The American Pivot Toward Latin America--A Regional Approach to Cutting Cuba Off From its Most Dependable Sources of Hard Currency

(Pix Credit: Cuba’s greatest export? Medical diplomacy)

I have been noting the emergence of Cuban strategies for re-integrating themselves into global financial markets on their own terms (e.g., Essay Posted: The External Capitalist and Internal Marxist). I also have been writing about the effects of the American pivot toward the Caribbean and the way it has been changing American strategies toward its rivals and enemies in the region--principal among them the states at the core of the Socialist Regional Trade Group ALBA (On the Front Lines of the U.S. Pivot Toward the Caribbean: The U.S. Announces Further Restrictions on Travel to Cuba as Part of its Comprehensive Caribbean Strategy; The Pivot Toward the Caribbean; Announcement of Changes in US Policy Toward Cuba and the Caribbean Region;  and "Remittances to Cuba Revisited: Impact of New Measures"). That has produced sanctions against Nicaragua and Venzuela. It now is likely to see a victory in the change of administration in Bolivia (for a critical discussion of the later, see Arturo López Levy)).

“These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail,” Trump said, referring to two other leftist Latin American nations targeted by his administration. Trump said that the resignation of Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader who was seeking a fourth term despite a constitutional prohibition, was a “significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere.” (Trump: Bolivia leader’s resignation sign to ‘illegitimate regimes’).

Those effects and the pivot, however, have not been limited to the blocking of Cuba's access to hard currency via remittances, and petroleum via sanctions on Venezuela, or even the substantial increase in Cuba's cost of international capital through the lifting of prohibitions against Helms-Burton suits for recovery of damages related to listed confiscated property from the early 1960s.  The United States has also been moving against that other substantial source of hard currency--that acquired by the provision of Cuban doctors abroad.  The program had been relatively lucrative for Cuba, though it remains controversial in the West (The hidden world of the doctors Cuba sends overseas; Cuba’s greatest export? Medical diplomacy; How Doctors Became Cuba's Biggest Export).  But it has been shrinking--especially, for example after the last presidential election in Brazil (Thousands of Cuban doctors leave Brazil after Bolsonaro's win). 

Now American policy in Latin America has again proven useful in further shrinking Cuba's hard currency sourcing through its medical programs abroad.  The collapse of the Evo Morales government in Bolivia has now appeared to have cost Cuba its doctors program there (Cuba cries foul as doctors head home from Bolivia). The political and economic ramifications are hard to avoid.  Reporting on the issue by Marc Frank follows below.  

Cuba cries foul as doctors head home from Bolivia

Marc Frank

3 Min Read

HAVANA (Reuters) - The first of around 700 Cuban doctors were scheduled to fly home from strife-torn Bolivia on Saturday as officials railed against what they charged was slander and mistreatment by Bolivia’s conservative interim government.

Cuba said Saturday that 10 doctors, including the coordinator of its medical mission, were detained this week and four remained in custody.

On Friday, the foreign ministry said it was terminating its medical mission as officials were fostering violence against the doctors by claiming they were instigating rebellion.
The Communist-run island nation was a key ally of former leftist President Evo Morales, who resigned under pressure on Sunday and fled to Mexico after weeks of protests and violence over a disputed Oct. 20 election.

Cuba has backed Morales’ assertion that he was toppled in a foreign-backed coup.
Protests by Morales’ supporters have continued in capital La Paz, nearby El Alto, and the central city of Cochabamba, where at least five protesters were killed on Friday and hundreds reportedly detained.

The four doctors still in custody were picked up on Wednesday after withdrawing a significant amount of cash from the bank, which the government charged was to finance protests.

The Cuban foreign ministry countered the doctors withdrew the same amount of money every month to cover expenses of 107 doctors working in the La Paz area.

“Cease the irresponsible anti-Cuban expressions of hate, lies, defamations and instigations to violence against Cuban cooperators,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted on Friday.

Bolivia’s interim Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said Friday upon announcing Cuba would fly home its doctors that “there have been a number of accusations that Cuban citizens have been involved in these aggressive acts that have tormented our country in recent days.”

Brazil and Ecuador have acted similarly against Cubans in recent months as they aligned themselves more closely with the United States.

The Caribbean island nation has a respected health service and generates export earnings by sending more than 30,000 health workers to more than 60 countries.

The United States has accused Cuba of mistreating its doctors and pressuring them to take part in political activities. It has asked governments to stop contracting them.

Cuba denies the charges and says they are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slander the country even as it applies new sanctions on top of old to deny it revenues used in part to provide free health services to its population.

Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Nick Zieminski