Center for International Policy

Bush held up Cuba help over politics

By Wayne S. Smith

September 13, 2005

What a shame. Not even in the face of the massive human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina could the Bush administration put aside its knee-jerk rejection of anything coming out of Cuba. Only two days after the storm hit the Gulf Coast, the Cubans quietly offered humanitarian assistance. No response.

On Sept. 1, the Cuban National Assembly expressed solidarity with the American people and on Sept. 2, Fidel Castro publicly offered to send some 1,100 doctors, with 25 tons of medicines and medical equipment, to the devastated areas. They could be dispatched on Cuban aircraft immediately, he said, and to emphasize that they were ready to travel, the next day had them gather at the School of Public Health with their backpacks on. He also increased the number to 1,586 doctors and the medicines to 37 tons. Castro stressed that there was no political motive behind his offer. The U.S. and Cuba had disagreements, yes, but they should now call "a time out" to address this catastrophe.

Had there been any difficulty in sending the doctors on Cuban aircraft, Fort Lauderdale-based Gulfstream Airways had immediately offered to fly them all up free of charge. "I couldn't think of a better way to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast than to get these excellent Cuban doctors to them as quickly as possible," said CEO Tom Cooper.

Given the desperate situation on the Gulf Coast, one might have expected a rapid response from Washington, especially as MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation With Cuba), a nonprofit association based in Atlanta, described the Cuban doctors as highly trained and noted that "Cuba's experience and expertise in disaster management is so relevant to the current crisis and its aftermath in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."

And certainly the assistance was needed. Local TV channels in New Orleans were reporting people to be begging for doctors and any medical assistance they could get. A prominent New Orleans citizen, Randy Poindexter, who had been on Gov. Kathleen Blanco's delegation to Cuba some months ago, expressed appreciation for the Cuban offer and said that if it were up to the governor, the doctors, who were desperately needed, would already be there. It was the Bush administration, she said, that didn't want them in.

She was right. On Sept. 8, the State Department officially rejected aid from Iran and Cuba, apparently on grounds that the U.S. does not have full diplomatic relations with them.

But the issue here was not politics; rather it was the well-being of tens of thousands of people on the Gulf Coast in light of deteriorating health conditions there. Whatever problems Cuba may have, it has an excellent public health system and has been recognized as a leader in disaster response. It could have lent a very important helping hand to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. But never mind about them. Even in these dire circumstances, the Bush administration could not put aside its antipathy for anything emanating from Cuba -- even if it is its own stricken citizens who suffer for it.

Many Americans, of course, strongly disagree with this response on the part of the Bush administration. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, for example, on Sept. 8 urged the administration to accept the Cuban offer, in light of the mounting public health crisis along the Gulf Coast. And even Mel Martinez, the Republican senator from Florida and a Cuban-American who is usually opposed to any initiative out of Cuba, on Sept. 7 welcomed the offer. "If we need doctors, and Cuba offers them and they provide good service, of course we should accept them," he said.

Our hats are off to him. He obviously is more open-minded than the Bush administration, which in another knee-jerk rejection earlier in the week refused visas to Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón and the rest of the Cuban delegation that was to have attended the Second World Conference of Parliamentary Presidents at the United Nations.

It has been a bad week for the U.S. image all the way around. Bush's stumbling response to the hurricane has been derided by governments and media all over the world. And in its response to the Cuban offer of doctors, the Bush administration looks uncaring, inflexible and dogmatic. Cuba comes out of it looking responsive to the needs of the afflicted on the Gulf Coast and with a real empathy for them. In terms of P.R., Cuba wins hands down.

Wayne Smith, a former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C.