. This idea was floated by a senior Trump
administration official to Reuters last month. Cuba had been on this list
from 1982 to 2015, despite that fact that, according to former State
Department official Jason Blazakis, it was legally determined that Cuba was
not actively engaged in violence that could be defined as terrorism under
any credible definition of the word.
Of course, the United States is in no position to claim that other countries
do not cooperate in counterterrorism. For years, the U.S. harbored Luis
Posada Carriles, the mastermind of the bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane
in 1976 that killed 73 people. More recently, the U.S. has yet to even
comment on the April 30 attack on the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C., when
a man fired on the building with an automatic rifle.
While there are certainly right-wing ideologues like Secretary Pompeo and
Senator Rubio orchestrating Trumps maximum pressure campaign, for Trump
himself, Cuba is all about the U.S. elections. His hard line against the
tiny island nation may have helped swing the Florida gubernatorial campaign
during the midterm elections, yet its not clear that this will serve him
well in a presidential year. According to conventional wisdom and polls,
younger Cuban-Americans who like most young people, dont tend to vote in
midterms are increasingly skeptical of the U.S. embargo, and overall, Cuba
isnt the overriding issue for Cuban-Americans. Trump won the Cuban-American
vote in 2016, but Hillary Clinton took between 41 and 47% percent of that
electorate, significantly higher than any Democrat in decades.
As an electoral strategy, these are signs that Trumps aggression towards
Cuba may not pay off. Of course, the strategy might not be just about votes
but also about financing and ensuring that the Cuban-American political
machinery is firmly behind Trump.
The strategy has certainly not paid off when it comes to achieving the goal
of regime change. The Trump administration is arguably farther from
achieving regime change in Cuba now than the U.S. has ever been in over 60
years of intervention. During Trumps tenure, Cuba calmly transitioned from
the presidency of Raul Castro to that of Miguel Díaz-Canel. In 2019, Cuban
voters overwhelmingly ratified a new constitution. These arent signs of a
country on the brink of collapse.
All Trump has achieved is making life more difficult for the islands 11
million inhabitants, who, like people all over the world, have been battered
by the economic impact from coronavirus. Tourism has collapsed. Income from
remittances has tanked (both because of new U.S. restrictions and less
income in the hands of the Cuban diaspora). Venezuela, once a major
benefactor, is mired in its own crisis. But Cubas economy, which was
forecast to contract by 3.7% before the pandemic hit, has been through
worse, particularly during the 1991 to 2000 economic crisis known as the
special period after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A change in the White House would bring some relief, although Joe Biden has
staked a rather ambivalent position, saying he would restore relations as
President Obama did, but adding that he was open to using sanctions as
punishment for Cubas support to the Venezuelan government.
Its clear that from now until November, and perhaps for four more years,
the Trump administration will pummel its island neighbor. Cuba will continue
to seek global condemnation on the blockade (the 2019 UN vote was 187
against vs 3 in favorthe U.S., Brazil, and Israel) and continue to show
what a good neighbor looks like. It responded to these latest provocations
in the way that only Cuba does: with more global solidarity, sending
Covid-19 healing brigades to Guinea and Kuwait a day after the June 3 round
of sanctions. A total of 26 countries now have Cuban medical personnel
caring for their sick.
That is the kind of goodwill that money just cant buy and it greatly
presents a stark contrast to the Trump administrations shameful behavior
during the pandemic. Back in March, as Cuban doctors arrived in Italy,
former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa tweeted:
One day we will tell our children that, after decades of movies and
propaganda, at the moment of truth, when humanity needed help at a time when
the great powers were in hiding, Cuban doctors began to arrive, without
asking anything in return.
