Context of '1977: Cuba Establishes Rules for Prenatal and Infant Care'

The US begins a 40-year plus trade embargo on Cuba. [Perez, 1995; Guardian, 11/28/2001] The embargo applies to a wide range of goods including both food and medicine. [Perez, 1995; Guardian, 11/28/2001] Beginning in 1992, the UN General Assembly will annually condemn these sanctions against Cuba. [Guardian, 11/28/2001]

The US fails in an attempt to invade Cuba using 1500 exiled Cubans in what becomes known as the Bay of Pigs. [Perez, 1995; Central Intelligence Agency, 1998]

Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health establishes rules and standards on health care for women, infants, and young children. The rules make infant health and the reproductive health of women the country’s top health priorities. The ministry’s rules specify the minimum number of prenatal examinations and consultations for pregnant women and require that all pregnant women receive education on hygiene, health during pregnancy, childbirth, and child care. They are also to receive psychological counseling and instruction in birth exercises. When women miss appointments or educational lectures, doctors are instructed to go to their homes. Additionally, the ministry’s rules state that all childbirth must take place in hospitals, where women and their new babies will typically stay for four or five days. By the mid-1980s, prenatal care provided to Cuban women will far exceed the medical norms of most industrialized countries. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 48-49] The ministry also issues specifications for the care of infants and children, requiring that doctors conduct a certain number of check-ups every year. By 1989, the average number of well-baby visits per year will be 11. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 53] Author Julie Feinsilver notes that Cuba’s commitment to prenatal and infant care is cost-effective in the long-term. “These children experience less illness, require less curative medical care, and possess greater potential for development and educational achievement, which lead to greater work capacity and higher productivity.” [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 51]

Cuba’s public health ministry launches an education campaign promoting physical fitness as part of an effort to combat negative health conditions associated with sedentary lifestyles. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 71]

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Cuba states that “there is no question that Cuba has the best health statistics in Latin America.” [South End Press, 1993, pp. 151]

A study prepared for the Congressional Joint Economic Committee acknowledges Cuba’s successes in education and health care. “[T]he Cuban revolution has managed social achievements, especially in education and health care, that are highly respected in the Third World…. [These include] establishment of a national health care program that is superior in the Third World and rivals that of numerous developed countries,” the report says. [US Congress, 3/22/1982, pp. 5; Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 81-5]

Sergio Diaz-Briquets, in his book The Health Revolution in Cuba, concludes that universal health care access, along with the narrowing of the gap between mortality rates in urban and rural populations “appears to be the main causative factor behind Cuba’s impressive gain in life expectancy.” [Diaz-Briquets, 1983, pp. 113; Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 92]

Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health conducts 8 million HIV tests discovering 449 positive cases. Most of the infected individuals are quarantined by the Cuban government to prevent an epidemic. They are housed in a sanitarium, luxurious by Cuban standards, and they are exempted from work requirements. Though they are not prohibited from seeing family members and friends, any visits are restricted and monitored. Health officials from both developed and developing countries later request assistance from Cuba in establishing their own AIDS sanitariums. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 82-85]

UNICEF publishes a report on the “State of the World’s Children,” which concludes that “Cuba is the only [Latin American] country on a par with developed nations” with regard to infant mortality rates. [South End Press, 1993]

Cuba has sent 25,000 doctors to developing countries—more than the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, it has almost 2,000 doctors working in 14 countries. [Xinhua News Agency (Beijing), 4/15/2000]

The Defense Department reports that are about 590 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [US Department of Defense, 7/27/2004] This is a decrease from its maximum number of about 660 detainees in about November 2003 (see November 21-23, 2003).

For the fourteenth consecutive year, the UN General Assembly, in a record 182 to 4 vote, calls on the US to end its four-decade-old embargo against Cuba (see 1960). Voting against the measure are the US, Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. Micronesia abstains, while El Salvador, Iraq, Morocco, and Nicaragua do not vote. [Associated Press, 11/8/2005; CBC News, 11/8/2005; EuroNews, 11/9/2005] (The Palau Archipelago was administered by the United States as the last UN trust territory until 1994. The Marshall Islands, taken by the US during World War II, became self-governing under US military protection in 1976, achieving free-association status in 1986. The combined population of Palau and the Marshall Islands is less than 80,000.) [Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., 2005; Columbia Encyclopedia. Sixth edition, 2005] Before the vote, speaker after speaker in the General Assembly debate speaks out against the US sanctions [Associated Press, 11/8/2005] , while Ronald Godard, a deputy United States ambassador, asserts that “if the people of Cuba are jobless, hungry, or lack medical care, as Castro admits, it’s because of his economic mismanagement.” [New York Times, 11/9/2005] After the votes are tallied up, many delegates in the General Assembly hall reportedly burst into applause. [Associated Press, 11/8/2005] US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, calls the vote “a complete exercise in irrelevancy.” [Associated Press, 11/8/2005]

The US Department of State releases its 2005 edition of Country Reports on Terrorism, in which it states that Cuba remains a “state sponsor of terrorism, while Venezuela virtually ceased its cooperation in the global war on terror.” According to the report, Venezuela has been “tolerating terrorists in its territory and seeking closer relations with Cuba and Iran.” [US Department of State, 2006, pp. 155 ]

Carl Kropf, chief of media relations for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, says that Venezuela and Cuba “have deepened their relationship and both countries continue to stifle opposition and constrict democracy.” [Washington File, 8/21/2006]