Cutting heart out of Cuba’s medical diplomacy a poor excuse for foreign policy

[struggle4progress]

DeWayne Wickham
Gannett News Service

... In August, the Bush administration announced .... that ... if any Cuban medical professionals defect while in a foreign country, their families would be allowed to join them in the United States.

This was a calculated attempt to cut the heart out of Cuba’s most successful diplomatic outreach: its dispatch of more than 39,000 doctors and medical technicians to 69 countries ...

Since 2004, Cuban doctors have performed more than 500,000 cataract removal surgeries for patients in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. The Cuban government has opened seven eye centers in Latin American and Caribbean countries — as well as one in Africa — where poor people can go for free optical care ...

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Cuba assembled a cadre of 1,100 doctors to treat victims of the catastrophe. The Bush administration rejected that offer of help. Now it seeks to deny the same sort of help to other countries where, in many cases, the need for medical assistance is even greater ...

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/opinion/local_story_064214145.html

[drm604]

1. K&R

:mad:

[BayCityProgressive]

2. typical

nothing the US does surprises me. Just for the record this has happened under all our presidents.