By Earl Bousquet

Officially named ‘The Henry Reeve Brigade’, Cuba’s now-world-famous medical team was established in 2005 to offer emergency medical assistance to the United States after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that year.

Cuba offered to send 1,586 doctors and medical professionals to assist, but the offer was rejected by the US Federal government. Like with the proverbial ‘stone that the builder refused’, the Cuban medical brigade that Washington turned-down nearly-20-years-ago has established an impeccable international record, attracting global praise and top recognition.

In its 19 years, it’s been honored, applauded and awarded by international entities.

The brigade was awarded the Dr. Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health by the WHO in 2017, «in recognition of its emergency medical assistance to more than 3.5 million people in 21 countries, affected by disasters and epidemics, since its founding in September 2005.»

It was also twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the last time in 2021 for its assistance worldwide to people and nations affected by COVID-19.

As of May 2022, some 605,000 health workers from Cuba had served in 165 countries through the Henry Reeve brigade.

For more than six decades, US sanctions and blockades have squeezed the lifeblood out of Cuba’s economy, but unsatisfied, Washington is now rubbing fine sea salt into its deep historical wounds on Cuba. Washington is weaponizing diplomacy to criminalize the Caribbean’s acknowledged best medical care system.

On February 25, 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced -and not for the first time- his latest undisguised effort to discourage countries from hiring Cuban doctors.

Rubio resurrected an old argument he used to present an earlier plan (several years ago) in the US legislature, that he called a “Bill to Combat the Trafficking of Cuban Doctors”. The ultimate aim of the old plan’s resurrection is to sanction diplomats, officials and others associated with the Cuban medical brigade.

But why would Washington want to stop the world from benefitting from care by Cuba’s tried-and-tested healthcare professionals?

And who was Henry Reeve?

He was an American soldier, born in New York in 1850, who died in Cuba in 1876 -aged 26- as a fighter in Cuba’s liberation army.

Rubio, for pure political purposes, is therefore trying to kill a program that’s provided high-quality healthcare to millions of impoverished people worldwide, including Americans who flew to Cuba for the Operation Miracle ‘Milagro’ eye care program, also sponsored by Venezuela and which touched millions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today, some 400,000 Cuban doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have traveled to over 160 nations with the Henry Reeve Brigade, especially supporting countries without enough local medical professionals to respond to the demands for general or specialized medical care for their populations. In many cases, the Cuban doctors fill gaps in marginalized and under-served communities.

With more health professionals per capita than most developing nations and unable to deploy all at home due to the effects of US sanctions on Cuba’s ability to service its health sector, Havana has again allowed necessity to create invention.

Through bilateral agreements, Cuba has been able to obtain normal and legal income denied by the unjust US economic and commercial blockades that prevent it from importing medicines and hospital supplies.

Havana also offers assistance, counseling and other professional services -in fields other than medicine- to almost 60 countries around the world.

For example, it’s reported that between 2011 and 2025, revenues from the medical program exceeded $11 billion for the nation of 11 million people -so the anticipated decrease in income the Rubio plan can (and is designed to) deal a deathly body-blow to Cuba.

Rubio will visit Jamaica today to bring Kingston up-to-speed with Washington’s thinking and hear the region’s responses to the State Department’s threats to strong-arm sovereign nations into committing another proverbial sin: ‘Biting a hand that feeds you…’

CARICOM chairman Mia Mottley has indicated that if she (and presumably fellow leaders) had to lose their US visas for keeping safe Cuba’s medical care to millions of Caribbean citizens, then so be it.

CARICOM Leaders held an online meeting March 21 to discuss a common regional response to be communicated to Rubio by Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

CARICOM leaders have responded in positive stride, seeking clarifications instead of blowing gaskets, bearing in mind that the stakes are too high to underestimate and miscalculate.

Caribbean leaders also know how valuable the Cuban medical program has been to each nation and have been urged by wise elders to tread carefully in how they respond.

It’s easy to say the Caribbean has ‘no choice’ in the matter, but this regional conversation with America’s top foreign affairs spokesman is not only about the Cuban medical program.

It’s also every other major matter affecting the region’s ties with the US -including treatment of undocumented Caribbean citizens in the US and the inescapable effects of the reciprocal tariff wars unleashed by Washington on the world.

Rubio, a son of Cuban parents, is best-placed to shape Washington’s future ties with his ancestral homeland; and Prime Minister Holness, representing all of CARICOM, has the weight of the eyes and ears of the world on his head -and shoulders.

It’s one of the rare moments in Caribbean diplomacy -like in 1972, when the region was faced with the dilemma of treating Cuba like a valuable regional neighbor, or succumbing to US diplomatic diktat.

Caribbean observers are watching closely to see whether PM Holness will make Jamaican and Caribbean people proud, or whether he’ll go down in history as not having lived or measured-up to the task of turning this latest regional challenge into a bunch of regional opportunities.