PPPC Govt. and Cuban medical programme

Feb 16, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony can deny as much as he wants, but he is wasting time, reduces his standing before citizens. The ending of the medical pact that Guyana has with Cuba reeks of caving under US pressure, the PPPC Government’s fear of going against the White House juggernaut and his Washington machine.

Cuban medical personnel have been in Guyana for decades. To the greatest extent possible, that brigade has worked hard and served the people of this country well. Doctors and others came here when there was an acute shortage of Guyanese medical professionals, and when the options were limited. Now the Guyana Government has turned its back on that agreement that worked so well for citizens, and all but slammed the door shut on the official linkage.

It is one indication of how an independent nation barters and relinquishes its freedoms and its pride for what has been deemed a ‘special relationship’ and friendship. A good friend to this country is kissed goodbye, with a kick as the parting gift. It is not surprising in the least, for just as how the PPPC of recent years, and more and more today, has turned its back on its roots, abandoned the working class, discarded its old ideology and its dogmas, it now does the same to the Cuban government. The men and women in the government of today have proved in trumps, what kind of friends they are, and how much they cannot be trusted. Good friends when the weather is clear, foul friends when former despised adversaries apply pressure, must be obeyed. Impoverished Guyanese, who form between 50 to 60% of this nation’s population can swear to that betrayal, having being themselves jilted.

Minister Anthony is politically savvy enough to know that the dirty job he had to do (facing the media with his announcement about the shredding of the Cuban deal) has made him lose some precious credibility. Notwithstanding the political creature that he is, he has to know that what he shared with the public as a sop is lame at best, pushes him into the company of the laughable, at worst. The minister’s sop that the Guyana-Cuban arrangement was not necessary, and that Cubans are coming on their own to offer their skills and energies here, does more harm than good. Guyana still has trainee doctors and others barely out of the beginner’s category in their numbers. The Cubans, therefore, are still needed, which means that the official country-to-country arrangement still has some days and years left in it. The lure of being in a country that the world speaks of excitedly is sure to attract its share of those ready to give Guyana a try, but it will be on an individual basis. The government-to-government connection goes far in removing the suffocating red tape of bureaucracy, smoothing the way for an efficient and satisfying first introduction to Guyana. Individuals cannot compete with that machinery, which has the power of the state driving it.

Into the lap of Minister Anthony, the subject minister, fell that tough job. To stand before resident Cubans, Cuban officials, and Guyanese and deliver his message. The message is wrong, the timing makes the PPPC Government look like some captive and docile stooge that jumps to the commands of the White House, as handed down through the State Department. For the sake of reasoned discussion, we at this paper put forward this thought. If the US didn’t have a problem with the stubbornness of Cuban leaders, didn’t zero in and target the Cuban medical program that has benefited Guyana and other countries in this region so much, would the PPPC Government even be addressing this issue? Would Minister of Health Anthony even be talking about the sad end to what was once a happy set of circumstances that was so meaningful to Guyanese? In a nutshell, the optics are wrong, the timing is wrong, and the decision is wrong. To discard like yesterday’s fish wrapping a once valued relationship speaks to the callousness that has taken over the leadership of this country, now consumes its members. Whatever has to be done to surrender to US demands, it is done.

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Cuban medical programme, Editorial, Frank Anthony, PPPC

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PPPC Govt. and Cuban medical programme

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