If the scholarship holders cannot complete their training on the Island, the government should facilitate their safe return home through diplomatic channels, proposes Fernando Rodriguez
14ymedio, Madrid, 24 June 2026 / Mexican congressman Fernando Rodriguez Gonzalez has asked President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene to protect a group of 15 doctors from the state of Coahuila – which he represents – who are based in Cuba to pursue specialized studies. The doctors are suffering the effects of the Island’s economic crisis, which has not only disrupted the courses they came to complete, but also their daily lives.
The doctors come from cities such as Monclova, Saltillo, and Torreon, and are studying cardiology, pulmonology, and traumatology, but the situation has now become “unsustainable,” the congressman warns. Rodriguez Gonzalez is a representative of the state party Mexico Avante (center-left).
“These are Mexican professionals who responded to a federal program – the government offered them the opportunity to specialize in Cuba, and today they are being forgotten over there,” he said on Tuesday. Rodriguez Gonzalez noted that the doctors had already sent a letter to the Mexican president, but had so far received no concrete response. “The hardest part is that they say that if they return from the Island, they could lose the years they have dedicated to their training and postgraduate studies,” he said.
Rodriguez Gonzalez noted that the doctors had already sent a letter to the Mexican president, but had so far received no concrete response.
Rodriguez Gonzalez stressed that, given the good relationship between the two countries, a quick response would be the natural expectation, and argued that, since Mexico is open to hiring Cuban doctors, it should uphold its “moral obligation to protect its own citizens abroad.”
The lawmaker urged that a decision be made as soon as possible, and that if the doctors cannot complete their training on the Island, they should be given safe passage home through diplomatic channels, without any penalty to the recognition of their qualifications.
Although no further details have been provided about the doctors’ programs of study, they may be receiving their specialization at the Latin American School of Medicine, located in Havana and designed for the training of foreign students.
This institution is being given energy support through institutional and European aid from MediCuba Europa, a Switzerland-based network of around twenty organizations sympathetic to Castroism, which has raised funds for various projects. Just two weeks ago, the network announced that a new project is now operational, covering half of the school’s energy needs.
In any case, the Cuban healthcare system is under severe strain, complicating the daily lives of patients and, by extension, of medical professionals.
On Monday, Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her government is working to deliver fuel to Cuba through “private companies that hold the necessary permits.” The president noted that work has been underway for some time – since Cuba and the United States each authorized, on their respective sides, the opening of the fuel market to the private sector – and she hopes that trade “can resume on a commercial basis soon.” She also clarified, in order to deflect criticism within Mexico over the free supply of oil to the Island, that the matter “is not a humanitarian issue.”
Translated by GH.
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