Education
For the last 60 years, under the Castro Regime and now under President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba has conducted what Havana calls “internationalist missions” – sending thousands of Cuban doctors abroad to bolster its international image. But this aid is far from altruistic. It provides an economic lifeline for Cuba’s ruling regime and also affects the island’s already-crumbling medical system, which fails to provide Cubans to with quality health care. Doctors and nurses on these missions are also subject to horrible and restrictive conditions in the countries where they are sent. Their passports are confiscated. The regime pockets most of their income. They are not allowed to leave, and in some cases, never allowed to return home. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the regime’s use of these missions, exporting Cuba’s disastrous human rights abuses under the guise of humanitarian aid. Dr. Daily Coro has seen these missions up close. She was the Head of Cuba’s Medical Commission of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Guárico, Venezuela from 2011 until 2014. Today, she lives in Madrid, and is shedding light on what the Cuban regime would rather the world didn’t see. The coronavirus has made that effort more urgent than ever.