Fidel v Philips

A public feud has developed after several years of hard feelings between Cuba and the Dutch company Philips. Apparently in 2006, Castro bought from Philips and Germany’s Siemens thousands of pieces of advanced medical equipment for Cuba and Venezuela. Siemens followed through on the agreement, but Philips did not deliver on time the 3,553 pieces of equipment worth US$72.8 million it had promised to send. Instead, held up by the US embargo, Philips postponed the shipment and did not deliver until June of this year.

Fidel wrote a scathing editorial on the issue, saying that Philips had betrayed Cuba and Venezuela. “No one has compensated Cubans, or Venezuelan patients under the care of doctors, for the human suffering caused,” he argued.

Philips responded on Tuesday, rejecting the claims of “betrayal” and instead blaming the delays on bureaucratic red tape. The company said it had paid its fines and changed procedures to prevent the problem from occurring again.

Of course, Fidel’s editorial is just an editorial. Without him in charge, Cuba could well do business again with Philips anyway, something the company appears willing to do. And with Cuba’s great efforts to share doctors and medical equipment with countries in Latin America and around the world, it will probably be in need of further such deals eventually. (Unless, of course, US sales of medical equipment to Cuba overshadow any need to order from European companies…)