Cuban Healthcare Workers Speak Out Against The Government
Healthcare workers in Cuba treat a patient for COVID-19. Source.
As the pandemic rages on, tensions are high between Cuban healthcare workers and Cuba’s Communist government. After July’s unprecedented protests, which saw Cubans gathering in mass demanding food and medical supplies – leading to an extreme government crackdown – the condition of the populace has changed little since then. Medical supplies, especially oxygen, are still sparse, hospitals are still overwhelmed and overcrowded, and the people are still hungry.
However, rather than acknowledge the lack of medical resources or internal fault as the catalyzing factors for the collapse of the healthcare system, the Cuban government has instead blamed their own healthcare workers. In a press conference in the province of Cienfuegos, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz claimed that the Cuban people have been complaining more about healthcare workers’ “mistreatment,” and “neglect” rather than a lack of supplies. These remarks created outrage among the country’s healthcare workers, who have consequently come out to openly criticize both the government’s scapegoating and their response to the pandemic.
On social media, many Cuban healthcare workers and doctors have publicly stated that “the collapse of the healthcare system is not the fault of healthcare workers,” with some also placing direct blame on the government. One healthcare worker, Dr. Rafael Alejandro Fuentes, notably stated that “[W]e are not afraid of the pandemic. We are afraid of the government.” These statements come amid reports that Cuba’s hospitals are overflowing and are ill equipped, leading to the inability of those who are sick to get proper treatment.
Such outspoken criticism of the government is dangerous in Communist Cuba – a national security state – where individuals who protest the government are accused of treason, and large-scale activism is brutally repressed. The passing of Decree-Law 35 on August 17th of this year in response to July’s protests further reinforces Cuba’s commitment to repression. According to Human Right Watch, the decree not only requires telecommunication companies to provide personal-user information to the Communist regime, but also requires them to police the dissemination of “fake” news. Essentially, the new law threatens to shut down telecommunication companies who do not comply in silencing public dissent from the government.
The internet has become an important tool for exercising liberty under the authoritarian regime, and Decree-Law 35 is just the latest step in silencing critics' voices on the internet. With discontent brewing among the masses due to the pandemic and the government’s insufficient response, there is little doubt the Cuban government will continue to take more extreme measures to silence its people.
The pandemic has hit Cuba hard. According to 2019 data from the World Bank, Cuba has a population of 11,333,483. The World Health Organization has reported that there have been 704,675 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 5,881 deaths – with the actual number of both likely higher due to a shortage of tests and improper reporting. Cuba was successfully able to maintain low infection and death rates throughout 2020 and early 2021. Approximately 79% of reported cases and 83% of reported deaths have occurred since May 31st of this year.. It was the deadly combination of the surge in COVID cases in June and July, economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and hunger that led to the July protests.
In response to the July protests, the United States government has tightened sanctions on Cuba as a form of punishment. Since the Kennedy administration, the U.S has held an embargo on Cuba, severing all diplomatic relations in accordance with a policy of destabilization and regime change. This policy did not change until President Obama reopened diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2014, lifted travel restrictions, and took Cuba off the U.S list of state sponsors of terrorism. President Trump reversed the Obama-era policy, meaning ties were again severed and restrictions reimposed. President Biden has continued with the Trump-era policy and has taken an even harder stance amid the July protests.
It is unlikely that in the era of the pandemic – a time of heightened social unrest – that Cuba’s Communist party will change its authoritarian policies. The government views its tactics as the only way to prevent being overthrown. For this reason, the United States government’s current policy seems confusing, as it only creates more suffering for the Cuban people and prevents much needed supplies from entering the country. Additionally, these policies provide a convenient scapegoat for the Communist regime, reviving a strategy that has been unsuccessful for sixty years. Change in this policy will almost assuredly not occur given that the majority of Cuban-Americans do not agree with Obama-era tactics. Furthermore, the Biden Administration may face a large political backlash for rolling back restrictions on a Communist government that is guilty of human rights abuses. For Biden, returning to Obama-era policies is likely to damage the Democrats’ reputation among Cuban-Americans – especially important in the battleground state of Florida – meaning little change in American-Cuban relations should be expected for the time being.