Reinventing Guantanamo
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Julia E. Sweig made a very good case for returning Guantanamo Bay to Cuba in her May 3 Outlook piece, "Give Guantanamo Back." Indeed, beyond the "war on terror," Guantanamo continues to embody a long history of U.S. policy toward Cuba that has never been based on mutual interest or respect. But Ms. Sweig mentioned one particularly interesting notion, first discussed in the 1961 Kennedy White House: converting Guantanamo into a health research center for scientists to resolve public health challenges facing both North and South America.
In a 2008 article, one of us offered an expanded and ambitious version of this idea, envisioning a "reinvented" Guantanamo as the launching pad for a U.S.-Latin American scientific partnership to eliminate the presence of "neglected tropical diseases" in the region.
The regional burden of these diseases, which afflict the poorest of Latin America, now exceeds that of such better-known conditions as HIV/AIDS. And yet developing and delivering vaccines to fight neglected tropical diseases is a more near-term possibility. Closing Guantanamo Bay and working with Cuba to transform what remains into an international space for Cuban and American scientists and doctors to work side by side is a proposal well worth considering.
PETER HOTEZ
JOSHUA FRENS-STRING
Washington
Dr. Hotez is the president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute; Mr. Frens-String has written about Guantanamo Bay for The Nation.
