Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley Stands Firm on US Visa Threat Over Cuban Medical Personnel Controversy

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is prepared to lose her United States (US) visa if there is no “sensible agreement” regarding an American government crackdown on countries benefiting from the services of Cuban medical personnel.

She made her position on the issue clear yesterday in the House of Assembly while contributing to the Budget debate.

“Now I don’t believe that we have to shout across the seas, but I am prepared, like others in this region, that if we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter, then if the cost of it is the loss of my visa to the US, then so be it,” the Prime Minister announced.

She said while Barbados did not currently have Cuban medical staff or Cuban nurses, “I will be the first to . . . tell you that we could not get through the pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors”.

“I will also be the first to tell you that we paid them the same thing that we paid Bajans and that the notion as was peddled not just by this Government

in the US, but the previous government, that we were involved in human trafficking by engaging with the Cuban nurses, was fully repudiated and rejected by us,” she explained.

Mottley said principles matter and that “I have said over and over said that principles only mean something when it is inconvenient to stand by it”.

“Now we don’t have to shout, but we can be resolute and I therefore look forward to standing with my CARICOM brothers . . . to be able to ensure that we explain that what the Cubans have been able to do for us, far from approximating itself to human trafficking, has been to save lives and limbs and sight for many a Caribbean person,” the Prime Minister told the House. (SC)