Another U.S. Attempt to Discredit Cuban Medical Solidarity

U.S. denies visas for Cuban delegation to participate in a meeting of the Pan American Health Organization in Washington

Granma International news staff | informacion@granma.cu
October 3, 2019 15:10:36
Photo: Juvenal Balán

Cuba has denounced another aggressive move by the United States, October 1, to deny visas to the country’s delegation set to participate in the 57th meeting of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Directing Council in Washington, The country’s Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal, was set to lead the group.

The U.S. State Department reported that it had imposed visa restrictions on officials linked to Cuba’s medical missions program abroad, which the Trump administration is determined to discredit by whatever means possible.

The solidarity of the Cuban people and government was disparaged to justify the visa denial with the fallacy that members of the delegation were responsible for “exploitative” labor practices in the island nation’s medical services exports program.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry’s director general for the United States, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, referred to the hostile move tweeting, “A a huge mistake to believe that Cuban officials would betray our international medical cooperation commitments in exchange for visas to enter the United States.”

Last September, the United States Agency for International Development announced that it was offering up to three million dollars to organizations that "would investigate, gather, and analyze information" related to alleged violations of human rights of health personnel by Cuba.

“Fallacies, lies, maliciousness, and imperial arrogance that does not understand human values. Our medical missions are Cuba,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel insisted.