Members of the House Diabetes Caucus were invited to talk about the condition with top Cuban health and biotechnology officials Wednesday morning, which is raising questions about why the meeting was being held, and whether the meeting is really aimed at preparing the ground for lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Cuban Public Health Minister Dr. Roberto Morales Ojeda met with lawmakers and staff 10 a.m. in the U.S. Capitol. The invitation came from Engage Cuba, whose director James Williams takes credit for leading an “under-the-radar” $3 million national campaign to convince the Obama administration to reform U.S.-Cuba relations, according to his bio on engagecuba.org.
Williams has not registered to lobby on Cuba matters and has not returned several inquiries from the Washington Examiner questioning his rationale for avoiding lobbying transparency laws.
Late last month, the White House hosted a private meeting to promote commerce with Cuba that was organized by Engage Cuba and was kept off of public schedules.
The invitation for Wednesday’s meeting, which was sent to members of the Diabetes Caucus, says the “diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Cuba has opened opportunities for our countries to begin cooperating on public health and scientific advances that can help millions in the United States, including 29.3 million Americans who suffer from diabetes.”
But Jason Poblete, a Cuban-American attorney who represents several clients with property claims in Cuba, said the over-arching goal of Engage Cuba is to lift Congress’ trade embargo on the island nation. Poblete said Wednesday’s forum with Cuba’s top health official is aimed at that larger purpose.
“I suspect this is part of that larger lobbying effort to further erode support for U.S. economic sanctions [on] the regime,” he wrote on his Facebook page in a letter addressed to colleagues who follow the U.S.-Cuba relationship.
He also said Ojeda is likely “complicit” in human rights abuses in Cuba and will be “pushing the miracles of Cuban biotech, a sector that not too long ago came under (credible) suspicion of engaging in unlawful biotechnology work including bio-terror weapons research with other enemies of the U.S.”
Poblete urged briefing attendees to ask six questions:
- Does Cuba collaborate with Iranian or North Korean scientists?
- Are Cuban biotech labs sitting on properties that were stolen from Americans?
- Are Cuban labs/procedures up to the safety standards required under U.S. laws and regulations required for allowing imports of foreign medicines?
- Have Cuban biotech products ever been tested on political prisoners? (Poblete says they have.)
- Why are Cuban healthcare professionals leaving Cuba in record numbers?
- Why is the Cuban military involved in this work if it is, as [Poblete suspects] they will say, a purely civilian project?
The Engage Cuba invitation touted the Cuban health ministry’s success in reducing diabetic ulcers and diabetes-related amputation, increasing overall survival.
Cuba’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology developed a treatment called Heberprot-P, in 2006, according to the invite. The treatment has since been licensed in 15 other countries, “enabling the safe and effective treatment of more than 225,000 patients to date.”
“The economic costs of diabetic foot care, including amputation care, represent the single largest category of excess medical costs associated with diabetes, at $20 billion annually,” the invite states.
Ojeda is in Washington for a three-day visit. On Monday, he signed a public health agreement between the U.S. and Cuba with Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell that establishes broad coordination on public health issues, including cancer and infectious diseases.
