Cuban medical internationalism

Cuban medical internationalism is the Cuban programme, since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, of sending Cuban medical personnel overseas, particularly to Latin America, Africa and, more recently, Oceania, and of bringing medical students and patients to Cuba. In 2007, "Cuba has 42,000 workers in international collaborations in 103 different countries, of whom more than 30,000 are health personnel, including no fewer than 19,000 physicians." Cuba provides more medical personnel to the developing world than all the G8 countries combined, although this comparison does not take into account G8 development aid spent on developing world healthcare. The Cuban missions have had substantial positive local impact on the populations served. It is widely believed that medical workers are Cuba's most important export commodity.

In 2007, one academic study on Cuban internationalism surveyed the history of the programme, noting its broad sweep: "Since the early 1960s, 28,422 Cuban health workers have worked in 37 Latin American countries, 31,181 in 33 African countries, and 7,986 in 24 Asian countries. Throughout a period of four decades, Cuba sent 67,000 health workers to structural cooperation programs, usually for at least two years, in 94 countries ... an average of 3,350 health workers working abroad every year between 1960 and 2000."

The programme was initiated in 1963 as part of Cuba's foreign policy of supporting anti-colonial struggles. It began when Cuba sent a small medical brigade to Algeria, which suffered from the mass withdrawal of French medical personnel during the independence war; some wounded soldiers and war orphans were also transported back to Cuba for treatment. Cuba did this at a time when, following the Cuban revolution, "half of the country’s 6,000 doctors fled". Between 1966 and 1974, Cuban doctors worked alongside Cuban artillery in Guinea-Bissau during its independence war against Portugal. Cuba's largest foreign campaign was in Angola: within two years of the campaign, by 1977, "only one Angolan province out of sixteen was without Cuban health technicians." After 1979, Cuba developed a strong relationship with Nicaragua.

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