by Linda Straker
- Ministers Dennis Cornwall and Joseph Andall are Cuban university graduates
- Wrapping up Cuban medical mission will significantly harm to Grenada’s healthcare system
- Finance Minister and others in Government willing to give up US visas in support of Cuba
Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall said that he and others in Government are willing to give up their US visas in support of the people of Cuba. As a former graduate of a Cuban university, he has a moral obligation, and as a government minister, he believes that the Cuban doctors and nurses in Grenada’s healthcare system are providing irreplaceable service.
“I always believe you have to put the people above one’s political self and, in that sense, I believe that my government has already sighted that we are prepared to go to the extreme to make sure to keep our people safe,” Cornwall said as a guest of the weekly Wednesday Government hour on the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN).
“So, if it means that we have to give up our visa right to the US to make sure that Grenada stands behind Cuba as one of the countries that support Grenada in thick and thin, so be it,” he added.
“I am personally one of the persons who graduated from Cuba, and as such, I have a moral obligation to support the Cubans in every way. So, if it means that the Government of the US has to take away our visas because we support the Cuban initiative, so be it,” he told the host, who asked about Government’s reaction to the recent announcement that the [Donald] Trump Administration is expanding an existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy that targets forced labour linked to the Cuban labour export programme.
“This expanded policy applies to current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labour export programme, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions,” said the announcement posted on the US State Department website.
Cornwall said that wrapping up the Cuban medical mission in Grenada will result in significant harm to the country’s healthcare system. “The Cuban doctors and nurses who have visited our shores over the years have performed a valuable service to our people,” he said. “We complain every day that the service in the hospital is bad, but we have people who have graduated from St George’s University, and they are Grenadians, and they are not here to fully support the health system, so if we can depend on the Cuban graduates to help in the system until we can fix it to a point, I say so be it.”
Cornwall is the Member of Parliament for the northern constituency of St Patrick East. “I fully support the Cubans at any time, anywhere, because I think they are doing a very useful and yeoman service to the Government and people of Grenada,” he said.
While contributing to the 2025 budget debate last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Andall, who is also a Cuban graduate, said that Grenada not only has a legal, moral and ethical obligation to stand by the people of Cuba, but the country should avoid being opportunistic or transactional as it pertains to the relations between both countries.
He should relocate to cuba too
He should give up on being a minister too with his gross level of mismanaging the country’s finance.