The last contingent of Cuban doctors still in Honduras departed this Thursday after the agreement under which they had operated in the country for the past two years was not renewed, AFP journalists confirmed. The cooperation program, which at one point included 170 members between doctors and technicians, expired amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump against Cuba, which earns most of its foreign currency from sending medical brigades abroad.
The group of 45 doctors traveled from the airport in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, carrying luggage packed with purchases, back to the island, which has been hit by a U.S. oil blockade that has worsened its electricity supply problems. On Wednesday, Cuba suffered another massive blackout.
“They will never forgive that (…) Cuba is capable of deciding and exercising the right of all peoples to self-determination,” Armando Castillo, head of the brigade, said before departing. “We are willing to defend our sovereignty and our freedom at whatever price may be necessary,” Castillo added, standing alongside colleagues who were traveling with clothes and toys for their families, some of which they had bought in second-hand stores.
U.S. officials have described the cooperation as “human trafficking” and “forced labor,” something the Cuban government rejects. The decision by conservative President Nasry Asfura, an ally of Trump, to end the agreement follows the lead of Guatemala and Antigua and Barbuda, which also eliminated the agreements under which Cuban doctors had worked, especially in remote areas. Guyana, for its part, plans to pay them directly.
Asfura’s government says it is a “foreign policy decision,” without giving further details, and that the plan is to replace the Cuban doctors with local personnel and even foreign staff. According to Castillo, the brigade carried out half a million medical consultations and around 23,000 surgeries as part of the contract signed by leftist President Xiomara Castro, whose term ended last January.
