Caribbean could face ‘severe medical shortages’ as US targets Cuba

Barbados is set to confront the United States over newly imposed visa restrictions targeting Cuban medical professionals, with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade

Kerrie Symmonds warning that the move could jeopardise critical healthcare services across the Caribbean.

He described the Donald Trump administration’s decision to penalise those involved in Cuba’s medical programme as “a matter of legitimate concern” for Bridgetown, emphasising the need for “mature dialogue” with US officials.

“The fact that it has now been signalled to us that Cuban medical brigades are an undesirable aspect of what others would see as a relationship between ourselves and Cuba, and therefore the consequences of having them working in our country would be the withholding of visas, is a matter legitimately of some concern,” Symmonds said in Parliament on Friday.

Stressing the importance of a measured response, he added: “It is really important, though, that the temptation to respond in a manner full of testosterone does not overcome us.”

The visa restrictions, announced by the US State Department on Tuesday, expand penalties on Cuban officials linked to the country’s medical labour programme, citing concerns about forced labour and human rights violations.

Symmonds revealed that CARICOM foreign ministers had already begun discussions on the potential fallout.

“We had a meeting as recently as this morning, and the truth of the matter is that Grenada has signalled, for example, that if you took the Cubans out of their public health system, you would be down to one anaesthesiologist in the country and one cardiac surgeon,” he said.

“So they obviously are heavily dependent… so too is Jamaica deeply intertwined with the assistance from Cuba.”

He joined other Caribbean nations in defending their partnerships with Cuba, arguing that the medical cooperation agreements fill critical gaps in local healthcare systems and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and expertise.

Symmonds noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba’s medical brigades were at the forefront of testing and treatment efforts in Barbados and several neighbouring countries, further stating that “when others closed their doors, Cuba opened theirs”.

The minister stressed that Barbados must balance diplomacy with its own national interests—specifically speaking out in defence of a health sector bolstered by Cuban medical professionals.

Signalling that Barbados has been walking a fine line on US sanctions, the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General, Donna Forde, noted that the country had been meticulous in complying with the Helms-Burton Act, a 1995 US federal law that imposes restrictions on engagements with Cuba.

“Even though the sanctions are imposed on Cuba and on the Cuban state, the impact of those sanctions redound on the operations of every country that engages with Cuba,” she said.

She revealed that during the pandemic, Barbados implemented strict financial measures to ensure compliance with US regulations.

“One of the things which we were certain to do is to ensure that every Cuban hired during that time had their own bank account so that Barbados was not paying any funds directly to the Cuban authorities in a way that could bring us under the scrutiny of the United States administration,” Forde said.

shannamoore@barbadostoday.bb