havana/As if the departure of 5,000 Cuban doctors to Mexico in the midst of the Island’s health crisis was not enough, the regime continues to export health care to the region. This Friday, a “counter” of 12 experts arrived in Dominica, they called the Cuban Embassy in the Caribbean country. A month earlier, at the beginning of September, another group of Cubans, whose number is unknown, landed in Roseau.
The official reception was held at the Douglas-Charles International Airport and was attended by the ambassador of Cuba, Miguel Fraga, and the chief medical officer of Dominica, Lynora Fevrier Drigo, who praised the presence of the health workers and gave back her years of medical training. in Cuba.
“The group of Cuban colleagues is made up of specialists, nurses and technicians, which will be distributed in several health centers throughout the island. Their work will be essential in strengthening primary care and other essential medical services,” said the report of the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
Fraga, for his part, mentioned the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” times.
Fraga, for his part, mentioned the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” times. “The mission of our colleagues is clear: to improve the quality of life and health of the people of Dominica. We fully trust that they will achieve it with the commitment and professionalism that characterize Cuban doctors,” he said.
The announcement, with a markedly protocol tone, could not have been more concise. The secrecy surrounding the sending of doctors to Dominica highlights the regime’s intention to avoid further criticism of its “medical missions”, which have been repeatedly characterized by international organizations as tools for exploitation and an example of modern slavery.
About a group of doctors who arrived in September to that country, no further details are known. Made up of experts in intensive care, general medicine, neonatology, obstetrics, radiography, laboratory, electromedicine and nursing, the Dominican Minister of Health, Cassanni Laville, received the group. Then, Fraga, who was also present, said that there has been medical cooperation between the two countries since the 90s and that Cuba has graduated some 130 doctors from Dominica from its universities.
Regarding the group of doctors who arrived in that country in September, we know no more.
However, Havana found a mine profit without parallel in the Mexico of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose Administration had hired 5,000 health workers from Cuba to send them to supposedly rural areas. According to data published by local media, the Government pays more than $5,000 in salary and wages to each foreign doctor.
It is not known how much of the total payments Mexico has made to the Island since the gradual contracting of health workers began a few years ago, but some data that has come to light provides an estimate. As part of three agreements signed between July 2022 and 2023, Cuba received $25.4 million for just 610 doctors.
The Mexican medical union has also complained several times that hiring foreigners, who receive better salaries and benefits, is harming careers for national professionals. However, the situation is unlikely to improve for them because, since she won the elections, the recently installed president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has promised to continue with López Obrador’s agreements with Havana.
