U.S. Clamps Down on Cuba, Targets Cuban International Medical Missions
The U.S. is revealing how it uses groups it created, like the Organization of the American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to oppress millions
Recently, a letter that was sent to the member nations of the Organization of American States (OAS) seeking data on Cuba’s medical missions was leaked. Sent by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which is part of the OAS in Washington, D.C., the letter requests that member nations submit information within 30 days about Cuba’s medical missions in their countries. The United States is the primary funder of the OAS.
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The letter was sent on May 20 by Javier Palummo Lantes, the IACHR’s special rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights. Palummo’s list includes requests for information about past and present Cuban medical missions, details of contracts, documentation of legal complaints, and medical personnel who have abandoned the medical missions.
Cuba has more than 20,000 doctors in 50 countries, including the Caribbean and Latin America. Cuban doctors are typically found in poor urban and remote rural areas. Historically, medical teams have also been deployed in response to natural disasters, such as earthquakes in Haiti, and international health emergencies like Ebola and COVID. The missions provide services where they are most needed, and doctors are typically received with open arms and celebration.
As the Trump administration continues to ratchet up its campaign against the Cuban people, this appears to be yet another tool that will inevitably be used to justify the U.S.’s unilateral economic blockade of Cuba. By targeting the Cuban medical missions all over the world, the U.S. has been threatening to deny or restrict the visas of officials from other governments who employ the Cuban medical teams and who are sympathetic to the Cuban people’s struggles.
The target for the U.S. seems to be more about the billions of dollars generated by the missions through agreements between countries. This is the Cuban government's primary source of foreign currency that allows it access to many world markets. The money generated by the medical missions also supports Cuba’s free universal healthcare. This targeting shows just how the U.S government targets the Cuban people in a campaign of collective punishment.
The “maximum pressure” campaign, originally started in Trump’s first term, has evolved and become even harsher under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has an odd and unhealthy relationship with the country he claims to be a proud representative of. The campaign to try and break the Cuban people includes a broad propaganda campaign for regime change in Cuba.
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Because much of the country supports its government over U.S. interventionism, the U.S. targets the Cuban people much like similar campaigns against Palestinians in Gaza using starvation as a weapon; the people are who suffer for these polices. Now, the U.S. is targeting the government officials from around the world to cripple Cuba futher, threaten is allyships, and make the people that it is trying to starve by crippling Cuba’s healthcare system further.
Historically, the OAS has been utilized as a foreign policy mechanism that supported dictators across Latin America while backing U.S. interventions, including violent attacks against democratically elected governments. OAS had some pushback in the 2000s when many leftist leaders were elected across Latin America. However, the organization began shifting to the right just before Trump began his first term and has been shifting even harder right since.
This shift to the right has intentionally implemented a more militaristic strategy, taking the U.S. back to the far-right, dictator-friendly policies of decades ago. This resulted in the rise of leaders like Javier Milei and Nayib Bukele, much like the far-right polices of our foreign affairs make dictators possible in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. The return to this posture means not negotiating with countries for resources, but taking them by force and negotiating afterward.
The Bahamas and Suriname are currently reconsidering their medical mission contracts with Cuba due to added pressure from the United States. Meanwhile, after revoking the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Cubans along with many others, Cuban noncitizens are now being asked to self-deport or face the consequences of being taken into custody, held in a detention center for 30-60 days, and deported.
While many previous administrations bear the blame for Cuba’s current situation, the Trump White House is going further than any administration has in decades. That Cuba is now 62% Black should not go unnoticed in this conversation. Neither should the multiple attempted terrorist attacks thwarted by Cuban law enforcement in just the last two years.
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Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads.
👏 , good catch. Sanctions as an imperial proxy for mass violence through starvation, disease, economic collapse, and covert destabilization, is a potent and valid critique, strongly supported by the devastating humanitarian consequences witnessed in Iraq, and ongoing impacts in Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Cuba and elsewhere. The mechanisms align with the Iran-Contra parallel in terms of pursuing regime change/ behavior modification through indirect, coercive means that inflict massive suffering on civilian populations for resource predation for everything from oil to cheapened labor for banana plantations.