Anthony F. Kirkpatrick. Published Tuesday, September 5, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Dr. Daniel Greenwald, a plastic surgeon, and I have just received U.S. government approval to fly medications from Tampa to Cuba.
We are the first to be granted such permission.
I am certain the American people would be voicing their opinions loudly if only they were better informed about the U.S. blockade on food and medicine to Cuba.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government has corrupted the entire process of informing us and Congress about the Cuban embargo, as evidenced by the blatant lies coming from its "official'' guardian of worldwide human rights. Each year the State Department is mandated by Congress to prepare a
1,000-page report on human-rights violations in every country on this planet except, of course, one -- the United States.
POLICY IS SINISTER
When the U.S. government is questioned about the consequences of its embargo, the responses have been troubling. For example, on May 12, 1996, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responding to a question from Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes stated that it is "worth it'' to kill some 500,000
innocent children to eliminate a political opponent.
The State Department knowingly has made false and misleading statements to Congress and the public about the Cuban embargo to obfuscate its role in violating the most basic of universally recognized human rights.
The U.S. sanctions policy is sinister to its core. I've witnessed children vomiting several times a day, because the U.S. embargo blocks drugs required to treat the side effects of cancer chemotherapy. I have seen a child die of cancer because the embargo had blocked him from receiving a drug
called pegaspargase, which is manufactured only in the United States.
The U.S. embargo on medical supplies is not the only evil inflicted on Cubans.
The United States contributed to massive suffering in Cuba with its embargo on food through the implementation of the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act. This legislation was unambiguously calculated by the United States to hurt people in Cuba. The American Public Health Association testified against the
bill warning of "widespread famines.''
Five months after the passage, a food shortage contributed to the worst epidemic of neurological disease this century. More than 50,000 of the 11 million inhabitants of Cuba suffered from optic neuropathy, deafness, loss of sensation and pain in the extremities and a spinal disorder that impairs
walking and bladder control. This was identical to the syndrome found among American POWs facing starvation in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. The World Health Organization praised the Cuban government for its aggressive mass distribution of vitamins to curb the outbreak.
A WHO official who investigated the epidemic reported: "Cuba has invested more in health services than almost any other country, and it has a higher health profile than the United States.'' He said that a humanitarian catastrophe was averted only because the Cuban government maintained a
high level of budgetary support for primary and preventive health care to all its people.
The U.S. government counters that the embargo should be maintained because of human-rights violations in Cuba. Claims of massive abuse of human-rights are dishonest. A recent report by the prestigious international organization Human Rights Watch condemns U.S. exaggerations.
Rabid anti-Castroites need to find another excuse for maintaining the embargo. Logic tells us that the longer the United States maintains an embargo on the basic necessities of life, the more the world will rally to Castro's side, providing a crutch for any failures by his government.
Now is the time to push U.S. lawmakers for the truth about the medical embargo against Cuba.
Anthony F. Kirkpatrick, MD, Ph.D., is a physician at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He wrote this article for The Tampa Tribune.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 