Cuba, Crisis and Diplomacy
Crisis and Diplomacy: Cuba’s role in the fight against Ebola and the American diplomatic response
The article has been produced by the efforts of:
Soheil Milani – Team Member of the Ebola Crisis and West Africa Region
In 2014, Ebola claimed the lives of over 7000 people. The international community responded by increasing border security, offering subsidies, deploying troops, and providing healthcare workers to the countries affected. The UN Security Council formed a coalition to combat Ebola, drawing from experts and resources of member nations[1]. Prior to the vote, Cuba had dozens of landed doctors in Liberia, with plans to send hundreds more. Cuba is often a first responder to crises. It assumed the role in 2005 and again in 2010 when Pakistan and Haiti were struck by earthquakes. There were 2400 Cuban healthcare workers in Kashmir that looked after 70 percent of the victims; in Haiti, they looked after 40 per cent[2].
Cuba continues to be the most active country in West Africa in the fight against Ebola. It has sent more doctors to Ebola-stricken countries than the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and any other nation[3]. Cuba leaves behind both staff and medical equipment in the countries that experience disasters, and trains the local healthcare workers in at-risk cities. It was recently commissioned to train and assist local medical personnel in the fight against Ebola in Equatorial Guinea[4]. The World Health Organization, Ban-Ki Moon of the UN General Assembly, and the US State Department, have all praised Cuba’s contributions.
Cuba has also led the charge in global integration and cooperation. Responsible for providing South America and the Caribbean support to alleviate underdeveloped health protocols, equipment, and personnel deficiencies, the South looks at Cuba as a leader in the medical field. Through organizations such as ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America), Cuba has been able to bring the region closer[5]. In October 2014 ALBA held a conference to discuss the goals, policies, and emergency provisions to combat Ebola. The meeting invited non-ALBA members such as the WHO and the United States[6].
The complimentary remarks by the Oval office and the open diplomacy between the US and Cuba were significant. According to the Brookings Institute, US and Cuba relations strengthened during the Haitian crisis. US supplies were trusted to Cuban health workers and hospitals. Following the success of the relief effort, America and Cuba made plans to build a hospital in Haiti, staffed by Cuban healthcare workers[7]. In 2014 Raul and Fidel Castro, the current and former presidents of Cuba respectively, announced publicly for the first time their willingness to cooperate with the United States.
Dialogue regarding the end of the Cold-War embargo on Cuba remains contentious. President Obama campaigned against its removal during his presidential run in 2008, emphasizing the importance of the embargo as leverage over Cuba. Since his election, however, he has been scaling back the policy gradually. In his first term, he made it easier for Cuban-Americans to travel between the two nations and send remittances. His administration cooperated with Cuba in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake in 2010, and again during the Ebola outbreak in western Africa[8]. The efforts were kept out of the press, presumably to keep the issues of health and relief from becoming politicized.
The United Nations General Assembly voted in October 2014 to lift the US embargo against Cuba. In December 2014, President Obama announced the end to the 1960 policy, citing, among other reasons, Cuba’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti and West Africa. Although congressional approval for the removal of the embargo is required, President Obama is able to make use of executive actions to reduce its impact[9].
Obama’s praise of Cuba is disproportionately aimed at healthcare, an issue that has become a staple of his administration[10]. According to the World Bank, Cuban doctors number at 670 per 100,000 citizens, eclipsing the US which stands at 240 per 100,000 Americans[11]. With only eleven million citizens, Cuba is the largest per capita producer of medical professionals in the world. The government, moreover, finances the education of its healthcare workers. Graduates are traded internationally for the economic and diplomatic benefit of the state, making Cuba also the biggest exporter of medical professionals in the world[12].
Dubbed the “doctors for cash” and “doctors for oil” program, it is the biggest contributor to Cuba’s GDP. The program adds six to eight billion dollars annually to the Cuban economy, contributed by over 50,000 medical personnel in 68 countries. The program outperforms other sectors of the economy traditionally attributed to Cuba’s survival, such as tourism and the export of goods like cigars, rum, and sugar. The demand for Cuban doctors raises the reputation of Cuba’s medical schools, which took in 19,500 students from one hundred countries in 2013, furthering the healthcare sector’s contribution to the economy[13]. Sending doctors and medical aid to Latin American nations, along with the creation of ALBA, were attempts to export the socialist revolution. Both Cuba and Venezuela have strived for economic and political influence in the region, and are responsible for the creation of many trade deals, inter-governmental bodies, and treatise that carry on today.
