US aid to Syria

The claim

A meme circulating on communist and antifa Facebook pages, [1] claims that while Cuba has sent considerable humanitarian aid to Syria, the US has sent nothing but bombs.

The facts

The reality is very different. Firstly, the US has been one of the greatest donors of humanitarian aid to Syria during the Syrian Civil War, providing at least US$7.7 billion since 2011. [2] In 2016 alone the US pledged US$890 million to Syria, [3] and the US remains the largest single nation donor to the war torn country. Even though President Trump declared his intention to cease US aid to Syria, [4] the US has still provided far greater aid to Syria than Cuba.

It is particularly ironic for this meme to cite Cuba’s international medical assistance. Cuba is very well known for sending its doctors overseas for humanitarian projects, and this is a point of pride for the country and its supporters. However, enthusiastic praise for this program typically never mentions the the cost being inflicted on the medical staff themselves.

In 2017 Cuban doctors revealed that they were being over-worked by the Cuban government, while being compensated extremely little for their efforts. Cuban doctors working for Brazil, for example, receive hardly any of the money paid for their services by the Brazilian government.

The Cuban government pockets 75% of the salary, allowing their doctors a mere trickle of 25%. This is the behavior of a libertarian free market capitalist, rather than a revolutionary socialist state.Around 150 Cuban doctors have brought lawsuits against the government, protesting the unfair conditions of their employment.

“In a rare act of collective defiance, scores of Cuban doctors working overseas to make money for their families and their country are suing to break ranks with the Cuban government, demanding to be released from what one judge called a “form of slave labor.”” [5]

“But the doctors get a small cut of that money, and a growing number of them in Brazil have begun to rebel. In the last year, at least 150 Cuban doctors have filed lawsuits in Brazilian courts to challenge the arrangement, demanding to be treated as independent contractors who earn full salaries, not agents of the Cuban state.” [6]

Living outside Cuba has opened the eyes of these doctors to the fact that they are being exploited cynically by their own government, which treats them inhumanely even while it sends them on humanitarian errands.

““When you leave Cuba for the first time, you discover many things that you had been blind to,” said Yaili Jiménez Gutierrez, one of the doctors who filed suit. “There comes a time when you get tired of being a slave.”” [7]

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[1] For example, Eat the Rich.

[2] “Fact Sheet: U.S. Assistance for the People of Syria | Press Release | U.S. Agency for International Development,” 20 January 2018, https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/jan-26-2018-fact-sheet-us-assistance-people-syria.

[3] John Hudson, “Here’s Where America’s Aid for Syria Is Going,” Foreign Policy, 4 February 2016, https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/04/heres-where-americas-aid-for-syria-is-going/.

[4] Krishnadev Calamur, “The U.S. Will Spend Billions in Syria — Just Not on Rebuilding It,” The Atlantic, 20 August 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/us-syria/567895/.

[5] “Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’ — The New York Times,” 29 September 217, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/americas/brazil-cuban-doctors-revolt.html.

[6] “Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’ — The New York Times,” 29 September 217, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/americas/brazil-cuban-doctors-revolt.html.

[7] “Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’ — The New York Times,” 29 September 217., https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/americas/brazil-cuban-doctors-revolt.html.