Some critics believe that Venezuela will be tossed aside as was Cuba when earlier this year, the US gave CARICOM and other nations the ultimatum to ditch the Cuban medical mission or lose their visas.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in March met with CARICOM governments to discuss, among other matters, the decision by the Trump administration to revoke the visas of Caribbean countries facilitating Cuba’s medical missions to the region and elsewhere. Rubio, a vociferous foe of the Cuban communist government, had characterised the medical mission as human trafficking. Despite Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s defence of the programme during a joint news conference in Jamaica with Rubio in March, hundreds of Cuban doctors have had to leave the island. Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton insists it’s because their contract had ended.
A few days after Rubio’s visit, the health minister and team went to India to institute a programme where Jamaican healthcare workers could be trained in that country and for India to also send workers back to Jamaica to fill immediate gaps in the local health sector.
The US military attack on Venezuela has caused 14 deaths in the last two weeks. Once again, regional leaders will likely have to choose a side. Already Trinidad and Guyana have indicated where they would put their support. In the matter relating to the Cuban doctors, visas were at stake, but in this war on narcotics, which has listed Jamaica as a threat, lives are potentially at risk.