Cease of Cuban Medical Cooperation Impacts Less Favored Communities

Havana, March 24 (ACN) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that US campaigns against Cuban medical missions punish the least favored communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Washington puts muscles and uses blackmail against Latin American and Caribbean nations to have them interrupt the work of Cuban international medical missions in those countries.

In return, they promise resources that we know will never arrive or benefit those populations, Rodriguez noted.

According to Rodríguez Parrilla, through these actions the United States seeks to undermine the humanistic and solidarity-based program created by Cuba and Fidel, and to continue cutting off sources of income for the island’s economy.

On March 4, the Government of Jamaica announced its unilateral decision to terminate the health cooperation agreement with Cuba, under which more than 8,176,000 patients were treated and some 90,000 lives were saved, according to official figures.

Also in early March, the last contingent of professionals from the Cuban Medical Brigade in Honduras arrived in Cuba, following the termination of the agreement between the two countries, by decision of Tegucigalpa.

In that Central American country, Cuban healthcare personnel worked in 17 of the 18 departments within the public health system, carrying out more than 30 million consultations and nearly 900,000 surgical procedures.

Guatemala also announced the gradual withdrawal of Cuban professionals, who had been working in rural areas since 1998.