HAVANA—While the United States tries to disqualify Cuba’s international medical cooperation, the list of brigades sent by the island to fight COVID-19 in different latitudes of the planet grows.
They are the members of the Henry Reeve Contingent, created in 2005 by Fidel Castro to face situations of serious epidemics and natural disasters. It is a legacy of the traditional practice of solidarity within the Cuban Revolution, which has never hesitated to come to the aid of other peoples suffering from earthquakes, floods, and other calamities, such as the recent battles against dengue and Ebola in three West African countries.
With such a history and wealth of experience, Havana received and continues to receive requests from various parts of the world for its health experts to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, even though its specialists were already present in 59 countries.
That is why in the last three months Cuba has sent 38 health brigades to 31 countries and territories, a deployment that marks a new milestone in this practice of helping when needed. To confront the spread of the new coronavirus, 3,440 health workers have been mobilized from Cuba, 65% of whom are women.
There are also 1,944 nursing graduates working in these contingents. The Cubans in white coats are in Venezuela, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, and Suriname, among other countries in the region. They also work in Angola, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, South Africa, Cape Verde, and the Republic of Guinea.
The presence of Cuban health experts is growing in nations of the Persian Gulf as well—Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, among others. They were ready to save lives in Italy and Andorra, but also in the Turks and Caicos Islands (overseas territories of the United Kingdom), and Martinique, under French sovereignty.
Source: Peoples World
