U.S. Government Allocates Millions of Dollars to Obstruct Cuban Medical Cooperation
- Statement from the Cuban Ministry of
Foreign
Affairs -
Cuban doctors return home from Brazil in 2018 -- some of thousands of
Cuban health
professionals and technicians working in many countries around the
world.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces and strongly
condemns the United States government's recent aggression against
Cuba through a USAID program to finance projects and seek
information to discredit and sabotage Cuba's international health
care cooperation in dozens of countries, benefitting millions of
people. This plan joins the disgraceful pressure exerted on
several governments to hamper Cuban cooperation, and previous
attempts with the same purpose such as the special "parole"
program meant to rob human resources trained in Cuba.
The core of this immoral slander is the totally
unfounded
allegation that Cuba is involved in the trafficking of persons
and practices slavery, attempting to denigrate the meritorious
work done voluntarily, over a long period of our history, by
hundreds of thousands of Cuban health professionals and
technicians in many countries, especially in the Third World.
This is an attack on bilateral programs and
inter-governmental
cooperation projects, all legitimately established by the Cuban
government and those of dozens of countries, adhering to United
Nations guidelines regarding South-South cooperation and meeting
health standards sovereignly defined by the governments
involved.
This is an attack against acts of solidarity that have
been
recognized by the international community and praised
specifically by the highest authorities in the United Nations,
the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health
Organization.
These lies reveal the base morality of the U.S
government and
politicians dedicated to the business of aggression against Cuba.
The campaign is funded with millions of dollars and enjoys the
complicity of several mass media outlets, in particular,
of unscrupulous reporters who sacrifice their supposed impartiality
and objectivity to serve the political interests of the U.S.
government.
For decades and today, in nations with unfavorable
economic
conditions, this cooperation has been, and is, provided as a
gesture of solidarity, with costs covered practically in their
totality by Cuba. Likewise, in line with United Nations
conceptions on cooperation between developing nations, services
are offered in several countries on the basis of complementarity
and partial compensation.
This exchange is completely fair and legitimate among
developing countries, many of which have natural riches,
economies, and industrial development greater than Cuba's, but
lack the human resources our state has been able to create --
disinterested, humanist professionals willing to work under the
most difficult conditions, of their own free will; and a
conception of health care coverage that years of experience have
allowed us to construct.
Cuban technicians and professionals who participate in
these
programs do so absolutely freely and voluntarily. During the
fulfillment of their missions, they continue to receive their
full salaries and additionally receive a stipend in the
destination country, along with other forms of compensation.
In those cases in which Cuba receives compensation for
the
cooperation provided, these collaborators are meritoriously
making a highly valuable, fair, and totally legitimate
contribution to the financing, sustainability, and development of
our massive, free health care system that is accessible to each
and every Cuban, as well as cooperation programs that are carried
out in many parts of the world.
Access to health care is a human right and the United
States
is committing a crime when it attempts to deny or obstruct its
provision for political reasons or as an act of aggression.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 25 - August 31, 2019
Article Link:
U.S. Government Allocates Millions of Dollars to Obstruct Cuban Medical Cooperation - Statement from the Cuban Ministry of
Foreign
Affairs
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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