Healthcare versus Handcuffs: Jamaica's ‘Licky-Licky’ U.S. Prisoner Pact!

The Moral Cost of America's Deportation Machine

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."--- Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Prime Minister Andrew Holness bowed to American pressure and kicked Cuban doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals from Jamaica. Now the government gladly taked in handcuffed U.S. immigration detainees. 

There are moments in a nation's history when public policy ceases to be routine housekeeping and becomes an iron test of national moral character and political leadership. Jamaica's reported willingness to accept US immigration detainees is one such moment.

Norris R. McDonald

Supporters may boast that such an arrangement reflects strong relations between Kingston and Washington. Some may even argue that any financial compensation would help plug holes in the IMF-constrained Budget. 

What political naivety!

This narrow calculation ignores a deeper question that every society must eventually confront: should a nation literally sell its soul to profit from human misery? 

In the end, economics alone cannot answer questions that touch upon human dignity, justice and national self-respect.

THE AMERICAN PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Beneath the niceties of diplomatic language lies a troubling reality. If Jamaica takes in US immigration detainees, the country can become branded internationally as a pariah, like El Salvador, who has facilitated, as the evidence shows, American unlawful detention and human-rights abuse of immigrants. 

President Donald Trump has circumvented U.S. laws governing the treatment of detained immigrants by shipping them to compliant governments such as El Salvador and Jamaica.

The United States today operates the largest incarceration system in the world, with nearly two million people behind bars. Billions of dollars are spent annually on prisons and detention centres. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation program has put greater strain on America’s vast network of prisons. That’s why there is this urgent need to seek foreign prison warders. 

  

Under Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, families have been torn apart, including many within the legal process who are seeking US naturalization and asylum petitions. Racially profiling has a been critical factor driving the roundup of immigrants. 

SHOULD JAMAICA PROFIT FROM HUMAN MISERY?

Jamaica, therefore, risks becoming an offshore extension of what many regard as a racist and punitive American immigration system.  

For many Jamaicans living in the United States, the issue is not abstract. Families are experiencing anguish as relatives are detained after routine immigration hearings or find their legal status suddenly revoked. Their stories reflect fear, uncertainty, and emotional pain. 

Jamaica is among countries profiting from human misery by accepting U.S. immigrant detainees.

Jamaicans have complained of mistreatment at Florida detention centers, including the infamous ‘Alligator Alcatraz’.

Yet, despite legal challenges and public criticism, Washington continues to seek ways to go around the laws that forbid mistreatment of immigrants and requires them to have their day in court.  

These are some of the key issues behind the US foreign prison warehousing program. 

CUBAN HEALTHCARE VERSUS AMERICAN HANDCUFFS

The contradiction becomes even more glaring when we look at the Government’s foreign policy priorities. The government quickly ended medical cooperation with Cuba to please ‘backra massa’.

Under pressure from the United States, Jamaica expelled Cuban doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals who had been helping to fill chronic staffing gaps in overstretched hospitals and rural clinics. Their departure removed a crucial lifeline for many communities and further burdened a dysfunctional healthcare system already struggling with severe workforce shortages.

In contrast, Jamaica is embracing a dehumanising thing — swap Cuban healthcare cooperation for American handcuffs. 

The contrast exposes the larger issue. Jamaica is being nudged away from partnerships rooted in care, public health, and human development and towards arrangements centred on confinement, punishment, and control. One model expands human possibilities; the other manages human restriction.

WHAT KIND OF FOREIGN POLICY?

The irony is painful. Under American imperialist pressure, Jamaica stepped back from utilising Cuban medical expertise. Yet some now appear willing to embrace the prospect of earning "dunza" by warehousing abused and vulnerable immigrants. 

At its core, this debate explores what kind of international partnerships Jamaica should pursue.

Jamaica faces two competing models of foreign policy engagement. The one we had with Cuba, that prioritised healthcare, development, and human advancement. The other, with America,  that requires dependency, political servitude and now; demands the detention, handcuffs, imprisonment of the hopeless and rejected foreigners from America’s shore. 

 

Is this right? What do you think? 

Whether you agree with me or not, the moral dimensions cannot be ignored. 

Migrants, asylum seekers, workers, and families navigating complex legal circumstances deserve dignity and due process. Human beings should not be shipped abroad merely because another country seeks convenient solutions to its own political problems.

Many Americans themselves reject policies they regard as attacks on immigrant rights and due process. 

Why, then, should Jamaica enthusiastically embrace god- king Trump’s inhumane failed immigration mass deportation plan which many white Americans — Democrats and Republicans  — now reject? 

HISTORY LESSONS FROM JAMAICA'S ‘FAUSTIAN PACT’

History offers many warnings about short-term gains that conceal long-term costs.

My dear friends, The legend of Faust tells of a bargain with the devil, promising immediate rewards while demanding a deeper sacrifice. The story endures because it reflects temptations confronting nations and leaders throughout history. Political expediency often delivers immediate benefits while quietly extracting a far greater price later.

These moral questions resonate because Jamaica's history is inseparable from struggles against slavery, colonial domination, racial hierarchy, and external control.

Those struggles shaped a national identity that values freedom and resists exploitation. A people born out of resistance should be especially cautious about becoming instruments in oppressive imperialist systems that violate the rights and dignity of people hustling to put food on their table.

Imagine this… Michael Manley once famously said about Jamaica’s morals and dignity: “We are not for sale.”

Perhaps now the question is,  “How much?”

Ultimately, this debate is about more than immigration policy or budgetary calculations. It touches sovereignty, national identity, and the values that ought to guide public decision-making.

In the final analysis, the challenge is not simply to calculate the monetary benefits of any agreement. It is to determine whether that agreement aligns with the kind of nation Jamaica aspires to be — and the ultimate price that may one day be paid for such misadventures. Nations, like individuals, eventually become what they repeatedly choose to serve.

The Jamaican government has made a mess of foreign policy making by bowing to every American irrational demands, including accepting U.S. immigrant detainees.

The real question, therefore, is not how much money Jamaica might receive. The deeper question is what Jamaica becomes as it continually prostrates itself for the American master's ‘chicken bones’.

That is the bitta truth.

About the Author

Norris R. McDonald is an author, respiratory therapist, and economic journalist whose work focuses on political economy, public health, healthcare systems, and global public policy. He is a regular contributor of public commentary and analysis for the Jamaica Gleaner, where he examines the intersection of economics, governance, social justice, and development in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Global South.

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Follow Sulfabittas: Caribbean Political Analysis,  for comprehensive political analysis on major Caribbean and global political developments affecting Jamaica and the world.

READ MORE SULFABITTAS: CARIBBEAN POLITICAL ANALYSIS ON CUBA HERE: 👇]

Caribbean Growth Under Siege: Oil Crisis, Cuba Blackouts and Rising Costs

Norris R. McDonald President Trump Marches On A New Political Crusade Against Cuba

Jamaica Bows to U.S. Pressure and Ends 50-Year Cuba Medical Partnership: A Blow to Caribbean Healthcare!

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Norris R. McDonald | Mice, men, Cuban doctors, and our predatory world

Cuba Faces New Pressure Amid U.S. Rhetoric as Solar Energy Push Accelerates

Russia’s Urgent Oil Lifeline Tests the Limits of the Drastic American Embargo!

Building Power: Cuban workers install solar panels as the country races toward energy independence.

By Norris R. McDonald
Sulfabittas: Caribbean Political Analysis

Norris R. McDonald

Cuba has once again moved to the center of global geopolitical tension, as recent shipments of Russian oil signal a deliberate attempt to soften—if not quietly challenge—the long-standing U.S. embargo regime. These deliveries, while modest in global energy terms, carry outsized political weight. They represent not just fuel, but a strategic message: Cuba is no longer isolated in the way Washington once assumed.

At a time when U.S. political rhetoric has sharpened—hinting that Cuba could become a renewed focus of pressure following tensions elsewhere—Russia’s involvement underscores a shifting reality. The embargo remains in place, but its effectiveness is increasingly diluted by alternative alliances and parallel supply channels.

Living in the Dark: Energy shortages continue to shape daily life across Cuba.

For ordinary Cubans, however, the stakes are far more immediate. Fuel shipments are not abstract geopolitical signals—they determine whether buses run, whether lights stay on, and whether basic economic life can function.

An Economy Under Economic Siege

Cuba’s economic condition reflects decades of constrained access to global markets, financing, and energy supplies. The embargo, layered with financial restrictions, has produced a system defined less by temporary crisis and more by structural limitation.

Fuel shortages continue to ripple across the economy, disrupting transportation, agriculture, and industrial output. Electricity instability remains a persistent feature of daily life, with rolling blackouts affecting households and businesses alike.

Inflationary pressures, driven by scarcity and import dependence, have eroded purchasing power. In this environment, survival often depends on improvisation—whether through informal markets, remittances, or community-level resilience.

Economists increasingly describe Cuba’s situation not as a cyclical downturn, but as a long-term imbalance shaped by restricted access to capital, technology, and energy.

Solar Energy: From Policy Option to National Necessity

Against this backdrop, Cuba’s aggressive push into solar energy is no longer an environmental initiative—it is an economic survival strategy.

The government is targeting approximately 2,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2028, aiming to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and stabilize the national grid. The urgency is clear: energy independence is no longer optional.

Shifting Alliances: Cuba navigates between U.S. pressure and emerging global partnerships.

Across rural and semi-urban landscapes, solar installations are expanding, supported by international partnerships and state-led coordination. The visual shift is striking—fields once defined by agricultural output are now increasingly dotted with photovoltaic arrays.

Yet the transition remains incomplete. Limited battery storage capacity means that solar generation largely disappears after sunset, leaving the grid vulnerable to the same instability it seeks to overcome. Without significant advances in storage infrastructure, the system cannot yet deliver full reliability.

Still, the direction is unmistakable. Solar power represents Cuba’s clearest pathway toward breaking the cycle of fuel dependency.

China and Russia Deepen Strategic Support

Cuba’s energy transition is being underwritten by expanding cooperation with China and Russia—relationships that now extend well beyond symbolic diplomacy.

China has emerged as a key supplier of solar technology, financing, and infrastructure development. Its role reflects a broader strategy of engagement across the Global South, where energy investment often doubles as geopolitical influence.

Russia, meanwhile, continues to provide critical energy support, including oil shipments that help stabilize short-term supply gaps. Beyond energy, Russian cooperation also extends into broader economic and technical assistance.

Together, these partnerships are increasingly aligned with Cuba’s engagement with BRICS-linked economies, offering alternative pathways to financing and development outside traditional Western systems.

Humanitarian and Medical Support Cushion the Crisis

Beyond energy, Cuba has also benefited from targeted humanitarian assistance aimed at preventing deeper economic collapse.

International partners—including China, Russia, and other allied nations—have contributed medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and limited financial support to help sustain the country’s renowned but strained healthcare system. This assistance is particularly critical given Cuba’s dual challenge: maintaining universal healthcare while facing shortages of equipment, medicine, and energy to power facilities.

Food aid, technical cooperation, and logistical support have also played a role in cushioning the most severe impacts of the crisis. These interventions, while not transformative on their own, act as stabilizing forces in a system under sustained pressure.

Structural Constraints Still Limit Immediate Gains

Despite these developments, Cuba’s structural challenges remain formidable.

Energy storage continues to be the weakest link in the renewable transition, limiting the effectiveness of solar expansion. At the same time, restricted access to international credit markets slows infrastructure modernization and broader economic reform.

The result is a paradox: visible progress in renewable capacity alongside persistent instability in everyday energy supply.

This gap between capacity and reliability defines the current phase of Cuba’s transition—one marked by forward movement, but constrained by systemic limitations.

A Caribbean Geopolitical Realignment

Cuba’s evolving situation reflects a wider shift in Caribbean geopolitics, where global power competition increasingly shapes local economic realities.

The combination of U.S. pressure, Russian energy support, and Chinese investment signals the emergence of a more multipolar regional dynamic. Smaller states are no longer confined to a single sphere of influence—they are navigating between competing powers in search of economic survival and strategic advantage.

For Cuba, this balancing act is not ideological—it is existential.

Conclusion: Energy, Survival, and Strategic Defiance

Cuba’s current trajectory reveals a nation operating under dual pressures: external geopolitical tension and internal economic necessity.

Russian oil shipments may provide temporary relief, but they do not resolve the deeper structural issues. Solar energy offers a long-term pathway, but one still constrained by infrastructure gaps and financial limitations.

Innovation Under Pressure: Cubans improvise fuel alternatives in the face of scarcity.

What is clear, however, is that Cuba is no longer passively absorbing pressure. It is adapting—through diversification, international partnerships, and a determined push toward energy independence.

The outcome remains uncertain. But the direction is unmistakable.

Cuba is not standing still—it is recalibrating under pressure

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Copyright 2026- Norris R. McDonald, SULFABITTAS NEWS, @sulfabittas

About the Author

Norris R. McDonald is an author, respiratory therapist, and economic journalist whose work focuses on political economy, public health, healthcare systems, and global public policy. He is a regular contributor of public commentary and analysis for the Jamaica Gleaner, where he examines the intersection of economics, governance, social justice, and development in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Global South.

_____________

Follow Sulfabittas: Caribbean Political Analysis,  for comprehensive political analysis on major Caribbean and global political developments affecting Jamaica and the world.

READ MORE SULFABITTAS: CARIBBEAN POLITICAL ANALYSIS ON CUBA HERE: 👇]

Caribbean Growth Under Siege: Oil Crisis, Cuba Blackouts and Rising Costs

Norris R. McDonald President Trump Marches On A New Political Crusade Against Cuba

Jamaica Bows to U.S. Pressure and Ends 50-Year Cuba Medical Partnership: A Blow to Caribbean Healthcare!

________

Norris R. McDonald | Mice, men, Cuban doctors, and our predatory world

__________

Caribbean Growth Under Siege: Oil Crisis, Cuba Blackouts and Rising Costs

Growth on Paper, Pressure in Real Life

Caribbean Growth Under Siege: Rising oil prices, geopolitical conflict, and climate shocks are squeezing fragile economies already burdened by dependency and inequality.

... From the Middle East oil shock to Cuba’s blackouts and Venezuela’s disruption, Caribbean economies are paying the price for dependence in a dangerous geopolitical age!

By Norris R. McDonald

Sulfabittas: Caribbean Political Analysis | April 2026

A Fragile Recovery in a Hostile Global Economy
The Caribbean economy is growing—but don’t be fooled. This is not prosperity. This is pressure dressed up as progress. Behind the numbers lies a harsher truth: rising oil prices, geopolitical conflict, and deep structural dependency are squeezing households while leaders celebrate fragile gains.

Norris R. McDonald

At the same time, Guyana’s oil-driven expansion has created a dramatic contrast within the region. Its rapid growth has reshaped national income statistics and attracted global attention, but it also highlights a deeper structural imbalance. The Caribbean is no longer moving as a unified economic bloc. Instead, it is diverging, with outcomes increasingly determined by access to natural resources rather than diversified, resilient development strategies.

 “Every oil shock is a tax on Caribbean survival.”

Guyana’s oil boom highlights a new Caribbean divide—resource-rich growth on one side, and vulnerable, import-dependent economies on the other.

Oil Shocks and the Middle East Crisis

The most immediate pressure point now comes from global oil markets. The Middle East crisis, involving heightened tensions and conflict among major powers, has pushed oil prices sharply upward and introduced new volatility into energy supply chains. For the Caribbean, this is not distant geopolitics. It is a direct economic burden. Because the region imports most of its fuel, rising oil prices immediately translate into higher electricity bills, increased transportation costs, and more expensive goods. Airlines face rising fuel costs, shipping prices climb, and tourism becomes more vulnerable as travel costs increase. Each escalation abroad becomes a cost passed down to Caribbean households.

Venezuela, Sanctions, and the Collapse of a Regional Buffer

This vulnerability is compounded by the collapse of a key regional buffer. For years, Venezuela provided subsidized oil to Caribbean nations through Petrocaribe, helping to stabilize energy costs and ease fiscal pressure. That system has now effectively unraveled. U.S. intervention, sanctions, and political upheaval in Venezuela have disrupted oil flows and transformed the country’s energy sector into a geopolitical battleground. What was once a stabilizing force is now a source of uncertainty. Caribbean nations must now compete on the open market for fuel, paying higher and more volatile prices without the support mechanisms they once relied on.

Cuba’s Energy Crisis: A Warning Signal
Cuba’s current crisis offers a stark illustration of where extreme dependency can lead. The island is experiencing widespread blackouts, disrupted transportation, and rising food insecurity due to severe fuel shortages. 

“Cuba is not an exception—it is a warning.”

The reduction of Venezuelan oil shipments, combined with the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuba, has left the country with limited options to secure reliable energy supplies. The consequences are visible in daily life, as power outages and economic hardship intensify. While official inflation figures remain controlled, conditions in informal markets suggest far higher real inflation, reflecting currency weakness and declining purchasing power. 

Cuba’s situation is not an isolated anomaly but an intensified version of the same structural vulnerability facing the wider Caribbean.

Inflation as Imported Economic Pressure
Across the region, inflation is no longer just a technical economic measure. It is the direct transmission of global instability into domestic life. High energy costs combine with rising shipping expenses to push up the price of food, construction materials, and basic goods. 

Because Caribbean economies depend heavily on imports, these external pressures are quickly felt by households and businesses. Families face rising grocery bills and utility costs, while small businesses struggle with increasing operating expenses. In this context, inflation acts as a structural force that redistributes hardship downward, eroding living standards even as economies show nominal growth.

Tourism Economies Under Pressure
Tourism-dependent economies are particularly exposed to this dynamic. Their growth relies on stable global conditions, yet those conditions are becoming increasingly unpredictable. Higher fuel prices raise airline ticket costs and reduce visitor demand. 

Hurricane destruction in the Caribbean shows how climate shocks can erase economic gains overnight, hitting tourism and poor communities the hardest.

Climate-related events such as hurricanes damage infrastructure and disrupt tourism flows. At the same time, rising local costs make it more expensive to operate hotels, restaurants, and transportation services. The result is a fragile economic model where external shocks can quickly undermine gains.

A Region Caught in Geopolitics
The Caribbean now finds itself caught in a wider geopolitical transformation. Energy has become a central instrument of global power, with oil flows shaped by sanctions, alliances, and strategic competition. 

Countries across the Global South are responding by seeking alternative partnerships for energy, financing, and infrastructure. However, within the Caribbean basin, there is growing pressure to maintain alignment within a Western Hemisphere framework, limiting the strategic flexibility of small island states. This dynamic reinforces a long-standing pattern in which Caribbean economies absorb the consequences of decisions made elsewhere.

The Path Forward: Resilience or Dependency
The path forward requires a fundamental shift in economic strategy. Energy diversification is essential, including greater investment in renewable sources to reduce dependence on imported oil. Expanding local agriculture can strengthen food security and reduce vulnerability to global price shocks. 

Local agriculture and Black Caribbean farmers represent the path forward—food security, resilience, and economic independence in a volatile global system.

Climate-resilient infrastructure must be prioritized to protect against increasingly severe weather events. Regional cooperation can also play a critical role in reducing import dependence and strengthening collective resilience.

The Bottom Line: A Region Paying for Other People’s Wars

The Caribbean is not at war—but it is paying the price for wars it did not start. Every spike in Middle East oil prices, every sanction on Venezuela, every restriction on Cuba’s energy supply shows up in the region the same way: higher food prices, higher electricity bills, and less money in people’s pockets. 

This is the real crisis. Not growth rates. Not IMF targets. Not political speeches. Just dependency.

“Tourism brings money in—but dependency sends it right back out.”

At the end of the day, a Caribbean regional economy built on handouts, imported fuel, imported food, and imported solutions will always be vulnerable to external shocks. And in a world now defined by conflict, sanctions, and strategic competition, those shocks are no longer occasional—they are constant.

The Caribbean cannot borrow its way out of this. It cannot tourist its way out of this. And it cannot wait for global stability that may never come. The future will belong to countries that produce what they consume, generate their own energy, and build systems that protect their people from global volatility.

Until then, the region remains exactly where it is today: Growing—but under siege.

If you don’t control your energy and your food, you don’t control your economy—someone else does.

Copyright 2026- Norris R. McDonald, SULFABITTAS NEWS, @sulfabittas

About the Author

Norris R. McDonald is an author, respiratory therapist, and economic journalist whose work focuses on political economy, public health, healthcare systems, and global public policy. He is a regular contributor of public commentary and analysis for the Jamaica Gleaner, where he examines the intersection of economics, governance, social justice, and development in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Global South.

_____________

Follow Sulfabittas: Caribbean Political Analysis,  for comprehensive political analysis on major Caribbean and global political developments affecting Jamaica and the world.

READ MORE SULFABITTAS: CARIBBEAN POLITICAL ANALYSIS ON CUBA HERE: 👇]

Norris R. McDonald President Trump Marches On A New Political Crusade Against Cuba

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Norris R. McDonald | Mice, men, Cuban doctors, and our predatory world

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UN experts condemn US executive order imposing fuel blockade on Cuba