14ymedio, Madrid, 27 May 2022 — A Mexican judge has agreed to consider a preliminary injunction against plans announced by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to hire 500 Cuban doctors, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Mexican press, the second district judge in matters of Civil, Administrative and Labor Protection of Puebla, José Luis Evaristo Villegas, has agreed to the injunction, refusing the provisional dismissal because “the agreement signed by the federal government contravenes provisions of public order.”
“Future acts of uncertain performance, both in their execution and in their effects, are not likely to serve as a matter for the precautionary measure; this is only appropriate if there is certainty about their performance because they are imminent acts,” the judge concluded.
The judge has given the Government a deadline to present its arguments and will decide on June 1 whether or not to grant the injunction.
The injunction indicates that the Mexican Government has not demonstrated that the doctors have the adequate capacity or training to practice medicine in Mexico and argues that the remuneration of health workers might go to the Cuban Government rather than the professionals.
The complainants argue that the agreement was negotiated “without having confirmed the quality of the doctors, and without having validated their education, as required by applicable regulations, and without proving they have knowledge of the illnesses and endemic diseases of the Mexican population.”
“Their hiring is illegal, favoring the conditions of modern slavery and even human trafficking,” adds the injunction.
During his trip to Havana on May 8, López Obrador announced the hiring of 500 Cuban doctors, in addition to buying the island’s vaccines. The Mexican president said that his country has a “specialist deficit,” and there are health workers who don’t want to go to remote areas. The Cubans will be sent to the Montaña de Guerrero area, one of the most violent places in the country, due to the presence of several drug cartels.
After the opposition criticized the hiring, stating that there are capable doctors in the country and underlining the well-known semi-slavery conditions in which Cubans work, the Mexican president lashed out at them and maintained that he would not back down.
“Why shouldn’t we have the doctors? If we’re doing this with Cuba, it’s because we need them,” said López Obrador, who took the opportunity to charge his “adversaries” of the “neoliberal period” with having damaged the public health system.
On Tuesday, and to appease the controversy, the Government announced a broader plan, which it christened “recruitment of medical specialists” and through which it seeks to hire 13,765 national specialists in order to reduce the deficit.
We don’t have the doctors we need, according to the World Health Organization (WHO),” the President said. We need internists, emergency specialists, gynecologists, obstetricians, pediatricians and anesthesiologists.
The president assured that the Government will “hire Mexican doctors as far as possible,” because “unfortunately” the country doesn’t have all the required specialists.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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