14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2022 — The Mexican Government published on Tuesday a list of the specialties into which the 277 Cuban doctors are divided from the more than 600 that it intends to import to fill places in remote areas of the country. Of these, 20 don’t appear with a specialty, but with the word “other.”
There are many denunciations claiming that part of the Cuban ’missions’ are composed of agents of State Security, who monitor compliance with the rules to which the rest of the delegation must follow, considered as forced labor by various international organizations.
According to the list released by the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, the 277 doctors are distributed in medical units in seven Mexican states, and “this month another 333 will arrive.”
The Mexican official did not detail the reason why 20 of these health workers don’t have a defined specialty. He only showed an image in which it was indicated that 75 are internists, 73 pediatricians, 59 general surgeons, 14 emergency intensivists, 8 gynecologists, 8 specialists in imaging, 5 anesthesiologists, 5 nephrologists, 5 ophthalmologists and 5 orthopedic specialists.
Last August, Prisoners Defenders, an organization based in Madrid, presented a report alleging that the latest health workers hired by López Obrador are military, some from State Security, and that none are specialists.
The former deputy and director of the magazine Siempre, Beatriz Pagés, agrees, and she says that doctors’ mission is “more political, more military and more indoctrination than health,” and is based on the objective of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “to consolidate his autocratic project and guarantee the presidency in 2024.”
About the 277 health workers, on Tuesday the director of the IMSS said that they are already “providing services in 35 municipalities in the states of Nayarit (92), Colima (57), Campeche (49), Baja California Sur (10), Zacatecas (11), Sonora (15) and Oaxaca (43).”
Of the 333 that remain to arrive, he mentioned that they will be incorporated into hospitals located in the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz and Guerrero. The sum would be 610 health workers; that is, 31 doctors would still be missing, since on August 9 he announced the hiring of 641 “specialists in high demand.”
Sources from the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (INSABI) told 14ymedio that Mexico would pay the Government of Cuba $1,308,922 per month, managed by the Cuban Medical Services Marketer.
On Monday, the president of Prisoners Defenders, Javier Larrondo, returned to the attack against the Cuban missions and reiterated, in an interview with CNN, that the regime was left with 94% of the salary of each of the doctors who traveled to Mexico during 2020. “Andrés Manuel López Obrador paid $10,750 for each of the doctors hired for three months,” Javier Larrondo said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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