Tiny Andorra gets 39 Cubans to battle coronavirus

[Oscar]

Tiny Andorra gets 39 Cubans to battle coronavirus

[ https://www.france24.com/en/20200330-ti ... oronavirus ]

March 30, 2020

Thirty-nine Cuban doctors and nurses arrived on Monday in the tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra to help it battle the coronavirus, the Andorran health ministry said, part of an international drive by Havana that has sparked controversy.

Andorra is now the second European state after Italy to have received help from Cuba, whose export of medical services has long been one of the motors of its socialist economy.

Andorra has asked for the help from 12 doctors and 27 nurses from Cuba to relieve its own medical staff, 60 of whom have had to stop work for fear they might have caught the virus, its Health Minister Joan Martinez Benazet told AFP.

The microstate of just 77,000 people, wedged between France and Spain and best known as a ski resort, has been hit hard by the virus, which has killed seven and left 11 in intensive care.

Communist Cuba has so far sent medical teams to Italy, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Grenada, Suriname, Jamaica and Belize to battle the coronavirus.

But the US State Department has condemned the assistance, saying Cuba "keeps most of the salary its doctors and nurses earn while serving in its international medical missions while exposing them to egregious labor conditions."

Havana has dismissed such comments as a campaign of lies to discredit the doctors it has sent around the world.

The Andorran health ministry gave no financial details but said that the Cuban team would be looked after in the best possible conditions.

The export of medical services is one of the pillars of the Cuban economy, which has suffered almost six decades of crippling US sanctions. It brought in $6.3 billion in 2018, according to official figures.

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Trudeau defends himself after Castro controversy

[ https://www.macleans.ca/news/justin-tru ... -comments/ ]

A day after a controversial eulogy, the PM acknowledges that Fidel Castro was a dictator and there were significant human rights concerns in Cuba.

By Joanna Smith, The Canadian Press November 27, 2016

EXCERPT:

The Liberal prime minister is facing criticism at home and abroad for a statement he issued shortly after learning that Castro had died at the age of 90.

The statement expressed his “deep sorrow” about the death of Castro, without mentioning the human rights violations of his regime beyond referring vaguely to him as a “a controversial figure.” Trudeau also referred to him as a “legendary revolutionary and orator,” who made significant improvements to the education and health-care systems of Cuba.

“I know my father was very proud to call him a friend,” Trudeau also said in his statement.

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