Tensions with Washington: After US stress, Jamaica ends medical program with Cuba | EUROtoday

After stress from Washington, Jamaica has ended its medical cooperation program with Cuba after nearly 50 years. Jamaica’s Health Minister Christopher Tufton mentioned talks with Havana about adjustments to this system had not progressed. For Cuba’s communist authorities, medical missions overseas, which Washington considers pressured labor, are a profitable supply of revenue.

Honduras had beforehand foregone the companies of round 170 Cuban docs despatched to the nation. There are at present greater than 280 Cuban docs in Jamaica, Tufton informed Parliament’s Finance Committee. The Jamaican authorities is now able to conclude particular person contracts instantly with them. According to the Jamaican Foreign Ministry, each nations had been unable to agree on new phrases after the earlier settlement expired in 2023, as quoted by The Gleaner newspaper in a press release.

Such cooperation agreements are at present being concluded with the Cuban authorities, which withholds the vast majority of the funds – the docs solely obtain a small a part of them as salaries. Washington calls this a type of human trafficking. In February, the US State Department introduced visa restrictions on Cuban and overseas officers who “exploit Cuban workers.”

Havana regretted Jamaica’s determination to finish the long-standing cooperation. “With this measure, the Jamaican government is giving in to pressure from the US government, which does not care about the health needs of its Caribbean brothers,” mentioned a press release from the Cuban Foreign Ministry. The medics despatched would return to Cuba.

Cuba’s authorities is anticipated to gather billions of US {dollars} for the companies of docs

According to the US State Department, Cuba earns round six to eight billion US {dollars} (round 5 to six.8 billion euros) yearly from the export of companies, primarily via the rental of medical personnel. Cuban docs and nurses are deployed in round 60 nations, usually in distant areas. Many nations in Latin America and Africa rely upon it.

Relations between Havana and Washington have been strained for many years. Washington is now placing elevated stress on the socialist Caribbean island. The US authorities desires to essentially cease the influx of overseas forex and oil from which the communist authorities is meant to learn. US President Donald Trump predicted an imminent collapse for Cuba: “Cuba will fall very soon,” he mentioned. The island is at present experiencing one in all its worst financial crises since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959.