WILPF-US Endorses Nobel Peace Prize Nomination of the Cuban International Medical Brigades

A Cuban doctor at a consult. Photo by Yoamaris Neptuno Dominguez, used with permission.

By Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee

December 2020

For work undertaken in the struggle to overcome disease and suffering, which also constitute a threat to peace, for pioneering humanitarian work on four continents, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace by relieving human suffering wherever requested, regardless of the nature of the government in power, for the great work it has performed on behalf of humanity:

We in WILPF-US propose the Cuban International Medical Brigades be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021!

The Henry Reeve Medical Brigade was created in 2005 to provide humanitarian-medical-health aid to people in countries that are victims of natural disasters and epidemics. In these 15 years, they have cared for patients and helped build health care systems in countries ranging from Ghana to Sri Lanka, Chile to South Africa, Haiti to Nepal. The Henry Reeve medical brigade in West Africa, totaling about 250 Cuban doctors and nurses, worked for six months providing direct care for patients with Ebola.

Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus pandemic, 53 brigades of the Henry Reeve contingent have put their lives at risk working in 39 countries (requested by the respective governments of those nations), to cure the sick and help prevent spread of the disease. As of the end of September 2020, more than 3,700 Cuban medical professionals have participated, all of them volunteers for this Brigade. Just over 61% are women. So far, there have been no COVID-19 deaths among Cuban medical workers, although the risk is always present.

Because Cuban medical internationalism has been so acclaimed worldwide, the U.S. government has felt the need to attack it with spurious claims that the Cuban medical personnel are being “trafficked.” This is based on the fact that, although Cuba has provided medical aid free to countries that lack resources, wealthy countries like Italy pay Cuba for medical assistance and not all the money goes to the personnel. Of course, they are getting paid for their work, and their education was free, so they’ve no debt to pay off.

Not satisfied with trying to discredit Cuban medical workers, the U.S. also attempts to coerce other governments, threatening them that if they request Cuban medical brigades, they will be placed on the US TVPA (Human Trafficking) Tier 3 list, with consequent loss of aid and trade. U.S. attacks on Cuban medical internationalism are not new, but this additional refinement began in 2019. This makes our support for the Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade all the more timely and necessary.

Meanwhile, Cuba keeps doing what it has always done and takes an internationalist view. In an outpouring of humanism, it has sent 53 medical brigades to poor countries and rich countries alike, with the 54th brigade just requested days ago by Sicily.  

As a second wave of COVID-19 afflicts southern Europe and infections and deaths increase rapidly, authorities in Sicily have asked for a brigade of Cuban international medical workers. In March and April, Cuban brigades served in the Lombardy and Turin regions. Now, in this second wave, Italy again finds itself overwhelmed. Italy’s federation of doctors has pointed out that in the ten days from November 15-25, 27 Italian doctors died of COVID-19.  

As the first Cuban medical brigades left Italy, they were cheered in the streets. There is more than a little bit of incongruity in a poor country like Cuba sending aid to a European country, but that’s what is happening. And that’s not even taking into consideration that Cuba is under continuous and increasing siege by the U.S. with a crippling economic blockade. One of the consequences of the blockade occurred during the Ebola epidemic, when the Bank of Ireland bowed to U.S. pressure and ceased handling Cuban transactions, making it impossible for Cuba to transfer funds to the health workers in West Africa for some weeks. One can only hope that, in addition to applauding the health care workers who helped the region, the banks in Lombardy and Sicily will defy the blockade and return some economic kindness for the healthcare kindness they have received. The fact that no guarantees to this effect have been signed simply makes the nobility of the Cuban medical international effort more striking and worthy of recognition.

For more on the international movement to give Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade the Nobel Peace Prize, visit https://www.cubanobel.org.

Learn more at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cuba-doctors-covid-19/
https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/
https://www.cubastandard.com/qa-cubas-unique-model-of-medical-internationalism/