Honduras Ends Cuban Medical Mission

More than 150 Cuban doctors left Honduras yesterday after Honduras announced last week that it will no longer hire Cuban medical workers. Cuban medical workers have been supporting Honduras’ health system since 1998. They are typically posted in working-class urban neighborhoods and remote rural areas.

Over the past year, Paraguay, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, and Guyana have all announced they will end their medical cooperation agreements with Cuba following intense U.S. pressure.

“Because it’s the main source of hard currency traditionally for Cuba, the U.S. has decided to destroy Cuban medical internationalism,” John Kirk, author of Healthcare Without Borders: Understanding Cuban Medical Internationalism, told Belly of the Beast. “They appear to have threatened to cut off aid and development assistance to Caribbean countries and tariffs unless they comply.”

Washington’s campaign has combined diplomatic arm-twisting, including revoking visas for officials in countries that host Cuban medics, with propaganda depicting Cuban doctors as victims of “human trafficking.” Cuban doctors and nurses are paid many times more abroad than what they earn in Cuba.