- Between July 2022 and 2023, three contracts were signed between both countries, the last for 1,636,308 euros per month
- From 2022 to December of last year, 48 doctors have fled
14ymedio, Mexico City, 22 September 2024 — The Government of Mexico paid Cuba 21,590,853 euros for 610 specialists as part of three agreements signed between July 2022 and 2023. From that group of doctors hired to provide health services in rural areas, 48 doctors fled, according to an investigation by the newspaper El Universal.
The Health Services organization of the Mexican Institute of Social Security for Welfare signed three agreements with Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos S.A. de C.V., an island company internationally accused of human trafficking. The Regime received 1,177,300 euros monthly between July 2022 and May 2023.
The Human Resources Division of the Finance and Infrastructure Coordination of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) stressed to the Mexican newspaper that they do not have detailed information about the Cuban health professionals. In addition, they claimed to be unaware of the salary they receive.
The regime received 1,177,300 euros monthly between July 2022 and May 2023
However, an official of the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (Insabi) – created by the Government of López Obrador to provide health care and free medicines – told 14ymedio in 2022 that for each of the medical specialists hired, the Mexican Government paid Cuba 2,042 dollars monthly, and 1,722 dollars for each general practitioner.
On May 11, 2023, a second agreement was signed, through which Mexico promised to pay 1,636,308 euros a month. In July, a third was closed; for five months the López Obrador Administration disbursed a total of 8,181,544 euros.
The editorial staff of this newspaper was informed in August 2022 that the payments were deposited to an account of Banco Internacional de Comercio, S.A., with a tax address in Inmobiliaria Monte Barreto, Jerusalén building, ground floor, 3rd avenue, e/ 78 and 80, Miramar, Playa, Havana, Cuba.
The president of the Prisoners Defenders association, Javier Larrondo, denounced in that same month that there were “State Security agents” among the doctors hired by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Despite the report, Mexico has continued to hire Cuban doctors.
Since last August, Mexico has accelerated the arrival of Cuban specialists. The goal is to have 5,223 doctors “as soon as possible,” an official confirmed to 14ymedio. The new stage foresees the “arrival of 4,023 health workers,” a figure higher than the 3,800 that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, Zoé Robledo, had announced last July.
Doctors with various specialties are arriving in groups of between 198 and 200 at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (Aifa), where, according to the official, “there are scheduled flights.”
As part of the relationship with Cuba, 14ymedio confirmed that the agency in charge of the logistics of the Island’s doctors in Mexico is Neuronic Mexicana, which depends on Neuronic S.A. Cuba. This company has been the representative of the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island since 2018; its president is the Cuban Tania Guerra.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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