Cuba's "Medical Diplomacy" is Commercial, Not Humanitarian

 

Cuba's "Medical Diplomacy" is Commercial, Not Humanitarian

at 10:45 AM Friday, October 31, 2014

This week, Germany's Deutche Welle newspaper looked beyond Castro's propaganda to note how Cuba's "medical diplomacy" is really a commercial endeavor for its dictatorship.

As documented in the story, it's a low-profit, high-margin business for Castro -- a quintessential "human trafficking" business model -- whereby the regime gets paid handsomely in hard currency, while the health workers get a pittance.

What remains unclear is how much Castro is getting paid -- aside from the propaganda dividend -- for the health workers currently being sent to West Africa.

Thus far, we know the Cuban health workers have been compelled to agree that if they contract the Ebola virus, they will not be repatriated to the island.

We also know that there has been a life insurance policy taken out for these health workers with the World Health Organization (WHO) -- with the Castro regime, not their families, as the beneficiary.

Many of the commercial arrangements for Cuba's health workers throughout the world are funneled via the WHO.

For example, Castro was paid for Cuba's much-propagated role in Haiti via contributions from Norway and Brazil.

So how much is the WHO paying the Castro regime for these Ebola health workers?

We'll surely find out at some point.

However, as a first clue, it was revealed last week that Mexico alone was transferring at least $1 million to the WHO for these Cuban health workers.

Deutche Welle has some of the numbers:

"A staggering 50,000 employees of the Cuban health ministry are currently serving abroad in 66 countries, according to the ministry. Of those, 30,000 are stationed in Venezuela. There are 12,000 in Brazil, 2,000 in Angola, and a further 2,000 in other parts of Africa.

In total, almost a third of Cuba's 83,000 doctors are working in foreign countries.

The government in Havana earns more than six billion euros a year ($7.6 billion) through these doctors, because only a fraction of what the doctors cost these foreign nations are paid out in their salaries."

Unfortunately, the article overlooks Castro's medical-commercial deals with South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Portugal, which also directly pay him top-dollar.

These arrangements are all in clear violation of international labor standards.

Yet, this billionaire enterprise has become one of the Castro regime's main sources of income.