14ymedio, Mexico City, 25 October 2024 — Mexico announced this Thursday the arrival in Quintana Roo of another 173 Cuban doctors, who join the 36 already established in that state, to reinforce care in the health centers. Mexican authorities are waiting for another 30 doctors from the Island to distribute them in 13 hospitals in isolated communities and in 18 mobile units, where they will provide care on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Mexican government has been extremely cautious about the centers in which it places Cubans. As of September, the health authorities of Quintana Roo had registered a hematologist, an epidemiologist and three gastroenterologists from the Island, who in June 2023 joined the Chetumal oncology hospital. It is known that in 2022, another 31 specialists arrived, but their distribution was never revealed.
The state coordinator of Imss-Bienestar, Moisés Alejandro Toledo, announced last June that specialists sent to remote areas, including Cubans, will receive “a bonus independent of their salary.” Months ago, in April of this year, the director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (Imss), Zoé Robledo, was more specific: the salaries for these positions are 50,000 pesos (2,732 dollars per month), in addition to an incentive of 10,000 pesos (545 dollars).
The newspaper Reforma also reported in early October that it cost Mexico 5,188 dollars a month to maintain each of the Cuban doctors. The figure includes the salary – 27,000 pesos (1,351 dollars) – and the costs that the Government must cover to pay for food, lodging and transportation of about 966 health workers. The 2,135 specialists who arrived in the country this year make a total of 3,101 doctors who will also benefit.
The 3,277 dollars received in total by Cuban doctors is managed by Neuronic Mexicana, a subsidiary of Neuronic S.A Cuba, a company that, since 2018, has represented the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island, under its president Tania Guerra.
The management of the company has been questioned after the escape of several Cuban health workers, who have left their positions in Mexican centers – a total of 48 left between July 2022 and 2023. In practice, to cover their basic needs, doctors receive only “a stipend.”
Toledo said that a significant shortage of specialized nurses persists, confirming the weakening of the health system. The promise of former president López Obrador to create Imss-Bienestar, a free healthcare organization to replace the Seguro Popular and “have a better health system than Denmark,” is still far away.
“We have made a diagnosis of the infrastructure of our health centers and hospitals; maintenance by the state government has been carried out, and we are continuing with the work. We are improving the quality of care everywhere,” Toledo acknowledged.
Cuba has been favored by this program since the administration of López Obrador. Between 2022 and 2023, Mexico signed three agreements with the Island for which it paid 23,227,156 euros for 610 specialists.
The agreements were strengthened between the two countries despite the fact that several organizations, such as Prisoners Defenders, have criticized Mexico for promoting the hiring of Cuban professionals in “conditions of slavery.” The president of the organization, Javier Larrondo, has also said that there are “State Security agents” among the contingents of doctors who have arrived in Mexico.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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