By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the dreadful COVID-19 virus continues to wreak havoc around the world, Cuba is effectively using medical diplomacy in assisting some countries in waging war against the frightening pandemic despite the economic hardships it has had to endure as a result of crippling sanctions imposed by the United States against that island nation for more than half-a-century.
In recent weeks, Cuba has sent medical teams to Italy, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Grenada, Suriname, Jamaica, Belize and Saint Lucia. However, although The Bahamas is Cuba’s closest Caribbean neighbor, the government of The Bahamas has not yet reached out to Cuba for medical assistance. This could very well be because of the historically close ties and geographic proximity of The Bahamas to the United States. Indeed, The Bahamas is an archipelago of 700 islands and cays extending from just off the coast of Florida to the eastern tip of Cuba, with Great Inagua — the second largest of the 27 inhabited islands — about 55 miles from the eastern tip of Cuba.
Of course, Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis should be highly commended for the stringent measures his government has imposed against the spread of COVID-19, including a 24-hour curfew and the closing of Lynden Pindling International Airport to all flights, as of Friday, March 27. The public was further advised that, effective March 27, all airports throughout the entire Bahamas would be closed to all air traffic. The Emergency Order is set to remain in effect until 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 31, but it is widely expected that it would be extended if COVID-19 continues to be a frightening pandemic.
Nonetheless, the question has got to be asked: In this war against the very dangerous COVID-19, why hasn’t The Bahamas – in the same manner as fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries like Jamaica, Grenada, Belize and Saint Lucia – embraced the opportunity to seek Cuba’s assistance? The fact that the outstanding medical expertise of Cuban doctors has over the years lured many Bahamians to Cuba for treatment in a broad array of illnesses makes this question even more relevant.
Obviously, we have some very good doctors and medical practitioners in The Bahamas, but one of the main campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Medical School is based in Jamaica, so any argument that suggests The Bahamas does not need the help of “foreign doctors” is nonsensical. What’s more, the 133 members of the Cuban medical team that arrived in Saint Lucia on Friday, March 27, were flown there on a Bahamasair aircraft, presumably a chartered flight arranged in response to a request from a fellow CARICOM country. Indeed, Bahamasair was among the entities that Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet thanked for “ensuing this came to fruition.”
The United States has maintained a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba, dating back to February of 1962 when President John F. Kennedy proclaimed an embargo on trade between the United States and Cuba, in response to certain actions taken by the Cuban Government, almost two years after Fidel Castro led a successful Cuban Revolution and subsequently embraced communism as a political ideology.
Former President Barack Obama, during his administration, made some positive steps to improve relations between the United States and Cuba, and as The New York Times reported in an article on October 14, 2016, the President “moved to cement his administration’s historic opening with Cuba by issuing a sweeping directive that will last beyond his presidency, setting forth a new United States policy to lift the Cold War trade embargo and end a half-century of clandestine plotting against Cuba’s government.”
“The action formalizes the shift toward normalization that the president unveiled nearly two years ago with the announcement that he and President Raúl Castro of Cuba had secretly agreed to repair their countries’ relationship,” The Times reported.
However, with President Donald Trump now occupying the White House, the Washington Post reported in an April 17, 2019 article, “The Trump administration levied new sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua on Wednesday, using the language of the Cold War — and of President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign — in a vow to combat socialism, communism and human rights abuses. The heaviest measures were directed at Cuba. U.S. citizens will now be allowed to sue any entity or person found to be ‘trafficking’ in property that was expropriated from U.S. citizens after the 1959 revolution. Trump’s three immediate predecessors in office had suspended that right, sustaining a 1996 law containing Cuba sanctions, on the grounds that it would interfere with trade and national security.”
Could it be that the policies of the Trump administration with regard to Cuba is one of the reasons why the government of The Bahamas has not sought Cuba’s help in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic? That’s another question that demands an answer.
