US denies having talks with Saint Lucia regarding students studying in Cuba

The United States has refuted claims that they have instructed the Government of Saint Lucia not to allow students to study medicine in Cuba.

In a statement issued today by the US Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, the US said while it did not support Cuba’s overseas medical programmes, it had not directed Saint Lucia to cut ties with its Caribbean neighbours.

“The United States has not recently talked to Saint Lucia about international education and respects countries’ sovereign decisions regarding the education of their citizens,” the statement read. 

“The United States continues to call for an end to exploitation and forced labor in the illegitimate Cuban regime’s overseas medical missions programme,” it added.

The statement comes following recent comments by Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J Pierre, who said the US no longer wanted the island to send its medical students to Cuba to study.

Speaking at the 2nd World Congress on Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities last week, Pierre alluded to what he described as “a big problem” facing the healthcare sector.

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

“So there is a major, major problem that I have to face. Some of my colleagues have already taken a position to ban them. We also have Cuban doctors who come over to work,” he added, referring to the Cuban Medical Brigade that has operated in Saint Lucia since 2001.  

Earlier this month, the US Embassy also claimed Cuban medical workers face withheld wages, confiscated passports, forced family separation and exile, restriction of movement through curfews and surveillance, intimidation and threats, and pressure to falsify medical records and fabricate procedures.