The
U.S. government’s blockade against Cuba continues unchanged in the
Obama administration. Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury
Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control seized $4.207 million
that the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria had allocated for Cuba in the first quarter of 2011. The Fund
supports more than 600 programs in 150 countries.
Most
of the funds would have been used to buy expensive medicines, which
are then given to AIDS patients in Cuba. The United States sees
Cuba’s socialist medical system and its long history of sending
doctors and health care workers to poor communities around the globe
as a threatening alternative to capitalist profit-driven “health
care.”
Its
attack has been relentless, including a blockade that denies Cuba
access to newly developed medicines, including drugs for children
suffering from leukemia. In yet another example of petty
vindictiveness, the U.S. government even blocked the U.S.-based
Pastors for Peace Caravan from donating three ambulances to Cuba.
