NEW YORK — At a June 28 program here, sponsored by the New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition, Bob Schwartz, executive director of Global Health Partners, announced a national effort to raise $150,000 to send 150 pacemakers to Cuba. The effort is part of the Saving Lives Campaign. Cuba Sí has set a goal to raise $10,000.
The featured speaker at the event was Ambassador Yuri Gala López, the deputy permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations. Some 30 people attended.
“Speaking about health care in Cuba means speaking about Fidel Castro,” Gala said. “From the very beginning of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel envisioned health care as a universal human right and an essential pillar of the revolution.” Health care in Cuba is free and accessible to all.
Cuba’s record in health care extends to its internationalist solidarity, he said. The Latin American School of Medicine has trained 31,000 doctors from 122 nations free of charge. Cuban medical professionals have served in 165 countries, often in the most remote areas.
For many countries, including Haiti, one of the poorest in the world, Cuban medical volunteers provide care at no cost, Gala said. Governments that can afford it, pay Cuba something. In these cases, the income helps fund Cuba’s free health care system.
The medical volunteers receive their regular pay, plus bonuses. “Our doctors have saved millions of lives,” he said.
Because of how the Cuban Revolution transformed conditions for working people, Gala said, Cuba’s health indicators are in many cases comparable to those in developed countries. But the impact of the U.S. economic war on Cuba for more than six decades, undermines the gains Cuba has made.
A few years ago infant mortality in Cuba was four deaths per 1,000 live births, Gala said. Because of the embargo, it’s now at seven. By comparison, in the U.S., the richest country in the world, it’s a little more than five.
“We have shortages in food, fuel, transport, medicines and technology,” he said, noting this was mostly due to Washington’s embargo.
Washington is also waging a “vicious disinformation campaign against the volunteer medical brigades Cuba sends abroad,” he said. U.S. officials outrageously say Cuba is engaged in “human trafficking,” and they’ve announced they will impose visa restrictions on anyone linked to the Cuban medical missions. Their goal is to smear the Cuban Revolution and cut off legitimate income. Their charges are “baseless and absurd.”
On June 30, just two days after the New York meeting, Trump signed a presidential memorandum announcing stepped-up attacks on Cuba, including tightening restrictions on travel by U.S. residents to the island.
‘From our hearts to Cuban hearts’
“Global Health Partners has been raising funds for medical supplies in Cuba for three decades,” Bob Schwartz said. He noted that during the COVID pandemic Cuba developed its own effective vaccines, but they needed 27 million syringes to administer them. “We took a goal of sending a million syringes to Cuba, but we ended up with 6 million, enough to vaccinate 20% of the population.
“As Ambassador Gala said, the embargo impacts every sector of the Cuban economy,” Schwartz said. “But above all it affects public health, especially children and the elderly.”
The event included a slide show on the 2025 May Day rally in Havana, and a new documentary by Belly of the Beast called “Teresita’s Dream: Cuba’s battle against Alzheimer’s.”
Other speakers included Brima Sylla, vice president of the Amazon Labor Union, and Colette Pean, from the December 12 Movement.
To contribute to the Saving Lives Pacemaker Campaign, make your check payable to Global Health Partners with “pacemakers” on the memo line, and mail it to: Global Health Partners, 39 Broadway, Suite 1540, New York, NY 10006. To pay by debit or credit card, visit ghpartners.org.