Caracas, March 27 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil highlighted the humanistic vocation of Cuban healthcare personnel, in response to criticism from U.S. State Department Secretary Marco Rubio, it was reported here today.
Only the “atrocious” envy and extreme hatred of a character like him “can lead him to question a mission of love and solidarity with the entire world,” the senior diplomat wrote last night on his Telegram account.
Gil pointed out that Rubio “is incapable of seeing into the eyes of the millions of human beings, women and men, whose lives have been saved thanks to the selflessness of thousands of Cuban doctors.”
He indicated that these specialized personnel have traveled the world, giving their all without asking for anything in return other than the satisfaction of having served humanity.
The Bolivarian foreign minister stated that while Washington imposes blockades and finances conflicts, “Cuban doctors have brought health and hope to millions in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and even Europe, saving lives in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which causes COVID-19.”
Although it may weigh heavily on him, “this humanist vocation is only possible thanks to the internationalism and socialism built by the Cuban Revolution,” he pondered.
He stated that, as much as it stings, while Cuba sends medical personnel, the United States exports war and misery.
Rubio, speaking in Jamaica the day before, described Cuban medical missions as an “atrocious practice” and reiterated that “they operate as forced labor in many places.”
Their host, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, stated at the joint press conference that Cuban doctors have been a great help to his country, given the shortage of healthcare personnel.
Last week, Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson, affirmed that Cuba’s medical cooperation in her country “is legitimate and not an example of human trafficking.”
Earlier this month, Caribbean Community civil society called for an international movement to support Cuban medical brigades, in light of the U.S. State Department’s announced sanctions against bloc officials linked to these personnel.
In recent days, authorities from several Caribbean countries, including Guyana, Belize, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, have come out in defense of Cuban medical missions and recognized their contribution to protecting the health of their people.
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