US denies asking St Lucia to stop sending nationals to Cuba to study medicine

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The United States government Wednesday said it has not asked St Lucia to stop sending its nationals to study medicine in Cuba, even as it doubled down on its claim that the Cuban health programme is “illegitimate”.

“The United States has not recently talked to St Lucia about international education and respects countries’ sovereign decisions regarding the education of their citizens. The United States continues to call for an end to exploitation and forced labour in the illegitimate Cuban regime’s overseas medical missions programme,” the US Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS said in a brief statement.

But, in an immediate response, Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), “I have absolutely no comment, and I understand the US position.”

Earlier this week, Pierre said there is no “imminent withdrawal” of St Lucia students studying medicine in Cuba, amid concerns that Washington had called on Castries to stop sending students to Havana.

“The students, those who are in Cuba, will continue to be in Cuba. There’s no imminent withdrawal of students,” Pierre told reporters ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Last weekend, Pierre told the second World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities meeting in St Lucia that the US has called on the island to stop sending its nationals to study medicine in Cuba.

“I have a big problem. Many of our doctors got trained in Cuba, and now the great United States has said we can’t do that any longer,” Pierre said.

But he told reporters that his administration is now exploring its options.

“First of all, we have to assess where we are in terms of scholarships for our medical students. Secondly, we have to look to other countries,” Pierre said, making mention of Mexico and Africa for example.

Cuba began offering significant, full scholarships to Caribbean and Latin American students to study medicine at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, which was officially inaugurated in 1999.

The initiative was designed to train doctors from under-served communities across the region, offering free tuition, accommodation, and boarding.

Last month, the United States Embassy in Barbados said the Cuban “medical missions” programme, which has benefited several Caribbean countries, “relies on coercion and abuse.

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