“We would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the
conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider
him a true revolutionary, a true communist militant.” ... A deviation of
that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant
communist should be.” - Fidel Castro, 1965
The state of Academia in the United States grows more worrisome each year. Imagine for a moment a graduate student in Bioethics and a Professor of Practice in Global Health defending a totalitarian dictatorship rounding up individuals with an illness that is not casually transmitted, while using deceptive propaganda that led others to contract the disease in order to get preferential housing conditions. Morris Fabbri and Kearsley A. Stewart of Duke University in their November 29, 2019 OpEd "Cuba quarantined people with HIV. It was controversial, but it worked" have done just that in the Tampa Bay Times. Their essay also overlooks both the decades long history of the Cuban government's persecution of Gays and falsifying statistics, and jailing doctors and reporters in order to
cover up epidemics.
HIV-AIDS is present in Cuba and according to
Avert,a UK-based charity that has been providing accurate information
about HIV worldwide for over 30 years, "nearly 90% of new infections in
the Caribbean in 2017 occurred in four countries - Cuba, Dominican
Republic, Haiti and Jamaica." Worse yet, on
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, a scientist, dissident, and former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience
publicly accused the Cuban government on November 27, 2019 of having intentionally inoculated him with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while he was
in the prison ward of the Abel Santamaría Hospital last year in Pinar del Río.
It is important to look at the wider context.
The hostility to Gays began early and from the top. On March 13, 1963 Fidel Castro gave a speech were he openly attacked “long-haired layabouts, the children of bourgeois families,” roaming the streets wearing “trousers that are too tight,” carrying guitars to look like Elvis Presley, who took “their licentious behavior to the extreme” of organizing “effeminate shows” in public places. The Cuban dictator warned: “They should not confuse the Revolution’s serenity and tranquility with weaknesses in the Revolution. Our society cannot accept these degeneracies.”
Pride March shut down by Castro regime's state security on May 11, 2019 |
Cuban government officials inoculated him with HIV in 2018. |
It is important to look at the wider context.
The hostility to Gays began early and from the top. On March 13, 1963 Fidel Castro gave a speech were he openly attacked “long-haired layabouts, the children of bourgeois families,” roaming the streets wearing “trousers that are too tight,” carrying guitars to look like Elvis Presley, who took “their licentious behavior to the extreme” of organizing “effeminate shows” in public places. The Cuban dictator warned: “They should not confuse the Revolution’s serenity and tranquility with weaknesses in the Revolution. Our society cannot accept these degeneracies.”
In 1964 the Cuban government began rounding up Gays and sending them to Military Units to Aid
Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción). These
forced labor camps were for those suspected of or found guilty of
"improper conduct." Persons with effeminate mannerisms,
what the Cuban government called "extravagant behavior," were taken to
these camps.
This history should be taken into
account when considering the Cuban quarantine of HIV positive Cubans
from 1986 to 1997. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic it was associated with the Gay community. Furthermore the claim that HIV rates are lower in
Cuba should also be taken with a grain of salt when considering the
failure to report on other outbreaks.This is motivated by their need to justify the existence of the dictatorship with supposed successes in health care.
The statistics and numbers
that the international community has access to with relation to the
Cuban healthcare system have been manipulated by the Castro regime. Katherine Hirschfeld, an anthropologist, in Health, Politics, and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898 described how her
idealistic preconceptions were dashed by 'discrepancies between
rhetoric and reality.' She observed a repressive, bureaucratized and
secretive system, long on 'militarization' and short on patients' rights.
In 1997 when a Dengue epidemic broke out in Cuba the dictatorship tried
to cover it up. When a courageous doctor spoke out he was locked up on June 25, 1997 and later sentenced to 8 years in prison. Amnesty International recognized Dr. Desi Mendoza Rivero as a prisoner of conscience. He was released from prison under condition he went into exile in December of 1998. The regime eventually had to recognize that there had been a dengue epidemic.
In 2012 a cholera outbreak in Cuba presented an opportunity to see how
the Cuban public health system operates. News of the outbreak in Manzanillo, in the east of the island, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to reporting by the outlawed independent press in the island. Official media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. BBC News reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with Cholera in Havana. The dictatorship stated that it had it under control. Independent journalist Calixto Martínez was arrested on September 16, 2012 for reporting on the Cholera outbreak, and declared an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.
In July 2013 an Italian tourist returned from Cuba with severe renal failure due to Cholera. New York high school teacher Alfredo Gómez contracted cholera during a family visit to Havana during the summer of 2013 and was billed $4,700 from the government hospital. A total of 12 tourists have been identified who have contracted cholera in Cuba.
Calixto Martinez: Journalist and prisoner of conscience |
The publication New Scientist reported on January 8, 2019 that "thousands of Zika virus
cases went unreported in Cuba in 2017, according to an analysis of data
on travelers to the Caribbean island. Veiling them may have led to
many other cases that year."
Rounding
up people with HIV in Cuba did not work, and worse yet, according to the above mentioned OpEd the government propaganda was so effective that
some Cubans injected themselves with HIV to go into quarantine. The
Cuban government has a long track record of repression against Gays and
Lesbians, faking health statistics, and covering up epidemics. Repeating
Cuban government propaganda is not only a disservice to the truth, but
in this case endangers lives.
However on top of a poor analysis, that ignores years of repression against Gays that has continued to the present day and a horror show with regards to public health, the authors are guilty of bad timing with the announcement two days earlier alleging that the Cuban government infected a dissident in 2018 with the HIV virus.
April 11th marked the 35th anniversary of the release of Improper Conduct, the film that exposed communist intolerance to Gays and Lesbians in Cuba, and documents what happened during the first 30 years of the Castro regime. Hopefully, Morris Fabbri and Kearsley A. Stewart will view the documentary to obtain a broader vision of what is really happening in Cuba.
However on top of a poor analysis, that ignores years of repression against Gays that has continued to the present day and a horror show with regards to public health, the authors are guilty of bad timing with the announcement two days earlier alleging that the Cuban government infected a dissident in 2018 with the HIV virus.
April 11th marked the 35th anniversary of the release of Improper Conduct, the film that exposed communist intolerance to Gays and Lesbians in Cuba, and documents what happened during the first 30 years of the Castro regime. Hopefully, Morris Fabbri and Kearsley A. Stewart will view the documentary to obtain a broader vision of what is really happening in Cuba.
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