14ymedio, Havana, October 21, 2024 — The Minister of Public Health of Cuba, José Ángel Portal Miranda, inaugurated the Comandante Raúl Díaz Argüelles general hospital on Monday, in the Angolan province of Cuanza Sur, where 20 Cuban doctors work. The official highlighted the collaboration between the two nations and confirmed that 1,243 specialists from the Island are currently deployed in Angola.
Chaired by the Angolan president, João Lourenço, the event pointed out that more than 16,500 Cuban doctors have been in Angola since 1975, when the cooperation began. It has been extended to “the contribution in training human resources,” with 1,646 graduates and 52 students who continue medical studies in both countries.
The Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, explained that the hospital has a capacity for 200 beds and the services of pediatrics, hemodialysis, gynecology and obstetrics, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, intensive care, mammography and imaging.
The hospital is named in memory of the first head of the Cuban military mission in Angola, Raúl Díaz Argüelles, who died on December 11, 1975, when his armored transport hit an anti-tank mine, said Prensa Latina.
In fact, the combatant’s daughter was present at the ceremony. Díaz Argüelles was entrusted with establishing and leading the Cuban mission in Angola in response to the request of President Agostinho Neto. “Cuba is proud to have contributed to Angola’s struggle against colonialism and the defense of its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the Cuban minister said.
The authorities of the Island have stressed that relations between the two countries have remained uninterrupted since then. “This has been one of the African countries where Cuban collaboration has been the strongest,” reported the official media Cubadebate. “After the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, and after guaranteeing the independence of Namibia, Cuba maintained its relations with the ruling party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).” The media did not mention the cost of the war in human lives.
Cuban intervention lasted 15 years, until 1991, and it is estimated that 350,000 men in total left the Island to perform military service in Angola. The Cuban Government recognizes only 2,000 deaths in the African conflict, a figure questioned by many historians.
In Angola, the literacy program “Yo sí puedo” was also implemented, in the province of North Kuanza, with the presence of 42 Cuban advisors
Angola, in addition, as published last June by the newspaper El Tiempo, represents the “second market” for the export of human resources with strategic importance for Havana, after Venezuela. In this country, the Government of the Island has managed to “project its political, ideological and military influence in a transcendental post-colonial struggle, while obtaining important economic benefits from a State with oil reserves and significant natural wealth,” said the executive director of the NGO Cuba Archive, María Werlau.
An investigation by El Toque in collaboration with Connectas revealed that the Corporación Antillana Exportadora S. A. (Antex) – a subsidiary of the Business Administration Group (Gaesa) of the Cuban Armed Forces – is in charge of hiring the professionals, and that in the last 12 years they have provided 1.808 billion dollars to Cuba.
The study revealed Antex’s relationship with at least eight Cuban state-owned companies – without giving names – registered in Angola, and another in the Principality of Liechtenstein. They provide services to Angola in more than 30 sectors. “The operation has produced $6,755 million in the last 25 years.”
The same publication indicates the violation of several labor and human rights for Cuban professionals. A Cuban doctor prominent in Angola denounced Antex’s mistreatment in October 2023. The specialists, he said, had been earning the equivalent of 100 dollars in local currency for five months, because they were told that “there was no money.”
The cooperation between the two countries, in any case, has not been without controversy. In January 2021, Angola annulled a $77 million contract with Antex for breach of its obligations; specifically, with Imbondex Construcciones y Materiales de Construcción S.A. Other Cuban companies were Meditex, for medical services, and Imbondex Turística, owner of the travel agency Atlántico Azul, which had committed to building roads and bridges in the province of Bengo, which surrounds the capital of the country, Luanda. The work did not even begin, and the Angolan president, João Lourenço, terminated the contracts by decree.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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