Context of '1982: Cuba Completes State-of-the-Art Hospital in Havanna'

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]

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]

Cuba opens its 950-bed, 24-story, state-of-the-art Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital. The building cost 60 million pesos to build and houses USD $62 million worth of medical and nonmedical equipment. The hospital will provide the latest technology and procedures available in the most developed countries and will also serve as a major research facility with computer and telex links to international research institutions. Five years later, a top Pan American Health Organization official will say that the hospital’s staff “conduct research and use technology at the international cutting edge in the medical specialties in which services are rendered.” [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 61-62]