To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Reality check on Cuban healthcare. Cuban Muslim woman denied healthcare due to religious association. Remembering Oswaldo Payá on his birthday
On December 17, 2002 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá received the Sakharov prize and addressed the members of parliament on the dangerous belief that justice can be achieved while abandoning human rights: "We now know that any method or model which purportedly aims to achieve justice, development, and efficiency but takes precedence over the individual or cancels out any of the fundamental rights leads to a form of oppression and to exclusion and is calamitous for the people."
Having lived his entire life in Cuba, Mr. Payá understood the importance of human rights and how their absence negatively impacts all aspects of life. Oswaldo's family and friends believed that he was murdered, along with Harold Cepero Escalante, on July 22, 2012. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was born 69 years ago on February 29, 1952 but did not live past his 60th birthday. The Center is sharing on its website the petition drafted by his brother, Carlos, calling for an international investigation. This CubaBrief seeks to begin to highlight how the above observation by Oswaldo Payá impacts in areas of economic and social justice.
Nowhere is this truer than in the area of healthcare in Cuba. Healthcare is not a right in Cuba, despite official claims, but a government prop to justify its dictatorial rule, and to punish those that do not follow the dictates of the dictatorship. It is also about image, international projection, and little about the well being of the patient. The Castro regime is masterful at propaganda, and the big lie, but a disaster in most other areas.
The ongoing case of Yusdeylin Mercedes Olivera Nuñez, age 36, who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease serves as an example. She is Cuban and Muslim. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, "the Cuban government has denied a Muslim woman the right to seek potentially lifesaving treatment abroad, in a move that she believes is linked to her affiliation to an unregistered religious association."
Her religious community assisted her in securing free medical treatment at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, United States, which would cover the costs of treatment unavailable in Cuba. This treatment would significantly improve her quality of life, and perhaps save her life. She "was first targeted by the Cuban authorities in 2015 after leaving the Islamic League of Cuba, the only officially registered Muslim association, for the unregistered Cuban Association for the Dissemination of Islam (CADI). Soon after, Ms Olivera Nuñez was sentenced to five years of restricted liberty," reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
In Havana it is not only freedom of religion that is under assault, but also the right to healthcare when you exercise your religious liberty as is seen in the plight of Yusdeylin Mercedes Olivera Nuñez.
Yusdeylin Mercedes Olivera Nuñez, denied access to life saving care
CSW leaves out another consideration for Havana. The negative optics for the Cuban government, that claims to be a healthcare superpower but cannot treat a Cuban national. Worse yet that her religious group was able to obtain treatment for her in Miami, Florida.
She may die because the Cuban government blocked her treatment as punishment. Last year, Liset Herrera, a Cuban mother denounced the death of Iker, her 12 year old son claiming medical negligence. What recourse does she have in Cuba to protest his death and demand redress?
The regime is in the midst of a propaganda campaign to promote its healthcare system as a model to emulate, and its medical doctors for the Nobel Peace Prize. The usual networks are at work to spread this false narrative. There is plenty of room to criticize the U.S. healthcare system, but why do so many try to contrast it with the Cuban? Why is it that Costa Rica and Canada's healthcare systems rate higher than the U.S. on international indices, but are not mentioned positively as often as Cuba's despite the island nation's health care system rating lower than the United States?
We have examined individual cases, but what are the implications for public health?
Diario de Cuba reported on February 17, 2021 that there is an "acute lack of medicines is allowing controllable diseases to spread throughout Cuba, creating unbearable situations for many families. Such is the case with scabies, which Cubans constantly complain about on social media and that is on its way to becoming widespread in Mayarí, Holguín." The regime is focusing its media campaign on COVID-19, and their efforts to produce vaccines at home, in collaboration with their Russian, Chinese, and Iranian allies. The scabies epidemic, and others, are not covered. This is not new.
In 1997 when dengue broke out in Cuba, the regime tried to cover it up. When a doctor spoke out, he was locked up, sentenced to 8 years in prison. Amnesty International recognized Dr. Desi Mendoza as a prisoner of conscience, and he was released from prison in 1998 under condition he leave Cuba. The dictatorship eventually recognized that there had been a dengue epidemic.
A 2012 cholera outbreak once again demonstrated how the Cuban public health system operates. News of the outbreak in Manzanillo, in the east of the island, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to reporting by the outlawed independent press in the island. Official media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. BBC News reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with Cholera in Havana. The dictatorship stated that it had it under control. Independent journalist Calixto Martínez was arrested on September 16, 2012 for reporting on the Cholera outbreak, and declared an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. Cholera outbreaks would continue on the island.
The Castro regime succeeded in covering up the 2017 zika outbreak, but eventually in 2019, due to sick foreign tourists diagnosed with the disease, it was traced back to Cuba. What will we learn about the real Cuban response to COVID-19 on its territory when the dust clears?
Havana bills itself as a medical superpower exporting Cuban doctors around the world for profit, in an arrangement that has been identified as human trafficking by some, but there is an even more sinister side.
Beyond profiting off the doctors, the Castro regime uses healthcare to leverage support and patient treatment is conditioned on their obedience to advancing Havana's objectives. The New York Times reported that Cuban doctors in Venezuela were ordered to deny or ration care to advance Nicolas Maduro's election prospects in the March 17, 2019 article, "It Is Unspeakable’: How Maduro Used Cuban Doctors to Coerce Venezuela Voters."
Conditions for Cuban doctors are so bad that they are trying to flee to the United States, and are risking their lives on the U.S.-Mexico border. There had been an asylum program for Cuban doctors, but the Obama Administration ended it in January 2017, a concession in the White House's detente with Havana. They are still coming, and some are now undocumented in the United States.
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