Coronavirus outbreak
Coronavirus outbreak
‘Doctor diplomacy’: Cuba seeks to make its mark in Europe amid Covid-19 crisis
Italy’s worst-hit areas welcome medical brigades, but critics say they are being exploited by Cuba’s authoritarian regime
They have jetted into some of the most horrifying calamities in recent history, clutching the red, white and blue flag of their small island home.
Earthquakes in Indonesia and Pakistan; a cholera outbreak in Haiti; and the Ebola epidemic in west Africa, where they won international plaudits for their hazardous, frontline work.
Now, as the world grapples with another era-shaping catastrophe, Cuban doctors and nurses are on the ground once again, only this time in a less common location: Europe.
“In Lombardy … everyone is grateful for their professionalism and their humbleness and availability to a country they hardly know,” said Marco Grimaldi, a politician from north-west Italy who helped to negotiate the arrival of a group of 39 Cuban healthcare workers with diplomats from Havana. “Imagine if Europe could manage to do the same.”
Cuba’s communist rulers have been sending medical teams overseas for decades in a bid to save lives and influence people.
Paul Hare, a former British ambassador to Havana, said Fidel Castro launched the “doctor diplomacy” policy soon after his 1959 takeover as a means of using the island’s highly trained professionals to export revolutionary ideas and make new friends.
source guardian
‘Doctor diplomacy’: Cuba seeks to make its mark in Europe amid Covid-19 crisis
Italy’s worst-hit areas welcome medical brigades, but critics say they are being exploited by Cuba’s authoritarian regime
They have jetted into some of the most horrifying calamities in recent history, clutching the red, white and blue flag of their small island home.
Earthquakes in Indonesia and Pakistan; a cholera outbreak in Haiti; and the Ebola epidemic in west Africa, where they won international plaudits for their hazardous, frontline work.
Now, as the world grapples with another era-shaping catastrophe, Cuban doctors and nurses are on the ground once again, only this time in a less common location: Europe.
“In Lombardy … everyone is grateful for their professionalism and their humbleness and availability to a country they hardly know,” said Marco Grimaldi, a politician from north-west Italy who helped to negotiate the arrival of a group of 39 Cuban healthcare workers with diplomats from Havana. “Imagine if Europe could manage to do the same.”
Cuba’s communist rulers have been sending medical teams overseas for decades in a bid to save lives and influence people.
Paul Hare, a former British ambassador to Havana, said Fidel Castro launched the “doctor diplomacy” policy soon after his 1959 takeover as a means of using the island’s highly trained professionals to export revolutionary ideas and make new friends.
source guardian
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