Mottley prepared to lose US visa for defending Cuban health programme

By Racquel Porter    

 

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says she is prepared to have her United States visa revoked as she urged CARICOM countries to ensure they are able to explain "what the Cubans have been able to do for us" as they seek to defend the Cuban health brigade programme.

 

The United States has raised questions about the programme that CARICOM countries have insisted has benefitted the region significantly.

 

Ms. Mottley, the latest CARICOM leader to address the issue, said Barbados does not currently have Cuban medical staff, but the country could not have survived the COVID-19 pandemic without Cuban nurses and doctors.

 

"I will also be the first to tell you that we paid them the same thing that we paid Bajans and that the notion as was peddled not just by this government in the US but the previous government, that we were involved in human trafficking by engaging with the Cuban nurses, was fully reputiated and rejected by us.

 

"Now I don't believe that we have to shout across the seas, but I am prepared, like others in this region, that if we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter, then if the cost of it is the loss of my visa to the US, then so be it," said the tough-talking prime minister. 

 

The Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago have publicly expressed support for the Cuban health workers programme, while Grenada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Joseph Andall, said St. George's not only has a "legal, moral and ethical obligation to stand by the people of Cuba but that it should avoid being opportunistic or transactional as it pertains to relations between the two countries".