‘Doctor diplomacy’: Cuba seeks to make its mark in Europe amid Covid-19 crisis

Italy’s worst-hit areas welcome medical brigades, but critics say they are being exploited by Cuba’s authoritarian regime

They have jetted into some of the most horrifying calamities in recent history, clutching the red, white and blue flag of their small island home.

Earthquakes in Indonesia and Pakistan; a cholera outbreak in Haiti; and the Ebola epidemic in west Africa, where they won international plaudits for their hazardous, frontline work.