The scholarship holder is accused of being in line with the policy of the current Government of Claudia Sheinbaum
14ymedio, Havana, 25 October 2024 [Note delayed translation] — Raúl Guerrero, one of the 994 doctors who received scholarships from the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt) to study a specialty in Cuba, asked businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego for help to get him off the island. According to the doctor, the group had faced a power outage for almost four days, with food shortages and rising prices for everything. “Enjoy what you voted for,” replied the third richest man in Mexico, referring to the ruling Morena party.
The owner of TV Azteca said that on August 28, the same health worker called him “a debtor of the Nation” and told him to “pay what he owed.” Guerrero provoked a wave of mockery and reproaches for his contradictory attitude, which until recently was aggressive with Salinas and now is begging for his help. After the controversy, the student closed his account at X.
The doctor’s previous comments were shared on social media, in which he showed his total agreement with the Mexican government, which was responsible for his being sent to study on the island. In May 2024, he challenged journalist Joaquín López-Dóriga to a debate. In the post, he wrote: “They no longer know how to stop AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador), we are going to have a government for the people and not full of hypocrites like you, López-Dóriga.”
In the post he wrote during the prolonged blackout that affected Cuba this weekend, Guerrero had attached a letter that the students sent to the Mexican consul in Havana, Ignacio Cabrera Fernández, to let him know that the hospitals where they are “rotating” told them that their demands should be attended to by the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company SA or Conahcyt.
The energy crisis on the island, they complained, affects public transportation, which makes it difficult for them to reach different parts of the cities, in addition to the fact that “there is no electricity in the hospital units, which makes work difficult because supplies, medicines or procedures are minimal, more so than usual.” Given these limitations, they asked to be taken off the island between the 23rd or 24th of this month.
The so-called “Medical Specialties in Cuba” program was implemented during the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to inject money into the Island. It is expected that this year another 601 Mexicans will join the 994 scholarship recipients to study their specialty at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, the Ministry of Public Health or the Center for Medical-Surgical Research.
However the agreement with Mexico has not been as favorable as Cuba had hoped. In 2021, it was learned that, of 1,600 available scholarships, only 172 were covered. Once in Havana, the medical students reported unforeseen extra expenses, such as paying for internet, laundry service and lodging, in addition to being forced to manage the $1,100 for “maintenance” that Conahcyt granted each of them through an account at the Banco Popular de Ahorro.
According to official information from Conahcyt, scholarship students must also cover annual medical insurance, which ranges from 231.28 euros per year for those who are 18 years old to 3,204 euros for students up to 70 years old, although the institution does not have students of such advanced ages.
Mexico pays the Cuban government 7,800 euros annually for each student of pathological anatomy; 12,500 euros for general surgery; 7,800 euros for hygiene and epidemiology; 12,500 euros for medical genetics; 7,800 euros for geriatrics; 9,900 euros for rehabilitation medicine; 12,500 euros for intensive medicine; 9,900 euros for internal medicine; 7,800 euros for pulmonology; 12,500 euros for ophthalmology; 12,500 euros for clinical pathology; 9,900 euros for psychiatry; and 12,500 euros for traumatology and orthopedics.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
