AFTER spending five years in Jamaica on the Cuban medical cooperation programme, one nurse has given high praises to Jamaicans for ensuring she had a pleasurable experience.

After completing her tenure at a hospital in St James and returning to Cuba on July 17, the nurse, who asked that her name be withheld, voiced her love and appreciation for the special way she was made to feel over the five years.

“I was working at the Cornwall Regional Hospital [and] it was awesome. What I can tell you is that I love black people. I felt very comfortable working in your country. It’s a very nice country,” said the Cuban nurse.

Her testimony corroborated claims by Dr Osvaldo Hector Ardisana, a commercial specialist at the Cuban Medical Services Unit in Havana, who told the Jamaica Observer that Cuban medical practitioners who come to Jamaica are not forced or trafficked.

Dr Ardisana was responding to a question from the Observer about allegations, from United States officials, that Cuban Medical practitioners are being trafficked.

During a visit to Jamaica in March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump Administration’s opposition to the Cuban government programme that deploys medical workers to countries in need.

“The doctors are not paid; payments are made to the Cuban Government. The Cuban Government decides how much of anything to give them. They take away the passports. They basically operate as forced labour,” alleged Rubio.

But Dr Ardisana was emphatic as he declared, “First of all, they are not pressured and they are not forced at all.”

According to Dr Ardisana, he, at one point, went to work on a Cuban medical mission by choice.

“I went to Venezuela to go and work for three years, and it was I who decided to go there. No one pressured me. I think that it is good. Some countries need that kind of help because they don’t have the human [resources] to cover it so there needs to be cooperation. They can work there from two years to five years. I chose, by myself, to do two years, and I returned home two years later. There wasn’t any obligation and no one took my passport. There wasn’t any pressure on my family. It was a personal decision,” Dr Ardisana said.

“People say the Cuban Government retains part of your salary and you are not paid what you deserve. We have a different point of view because this is our contribution to our health system, which is for free, for every Cuban, no matter their political ideas, their race, sex, or belief.

“This is our contribution to the health system to cover the rest of the population that can’t pay for everything. They say people are not in a position to make any decision and are like slaves. Not at all. You can say no and decide for yourself,” added Dr Ardisana.

He said most of the Cuban doctors who go overseas on the programme work in areas where the need is the greatest.

“Most of the Cuban doctors are working in areas where medical specialists are not able to go. For example, in Venezuela, when we arrived there the medical community started to say people are coming to steal our jobs. The Government said to them that we have spaces for you in difficult areas, but they said, ‘No, no, no, no, I won’t go there.’

“It’s your people living there and you are supposed to work for them and you don’t want to go there because it’s too far away, it’s complicated, you feel fine in your city in my comfort zone, but you don’t want anyone else to go there and help your people. This is a different point of view,” charged Dr Ardisana.

During his visit to Jamaica, Rubio also indicated that the Trump Administration in the US would bar visas for foreign government officials who assist the Cuban programme.

But Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness was quick to point out that the 400 Cuban doctors in Jamaica have been incredibly helpful to the nation, as they fill the deficit caused by the migration of Jamaican health workers.

Holness said Jamaica has been very careful not to exploit the Cuban doctors who are here.

“We ensure that they are treated within our labour laws and benefit like any other worker,” Holness said, “So any characterisation of the programme by others certainly would not be applicable to Jamaica,” added Holness.

Cuba sent 22,632 medical professionals to 57 countries in 2023, based on official figures. The country earned US$6.3 billion in 2018 and US$3.9 billion in 2020 from its medical missions, a portion of which was in the form of oil from Venezuela.