Cuban medical programs kicked out of Honduras & Guatemala; more victims of U.S. economic terrorism against Cuba

Written By Grahame Russell

As part of the U.S. strangulation of the tiny country of Cuba, small, Western-dominated countries are being pressured to kick out 1000s of Cuban Doctors and medical practitioners. Countless poor people in these countries who otherwise have little or no access to reliable health services are the ones to suffer this particular aspect of the U.S. strangulation policy are.

In February 2026, the Guatemalan government announced an end to a 30-year partnership with the Cuban Medical Brigade that has 412 healthcare workers (including 333 doctors) in-country. The Cuban medical mission in Guatemala began in 1998 following Hurricane Mitch, providing crucial services to rural, indigenous communities that have forever been ignored or chronically underserved by the Guatemalan health system. (In 1998-1999, Rights Action supported a substantial amount of Hurricane Mitch-response work in Guatemala and Honduras.)

In March 2026, the new U.S.-imposed Honduran government began to repatriate over 150 Cuban medical staff, cancelling a program initiated in 2024 by the government of President Xiomara Castro – the only actually democratic government Honduras has had since the U.S. and Canadian backed coup in 2009 ousted the government of President Mel Zelaya.

The only country in Central America not bowing down to U.S. and Western dictates is Nicaragua, that continues to have the highest investments in and access to health and education in the region, despite being the targets of U.S.-led Western sanctions going back in recent history to 2006. Even as Nicaragua holds on to its principles and government programs, it is widely suspect they are on the black list of the U.S. going forward. John Perry and Roger Harris explain Why Nicaragua is not Washington’s Next War – Yet.

So it goes, for the impoverished peoples of our global human order.

Western silence enables and empowers the U.S.

Clearly the U.S. is the driving force behind this crushing strangulation of Cuba. Yet, these 66 years of illegal policies and attacks have been enabled by the kraven, silent complicity of Canada and major Western European countries. Beyond annual General Assembly votes saying ‘no to the blockade’, that have symbolic value and zero impact, these Western allies have done nothing whatsoever to actually oppose this deadly, destructive U.S. aggression.

Today, these allies are doing nothing to call out and oppose, let alone defy the blockade and strangulation of Cuba, and provide fuel, food, medicine and medical services, … let alone demand that the U.S. government end its 66 years of illegal aggression and pay reparations for all the damage and death caused.

Global civilian activism

With the “whole charade of Western liberal democracy a corpse under the rubble [with] tens of thousands of Palestinians” (Arundhati Roy), this charade is ever more exposed every day from the Middle East to the Americas.

It is again people movements primarily, inside the U.S., Canada and around the work, that are mobilizing to support and be in solidarity with the victims of U.S. and Western aggression – this time Cuba, working to hold the U.S. and Western allies to account, as difficult a mountain as this is to climb.

Grahame Russell
info@rightsaction.org

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Since 1995, Rights Action funds land, justice, human rights and democracy struggles, and environment, development and emergency relief projects primarily in Guatemala and Honduras. Rights Action works to denounce and hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, global companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.

Grahame Russell
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Mallory Memo (1960) to today: U.S. has tried to overthrow Cuban government through violence, hunger, hardship, desperation