WE THE UNDERSIGNED call on President Irfaan Ali and the Government of Guyana to reject US pressure to join the immoral, illegal and barbaric fuel embargo on our Caribbean sister-nation, Cuba. Urgent action is required to avoid this man-made humanitarian crisis. Preventing Cuba from receiving petroleum products necessary for the functioning of their society and the provision of vital services including life-saving medical services, food production and distribution, provision of electricity, functioning of water systems, transportation, vital revenue generating industries such as tourism, amounts to an act of genocide.
Further, we call for an immediate reversal of the decision to terminate the invaluable services provided by the Cuban Medical Brigade and to have them return to Guyana immediately. Finally, we call on the Government of Guyana to resist the pressure being exerted by the US to end the scholarship program that enables our citizens to pursue studies in Cuba, especially in the area of medicine.
Cuba is being punished not because it poses any threat to the US or to any country in the region or world, but rather because it dares to exercise its inalienable right to sovereignty and self-determination. In fact, far from being a threat, Cuba is responsible for saving millions of lives worldwide. A global health power, Cuba’s contributions to global public health and medical knowledge cannot be overstated. Its medical internationalism is one of the largest and most significant healthcare efforts in history. Since 1963, over 420,000 medical professionals have served abroad delivering healthcare and emergency response teams to 150 countries across the world. According to data from Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health shared in 2021, these healthcare professionals have performed more than 14,500,000 surgical operations, 4,470,000 deliveries and saved 8,700,000 lives. These figures are simply extraordinary for a small island nation that has been under crippling sanctions for decades.
Most notable interventions include the 2014 Ebola response in West Africa, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and global support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuba has more often than not been the first and only consistent medical presence in times of crises, when many countries, specifically Western nations, have turned their backs. One of their most remarkable flagship programs has been Operation Milagro (Operación Milagro), the aim of which was to restore vision on a global scale. Carried out in cooperation with Venezuela, Cuban medical brigades have provided over 3.3 million free eye surgeries to people from poor backgrounds, often in countries with little or no access to surgical options.
Beyond the medical brigades, Cuba has achieved significant scientific advances, spearheading work in the area of HIV prevention, becoming the first in the world, noted by WHO in 2015, to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis through integrated prenatal screening. Making advances in vaccine development and biotechnology, Cuba became one of the first countries in the Global South to develop its own Hepatitis B vaccine, achieving near-universal immunization and dramatically reducing related morbidity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba successfully developed multiple COVID-19 vaccines using protein-subunit technology and they were shared with other countries in the Global South who were being excluded from access to vaccines, while Western pharmaceutical companies were raking in profits. Another feat achieved by Cuba is the use of innovative technology and community-based health care models to significantly reduce diabetes-related amputations, one of the leading causes of disability and premature mortality in the Global South. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the immense contribution of Cuba to global healthcare, bestowing it with the Dr. Lee Jong-Wook Memorial Prize for Public Health in recognition of its emergency response work.
Despite 67 years of relentless US economic sanctions, blockades, sabotage and attempted regime-change operations, Cuba has achieved outstanding domestic health outcomes, far surpassing the health outcomes of so-called developed-nations in areas such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Healthcare in Cuba is free, available to all and premised on a community based, holistic and preventative medicine approach, a “family doctor” model, and the world’s highest doctor-to-patient ratios. Guyanese will most definitely be the losers if we cave into US pressure to stop sending our students to Cuba to avail themselves of the training and hands on experience that Cuba’s exceptional healthcare model provides. Our students will not just be losing a scholarship program, but access to a transformative and progressive model that can assist Guyana to develop our own healthcare system in a direction that is clearly superior to our current curative/reactive model.
Cuba started sending Medical Brigades to Guyana in 1978, and these brigades are credited for rescuing Guyana’s healthcare system from collapse and literally saving thousands of Guyanese lives. Cuban doctors have routinely been deployed in hinterland areas where Guyanese doctors were unwilling to work. Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, recently attempted to deny that the Government’s decision to end the work of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Guyana was due to US pressure. If that were so, why would we be ending this program, which is so clearly beneficial to all Guyanese, all of a sudden, out of the blue, after 48 years of service, and at exactly the same time as the US is targeting Cuba? Perhaps Dr. Frank Anthony was so ashamed of his government’s actions that he simply could not bear to admit to this shocking betrayal.
If Guyana is a sovereign and independent nation, as is so often claimed by our Government, then there can be no rationale for joining this shameful and barbaric attempt to destroy Cuba and its brave citizens, who have sacrificed so much for so long. We call on President Irfaan Ali and the Government of Guyana to find the courage to get on the right side of history, to stop capitulating to US bullyism and to heed the words of Fidel Castro: “Humanity can learn from those who have broken their chains. Those who have chained humanity for centuries cannot teach humanity anything.”
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), Trade Union Congress (TUC), General Workers Union (GWU), Red Thread, Pan-African Movement (Guyana Branch), Guyana Rastafari Council, Ambessa Foundation, RISEE, Women for Green Economy, Nation of Rastafari, Madinah Straits, Gerald A. Perreira, Danuta Radzik, Sherlina Nageer, Angelique Ferero, Charlene Wilkinson, Anthony Fraser, Maryam Perreira, Errol Paul, Lindsay Lee-Bing, Michael Kellman, Christian Willems, George King, Jamal Macey, Godfrey Dazell, Sharon Browne, Angela Trotman, Jamal Duncan, Selrahc Belfield, Ivlaw Maxwell, Latoya Eagerton, Robert Fraser, Khadija George, Akram Sabree, Melba Sabree, Muhammad Perreira, Derek Junor, Patrick Rutherford, Ronald Burchsmith, Ronald Carew, Frederick Collins, Gloria Duarte, Kaiel Eytle, Martin Samaroo, Mavis Singh, Hubert Wong, Dillon Mohammed, Dr. Sarah Wilkinson-Eytle, Peter Windebank, Tacuma Ogunseye, Lincoln Lewis, Norris Whitter, Luke Daniels, Maribeth Singh, Romola Lucas, Josephine Whitehead, Renuka Anandjit, Christopher Ram, Linda Hustler, Raphael Singh,Percy Hintzen, Wintress White, Karen De Souza, Toshana Perreira, Hollis France, Nesha Haniff, Linden Lewis, Alissa Trotz, Deodat Persaud, Vidyaratha Kissoon, Cosmata A. Linde, Nicolette Fernandes, Savitri Persaud, Nicole Burrowes, Nicholas Peters, Fiyad Samad, Jeremy Peretz, Dr. Jannette Bulkan, Jerell Archer, Winston Griffith, Colin Lashley aka Ras Kali, O. Roberts, Khemraj Narine, Susan Kim Mobeen, Ruth Rodney, Jocelyn Dow, Desmond Trotman, Rudi Guyan, Penda Guyan, Rawle Wilson, Makeda Braithwaite, Sheldon Kilkenny, Lisa Edwards, Raymond Eytle, Johnnell Henry, Leila Jagdeo, Rupert Roopnarine, Elizabeth Dean Hughes, Ingrid Sarabo, Jocelyne Josiah, Vanda Radzik, Moses Bhagwan, Joy Marcus, Nelsonia Persaud, Andrew Campbell, Raquel Thomas, Julio Thijs, Alfred Adams, Susan Collymore, Laura George, Berkley Wickham, Ronald Austin Sr., Cordell Joseph, Nigel Westmaas, Andrea Perry, Ezequiel Espinosa, Thomas Singh, Tom Dalgetty, Sachin Ramsuran, Akhilanand Raghunandan, Dillon Husbands, Telisha Williams, Sharon Armstead, Simone Seckle, Estherine Adams, Maritza Oliva Perez, Norwell Hinds, Dr. Carlos Varona, Scott Ting-a-Kee, Dr. Dennis Gill, Kojo McPherson, Camille Ishmael, Lakhnarayan Kumar Bhagarathi, Lourianne Batson, Suzy Lewis, Akima McPherson, Mosa Telford, Quincy Andrews, Trevor Smith Sr., Victor Jordan, Lorna McPherson, Dr. George Norton, Jewel Thomas, Dr. Valarie Oudkerk, Olston Thorman, Sheldon Holder