Granma can't resist

All countries that provide foreign assistance deserve political credit for it, and Cuba and the United States are two that certainly seek credit for it. Nothing wrong with that.

In the Haiti context, I was struck by this article in Granma last weekend that leaped at the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the United States because medical evacuation flights were suspended for a few days. (There were questions about cost and the capacity of Florida hospitals, they were resolved, and the flights resumed.) The final paragraph questions why cost is not an issue in the deployment of thousands of troops to Haiti. Earlier, Fidel Castro had expressed alarm that U.S. troops had “occupied the territory of Haiti.”

I think that people around the world recognize the great contribution of Cuban doctors in Haiti. I also think that Cuban propagandists diminish Cuba’s contribution when they show that for them, Haiti relief efforts are part of a political competition with the United States.