BRAIN DRAIN POLITICS: THE CUBAN MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL PAROLE PROGRAMME

Abstract

Cuba's international medical aid programmes are more extensive than those of any other country or international organisation in the world. Washington, fearing that such aid activities will generate increased international political influence (i.e., soft power) for Havana and thereby complicate US efforts to bring about regime change there, has responded with its own countermeasures. The primary US initiative has been the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) programme, which is designed to encourage and facilitate defections to the US by Cuban medical personnel assigned to overseas aid missions. The dynamics and impact of the CMPP programme will be the main focus of this article. Operating within a policy analysis format, the article provides a summary of Cuba's medical aid programmes. For comparative purposes, similar summary data will be provided regarding US medical aid activities. It provides detailed background information about the formation and operation of Washington's CMPP programme. It also analyses the extent to which the CMPP programme has succeeded in persuading Cuban medical internationalists to defect and how far it has undermined Havana's medical aid programmes.