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| Ilustración: Eva Bee/ The Guardian |
Traducido por CubaDebate.
Por Seumas Milne
Cuatro meses después de declarada internacionalmente la emergencia del Ébola que ha devastado
el oeste de África, Cuba es líder mundial en la asistencia médica directa en el
combate contra la epidemia. Los EE.UU. y Reino Unido han enviado miles de
tropas y, junto con otros países, han prometido ayuda – la mayoría de la cual
aún no se ha materializado.
Pero, como la Organización Mundial de la Salud ha insistido, lo que se
necesita con mayor urgencia son trabajadores de salud. La isla caribeña, con
una población de sólo 11 millones y un ingreso oficial de $ 6.000 per cápita (£
3,824), respondió a esa llamada antes de que se hiciera. Fue la primera en la
línea de combate contra el Ébola y ha enviado el mayor contingente de médicos y
enfermeras – 256 ya están en el campo, con otros 200 voluntarios en camino.
Mientras el interés de los medios occidentales se ha desvanecido con del
disminución de la amenaza de la infección mundial, cientos de trabajadores de los
servicios de salud británicos se han ofrecido como voluntarios para unirse a
ellos. Los primeros 30 llegaron a Sierra Leona la semana pasada, mientras que
las tropas han estado construyendo clínicas. Sin embargo, los médicos cubanos
han estado sobre el terreno desde octubre y están allí a largo plazo.
La necesidad no podría ser mayor. Más de 6.000
personas ya han muerto. Tal vergüenza ha provocado la operación
cubana, que los políticos británicos y estadounidenses se han sentido obligados
a ofrecer felicitaciones. John Kerry describió la aportación del Estado que los
EE.UU. ha tratado de derrocar por medio siglo como “impresionante”. El primer
médico cubano en contraer Ébola ha sido tratado por los médicos británicos y
funcionarios estadounidenses prometieron “colaborar” con Cuba en la lucha
contra el Ébola.
Pero no es la primera vez que Cuba ha proporcionado la mayor parte de la
asistencia médica después de un desastre humanitario. Hace cuatro años, después
del devastador terremoto en la empobrecida Haití, Cuba envió el mayor contingente médico
y atendió al 40% de las víctimas. A raíz del terremoto de Cachemira
de 2005, Cuba envió a 2.400 trabajadores médicos a Pakistán y trató a más de un
70% de los afectados; también dejaron 32 hospitales de campaña y donaron mil
becas médicas.
Esa tradición de ayuda de emergencia se remonta a los primeros años de
la Revolución Cubana. Pero es sólo parte de un internacionalismo global médico
extraordinario y extenso. En la actualidad hay 50 000 médicos y enfermeras
cubanos que trabajan en 60 países en desarrollo. Como dice el
profesor canadiense John Kirk: “El internacionalismo médico cubano
ha salvado millones de vidas.” Pero esta solidaridad sin precedentes apenas se
ha registrado en los medios occidentales.
Los médicos cubanos han realizado tres millones de operaciones
oftalmológicas en 33 países, principalmente en América Latina y el Caribe, en
gran parte financiado por la Venezuela revolucionaria. Así es como Mario Terán,
el sargento boliviano que mató a Che Guevara por orden de la CIA en 1967,
recuperó su vista 40 años más tarde en una operación hecha por los médicos
cubanos y pagada por Venezuela, en la Bolivia radical de Evo Morales. Si bien
el apoyo de emergencia a menudo ha sido financiado por la propia Cuba, los
servicios médicos globales del país suelen ser pagados por los gobiernos receptores
y se han convertido, por mucho, en la mayor rama de exportación de Cuba,
vinculando los ideales revolucionarios con el desarrollo económico. Eso ha
dependido a su vez del papel central de la salud pública y la educación en
Cuba, ya que La Habana ha construido una industria biotecnológica de bajo costo
junto con programas de infraestructura y de alfabetización médicos en los
países en desarrollo a los que sirve – en lugar de sustraer médicos y
enfermeras como en el modelo occidental.
El internacionalismo está en el ADN de Cuba. Como hija de Ernesto
Guevara, Aleida, que trabajó como médico en África, dice: “Somos
afro-latinoamericanos y llevaremos nuestra solidaridad a los niños de ese
continente.” Pero lo que comenzó como un intento de extender la Revolución
cubana en los años 60 y se convirtió en la intervención militar decisiva en
apoyo de Angola contra el apartheid en los años 80, ahora se ha transformado en
el proyecto de solidaridad médica más ambicioso del mundo.
Su éxito ha dependido de la marea progresiva que ha barrido América
Latina durante la última década, inspirada por el ejemplo de la Cuba socialista
durante los años de las dictaduras militares de derecha. Los gobiernos de
izquierda y centro-izquierda continúan siendo elegidos y reelegidos en toda la
región, lo que permite Cuba reinventarse como un faro de humanitarismo
internacional.
Pero la isla sigue siendo asfixiada por el embargo comercial de Estados
Unidos que se mantenido un carácter vicioso en lo económico y lo político
durante más de medio siglo. Si Barack Obama quiere hacer algo que valga la pena
en sus últimos años como presidente podría usar el papel de Cuba en la crisis
del Ébola como una apertura para comenzar a levantar ese bloqueo y tirar abajo
la guerra de desestabilización de los EE.UU.
Ciertamente hay paja en el viento. En lo que parecía una operación de
avance para la administración, el New York Times publicó seis
editoriales en cinco semanas de octubre y noviembre alabando el registro médico
global de Cuba, exigiendo el fin
del embargo, atacando a los
esfuerzos estadounidenses para inducir a los médicos cubanos a desertar,
y llamando a un intercambio negociado de prisioneros.
La campaña del periódico publicó que la Asamblea General de la ONU votó
por 23ª vez, con 188 votos a favor y dos en contra (Estados Unidos e Israel),
para exigir el levantamiento del bloqueo de Estados Unidos, originalmente
impuesto en represalia a la nacionalización de empresas estadounidenses y ahora
justificado por motivos de derechos humanos – por un Estado aliado con algunos
de los regímenes más represivos del mundo.
El embargo sólo puede ser desechado por el Congreso, siendo
obstaculizado por los herederos de la corrupta dictadura apoyada por Estados
Unidos que derrocaron Fidel Castro y Guevara. Pero el Presidente de
los Estados Unidos tiene alcance ejecutivo para aflojarlo
sustancialmente y restaurar las relaciones diplomáticas. Se podría empezar por
la liberación de los tres agentes cubanos de inteligencia restantes de los “Cinco de Miami”,
encarcelados hace 13 años por espiar a grupos anticubanos relacionados con el
terrorismo.
El momento obvio para que Obama termine la campaña estadounidense de 50
años contra la independencia de Cuba sería en la Cumbre de las Américas del
próximo mes de abril – la cual los gobiernos latinoamericanos habían amenazado
con boicotear a menos que se invitara a Cuba. La mayor contribución que pueden
hacer quienes realmente se preocupan por las libertades democráticas en Cuba es
quitar a los EE.UU. de la espalda del país.
Si de verdad el bloqueo fuera desmantelado, no sólo sería una
reivindicación del notable registro de justicia social en Cuba y su solidaridad
con otros países, respaldado por la creciente confianza de una América Latina
independiente. También sería de gran ayuda para millones de personas alrededor
del mundo que se beneficiarían de una Cuba sin sanciones – y una demostración
de lo que puede lograrse cuando se anteponen las personas a las ganancias
corporativas.
Original en inglés:
Cuba’s extraordinary global medical record shames the US blockade.
Written by Seumas Milne
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/03/cuba-global-medical-record-shames-us-blockade-ebola
Four months into the internationally declared Ebola emergency that has devastated west Africa, Cuba leads the world in direct medical support
to fight the epidemic. The US and Britain have sent thousands of troops
and, along with other countries, promised aid – most of which has yet
to materialise. But, as the World Health Organisation has insisted,
what’s most urgently needed are health workers. The Caribbean island,
with a population of just 11m and official per capita income of $6,000
(£3,824), answered that call before it was made. It was first on the
Ebola frontline and has sent the largest contingent of doctors and
nurses – 256 are already in the field, with another 200 volunteers on their way.
While western media interest has faded with the receding threat of global infection, hundreds of British health service workers have volunteered to join them. The first 30 arrived in Sierra Leone last week, while troops have been building clinics. But the Cuban doctors have been on the ground in force since October and are there for the long haul.
The need could not be greater. More than 6,000 people have already died. So shaming has the Cuban operation been that British and US politicians have felt obliged to offer congratulations. John Kerry described the contribution of the state the US has been trying to overthrow for half a century “impressive”. The first Cuban doctor to contract Ebola has been treated by British medics, and US officials promised they would “collaborate” with Cuba to fight Ebola.
But it’s not the first time that Cuba has provided the lion’s share of medical relief following a humanitarian disaster. Four years ago, after the devastating earthquake in impoverished Haiti, Cuba sent the largest medical contingent and cared for 40% of the victims. In the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, Cuba sent 2,400 medical workers to Pakistan and treated more than 70% of those affected; they also left behind 32 field hospitals and donated a thousand medical scholarships.
That tradition of emergency relief goes back to the first years of the Cuban revolution. But it is only one part of an extraordinary and mushrooming global medical internationalism. There are now 50,000 Cuban doctors and nurses working in 60 developing countries. As Canadian professor John Kirk puts it: “Cuban medical internationalism has saved millions of lives.” But this unparalleled solidarity has barely registered in the western media.
Cuban doctors have carried out 3m free eye operations in 33 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, and largely funded by revolutionary Venezuela. That’s how Mario Teran, the Bolivian sergeant who killed Che Guevara on CIA orders in 1967, had his sight restored 40 years later by Cuban doctors in an operation paid for by Venezuela in the radical Bolivia of Evo Morales. While emergency support has often been funded by Cuba itself, the country’s global medical services are usually paid for by recipient governments and have now become by far Cuba’s largest export, linking revolutionary ideals with economic development. That has depended in turn on the central role of public health and education in Cuba, as Havana has built a low-cost biotech industry along with medical infrastructure and literacy programmes in the developing countries it serves – rather than sucking out doctors and nurses on the western model.
Internationalism was built into Cuba’s DNA. As Guevara’s daughter, Aleida, herself a doctor who served in Africa, says: “We are Afro-Latin Americans and we’ll take our solidarity to the children of that continent.” But what began as an attempt to spread the Cuban revolution in the 60s and became the decisive military intervention in support of Angola against apartheid in the 80s, has now morphed into the world’s most ambitious medical solidarity project.
Its success has depended on the progressive tide that has swept Latin America over the past decade, inspired by socialist Cuba’s example during the years of rightwing military dictatorships. Leftwing and centre-left governments continue to be elected and re-elected across the region, allowing Cuba to reinvent itself as a beacon of international humanitarianism.
But the island is still suffocated by the US trade embargo that has kept it in an economic and political vice for more than half a century. If Barack Obama wants to do something worthwhile in his final years as president he could use Cuba’s role in the Ebola crisis as an opening to start to lift that blockade and wind down the US destabilisation war.
There are certainly straws in the wind. In what looked like an outriding operation for the administration, the New York Times published six editorials over five weeks in October and November praising Cuba’s global medical record, demanding an end to the embargo, attacking US efforts to induce Cuban doctors to defect, and calling for a negotiated exchange of prisoners.
The paper’s campaign ran as the UN general assembly voted for the 23rd time, by 188 votes to 2 (US and Israel), to demand the lifting of the US blockade, originally imposed in retaliation for the nationalisation of American businesses and now justified on human rights grounds – by a state allied to some of the most repressive regimes in the world.
The embargo can only be scrapped by congress, still stymied by the heirs of the corrupt US-backed dictatorship which Fidel Castro and Guevara overthrew. But the US president has executive scope to loosen it substantially and restore diplomatic ties. He could start by releasing the remaining three “Miami Five” Cuban intelligence agents jailed 13 years ago for spying on anti-Cuba activist groups linked to terrorism.
The obvious moment for Obama to call time on the 50-year US campaign against Cuban independence would be at next April’s Summit of the Americas – which Latin American governments had threatened to boycott unless Cuba was invited. The greatest contribution those genuinely concerned about democratic freedoms in Cuba can make is to get the US off the country’s back.
If the blockade really were to be dismantled, it would not only be a vindication of Cuba’s remarkable record of social justice at home and solidarity abroad, backed by the growing confidence of an independent Latin America. It would also be a boon for millions around the world who would benefit from a Cuba unshackled – and a demonstration of what can be achieved when people are put before corporate profit.
While western media interest has faded with the receding threat of global infection, hundreds of British health service workers have volunteered to join them. The first 30 arrived in Sierra Leone last week, while troops have been building clinics. But the Cuban doctors have been on the ground in force since October and are there for the long haul.
The need could not be greater. More than 6,000 people have already died. So shaming has the Cuban operation been that British and US politicians have felt obliged to offer congratulations. John Kerry described the contribution of the state the US has been trying to overthrow for half a century “impressive”. The first Cuban doctor to contract Ebola has been treated by British medics, and US officials promised they would “collaborate” with Cuba to fight Ebola.
But it’s not the first time that Cuba has provided the lion’s share of medical relief following a humanitarian disaster. Four years ago, after the devastating earthquake in impoverished Haiti, Cuba sent the largest medical contingent and cared for 40% of the victims. In the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, Cuba sent 2,400 medical workers to Pakistan and treated more than 70% of those affected; they also left behind 32 field hospitals and donated a thousand medical scholarships.
That tradition of emergency relief goes back to the first years of the Cuban revolution. But it is only one part of an extraordinary and mushrooming global medical internationalism. There are now 50,000 Cuban doctors and nurses working in 60 developing countries. As Canadian professor John Kirk puts it: “Cuban medical internationalism has saved millions of lives.” But this unparalleled solidarity has barely registered in the western media.
Cuban doctors have carried out 3m free eye operations in 33 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, and largely funded by revolutionary Venezuela. That’s how Mario Teran, the Bolivian sergeant who killed Che Guevara on CIA orders in 1967, had his sight restored 40 years later by Cuban doctors in an operation paid for by Venezuela in the radical Bolivia of Evo Morales. While emergency support has often been funded by Cuba itself, the country’s global medical services are usually paid for by recipient governments and have now become by far Cuba’s largest export, linking revolutionary ideals with economic development. That has depended in turn on the central role of public health and education in Cuba, as Havana has built a low-cost biotech industry along with medical infrastructure and literacy programmes in the developing countries it serves – rather than sucking out doctors and nurses on the western model.
Internationalism was built into Cuba’s DNA. As Guevara’s daughter, Aleida, herself a doctor who served in Africa, says: “We are Afro-Latin Americans and we’ll take our solidarity to the children of that continent.” But what began as an attempt to spread the Cuban revolution in the 60s and became the decisive military intervention in support of Angola against apartheid in the 80s, has now morphed into the world’s most ambitious medical solidarity project.
Its success has depended on the progressive tide that has swept Latin America over the past decade, inspired by socialist Cuba’s example during the years of rightwing military dictatorships. Leftwing and centre-left governments continue to be elected and re-elected across the region, allowing Cuba to reinvent itself as a beacon of international humanitarianism.
But the island is still suffocated by the US trade embargo that has kept it in an economic and political vice for more than half a century. If Barack Obama wants to do something worthwhile in his final years as president he could use Cuba’s role in the Ebola crisis as an opening to start to lift that blockade and wind down the US destabilisation war.
There are certainly straws in the wind. In what looked like an outriding operation for the administration, the New York Times published six editorials over five weeks in October and November praising Cuba’s global medical record, demanding an end to the embargo, attacking US efforts to induce Cuban doctors to defect, and calling for a negotiated exchange of prisoners.
The paper’s campaign ran as the UN general assembly voted for the 23rd time, by 188 votes to 2 (US and Israel), to demand the lifting of the US blockade, originally imposed in retaliation for the nationalisation of American businesses and now justified on human rights grounds – by a state allied to some of the most repressive regimes in the world.
The embargo can only be scrapped by congress, still stymied by the heirs of the corrupt US-backed dictatorship which Fidel Castro and Guevara overthrew. But the US president has executive scope to loosen it substantially and restore diplomatic ties. He could start by releasing the remaining three “Miami Five” Cuban intelligence agents jailed 13 years ago for spying on anti-Cuba activist groups linked to terrorism.
The obvious moment for Obama to call time on the 50-year US campaign against Cuban independence would be at next April’s Summit of the Americas – which Latin American governments had threatened to boycott unless Cuba was invited. The greatest contribution those genuinely concerned about democratic freedoms in Cuba can make is to get the US off the country’s back.
If the blockade really were to be dismantled, it would not only be a vindication of Cuba’s remarkable record of social justice at home and solidarity abroad, backed by the growing confidence of an independent Latin America. It would also be a boon for millions around the world who would benefit from a Cuba unshackled – and a demonstration of what can be achieved when people are put before corporate profit.
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