To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Uncomfortable truths about Cuban healthcare, doctors and the dangerous claims of the Castro regime about COVID-19
Forty Jamaican medical students in Cuba are pleading with the Jamaican government to come home, "claiming that food shortages, xenophobia, and limited sanitisation products continue to threaten their mental and physical health. The students said that the COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded the shortages. Jamaica closed its borders to incoming passenger traffic on March 24 to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Ports will remain closed until May 31, except for Cabinet-approved exemptions. But the expats studying in Cuba said that they may not survive till then."
Jamaican diplomats are reaching out to those in need and getting "food and sanitation supplies" to the students, "including getting a food shipment from Suriname."
This was not supposed to be that way.
Castro regime officials falsely claimed throughout February and March that Cuba was a safe harbour with effective treatments for Wuhan Virus for visiting tourists.
Officials refused to close schools, or take other precautions, Cubans desperately began to take steps on their own against the pandemic, having learned about it on the internet. Teachers, ignoring the regime's orders, closed schools and sent children home. The Catholic church, aware of the danger presented by public gatherings, suspended religious services. Cuba’s beleaguered independent journalists raised the alarm while the official media insisted that the country was prepared for the epidemic, that tourists were welcomed while the pandemic ran its course elsewhere. Officials said that Cuba’s sun was “a good antidote” and continued to advertise their false claims on social media targeting European and North American audiences.
On March 19, 2020 the official media reported, "authorities of the Cuban ministry of tourism (MINTUR) submitted the prevention and control plan to tackle COVID-19, and stated that the country is "ready to receive those customers who decide to come to the island of their own free will." Barbara Cruz, marketing director of MINTUR, said at a press conference that "Cuba has a strong health system and trained workers, including the self-employed ones."
Five days later the government closed its borders to foreigners and banned Cuban citizens from leaving the island. All flights to and from Cuba were suspended at midnight on Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
Thousands of tourists were left stranded, in conditions that have led many of them to cry out for their home governments to fly them out. A group of stranded Dutch kids in Cuba ended up sailing back to the Netherlands. Toronto Life published an account of a family of four who were stranded in Cuba. Sono Motomayo, the author of the piece, described how they were treated: "Meanwhile, the Cuban government had been herding all foreign tourists toward Havana and into government lodging. Our Airbnb host, due to gentle pressure from the Cuban government, had rejected out of hand any possibility of returning to his apartment. With little time for research, we ended up choosing a rundown government-owned hotel with the ominous name El Vedado (“The Forbidden”) and were placed in a dingy room with two double beds and an air conditioner that sounded like a failing jet engine. We were forbidden to leave the building."
This past weekend 300 American citizens and residents were flown from Cuba to Miami in special charter flights arranged by the State Department. The European Union has also been arranging charter flights to get hundreds of European nationals back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment