“What would you do if your relative, co-worker, or friend had a heart condition and couldn’t get the needed pacemaker?” Global Health Partners asks in a new appeal to raise $150,000 over the next several months to send 150 pacemakers to Cuba. In 2024, contributions made it possible to send 380 of them. More are needed.
The decadeslong U.S. economic war against Cuba, carried out by every administration since Cuba’s 1959 revolution, from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump’s White House, has blocked Cuba’s access to many medicines and essential supplies, including lifesaving pacemakers. Washington’s inclusion of Cuba on its list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism” has sharply intensified hardships for the Cuban people, squeezing vital imports of raw materials, fuel, medicine and food.
In Washington’s latest move, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Feb. 25 the U.S. government would further expand travel restrictions, withdrawing the visas of officials in countries that host Cuba’s medical brigades. The goal is to try and shut down this source of income for Cuban working people. Washington slanders these volunteers as “forced” labor enriching the Cuban government.
A cornerstone of the political course of the Cuban Revolution has been proletarian internationalism. While Cuba’s medical system provides free care to all its citizens, since 1963 millions of working people throughout the world have received quality health care through international medical missions by some 600,000 Cuban volunteers.
You can help! Make checks payable to Global Health Partners with the memo “pacemakers” and mail them to: Global Health Partners, 39 Broadway, Suite 1540, New York, NY 10006. For further information on how to get involved, visit the GHP website at www.ghpartners.org.