What value is there in loudly bragging about Cuba as a “medical world power” and that it “disinterestedly” sends thousands of doctors around the planet, when in reality the Cuban archipelago, for many years, has been far from this false image as an island paradise, from the moment when the Castro brothers calculated the numbers and dividends from the hugely lucrative business represented by selling the cheap slave labor of these professionals.
Thanks to these medical brigades, the government adds millions to its coffers, which wouldn’t be bad if they paid these doctors, nurses and health technicians a large percentage of the revenue they generate and not the paltry share they currently receive of the contracts signed between States.
What happens to doctors, also happens to athletes, artists, university professors and any professional that serves their interests; but this post is dedicated to the exploited of medicine.
The Castro brothers, once they took power — secured with populist and social laws — the concerned themselves more with foreign policy, interested in regional influence with the aim of extending their communist ideology, than with domestic issues.
They started exporting the Revolution with the seeding of guerrillas in several continents. One example is the conflict that persists today in Colombia, half a century after that attempt of insurrectional social war, that installed them in power. But that dream — or nightmare — was cut short. It mutated from the original ideals, and — passing through various stages such as the military support in Africa — to an attempt to win elections with popular leftist movements.
The guerrillas were ordered to shift tactics: exchanging their weapons and camouflage, they dressed them in brand name suits and ties to take the floor to manipulate the society’s most economically disadvantaged. Cuban military advisors hang stethoscopes around their necks and dress in white coats.
In short, a great part of this new hidden force is in the nobility of the medical professional, continuing the work of the prior military advisors, in order to influence and support the choice of the Castros for the presidency of this country. Meanwhile, whether or not they achieve that, the Cuban government receives the salaries of its 21st Century slaves.
Ángel Santiesteban-Prats
Border Control Prison Unit, Havana, March 2015
6 April 2015
