14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, August 29, 2024 — The Government of Mexico accelerated the arrival of Cuban doctors for one month before the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s mandate. The goal is to have 5,223 doctors “as soon as possible,” an official confirmed to 14ymedio. The second stage provides for the “arrival of 4,023 health workers,” a figure higher than the 3,800 that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Imss), Zoé Robledo, had announced last July.
“In October, the López Obrador Administration ends, and the plans are to have almost the total number of doctors. However, the incorporation into hospitals will be delayed because an introductory course is required, in addition to confirmation of the documents needed to practice,” the source stressed.
The doctors, who are specialists in several disciplines, are arriving in groups of between 198 and 200 at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (Aifa), where, according to the official, “there are scheduled flights.” Another 200 are expected this Friday or Saturday.
Four groups have arrived in Mexico between August 2 and 27, making a total of 800 doctors. The first group of 200 doctors arrived on August 2, and two other groups, with 200 and 199, respectively, landed on August 8 and August 23 at the Aifa terminal.
The Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez Costa, shared images last Tuesday, of 198 Cuban specialists who will join “hospitals and centers in 12 states, located in distant and highly marginalized communities.”
This newspaper received data on the arrival of two Cuban specialists at the Cupuan Health Unit, in the municipality of Zirándaro, a town with less than 1,000 inhabitants. Another two were sent to Yerba Santa, in the municipality of Acatepec, with 825 inhabitants. Both sites are located in Tierra Caliente, in the state of Guerrero, the site for which 600 physicians were hired in 2022, arguing a “deficit of specialists.”
The official said that another important group of specialists concluded their training this Wednesday at the hospital of the Guerrero community of Zumpango del Río, where an introductory course in rheumatology and child psychiatry was provided to treat bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adolescents.
Twelve Cuban specialists arrived in the state of Sonora this Thursday to provide care in hospital and first-level medical units that are difficult to cover.
The deployment of Cuban doctors has accelerated due to the proximity, on September 1, of the sixth government report of López Obrador. “The president will discuss the hiring of the Cubans, as well as the purchase of the Abdala vaccine against Covid as part of the agreement with the Island. He will also cover the continuity that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government will offer,” says the official.
The Cuban doctors are part of Imss-Bienestar, the free health organization created by the current government to replace the Popular Insurance, in force until last year. However, the official could not confirm the payment they will make to the company Neuronic Mexicana, a subsidiary of Neuronic S.A. Cuba, which since 2018 is a representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island, under the presidency of the Cuban Tania Guerra.
However, it is known that Cuban specialists connected to Imss-Bienestar will receive salaries of 50,000 pesos ($2,732 per month), in addition to a bonus of 10,000 pesos ($545), for a total of $3,277. Of that amount, the total that will end up in the hands of the Island’s doctors and what will remain in the government’s coffers is unknown.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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