CDMX, Mexico-. Mexican doctors will travel to Cuba to specialize in the near future, announced theThe newspaper “El sol de Zamora”. The agreement was agreed between the governor of Michoacán Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, from where the doctors will depart, and the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez Costa.
In a meeting held at Casa Michoacán, the president highlighted the interest that students and graduates of the Michoacana University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH) and other higher education institutions study academic programs in Cuba due to the demand for specialists in the state and in the country.
Both representatives agreed that this would be the beginning of a plan that seeks to increase the number of specialists in Mexican territory. Cuba’s part in the agreement will be to provide the studies on the island.
“Through courses and academic programs in Cuba, they will seek to boost the demand for specialists in the state and in the country,” said media outlet explained.
“Through Conacyt, 300 doctors Mexicans are specializing in Cuba and the idea is that graduates from Michoacán are also included and for that we are willing to reactivate ties with the government and the sector,” the newspaper stated.
The information published in Mexican newspapers does not detail how many doctors there would be, nor the amount that Cuba will receive for each one.
Last May, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) opened a call for postgraduate scholarships in Cuba for qualified Mexican doctors.
The program offers 13 specialties: pathology, general surgery, hygiene and epidemiology, medical genetics, geriatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, intensive and emergency medicine, internal medicine, pulmonology, ophthalmology, clinical laboratory, orthopedics and traumatology, and psychiatry.
The call was presented after the official declaration that Mexico would receive 500 Cuban doctors, as part of the health agreements, resulting from the visit of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Cuba, referenced Aristegui news.
Given the announced measure, the federations, associations and schools of Mexico spoke out against it, arguing that in their country there are trained professionals with poor working conditions. They do not agree with the exuberant figures that the Cuban government pockets, which only gives very low percentages of their salary to the professionals that it exports.
After the events, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the criticism as a smear campaign against Caribbean doctors.
Studying in Cuba is a good option (but for the dictatorship)
In September of last year, CubaNet published a report about sending Mexican doctors to Cuba to also specialize.
In the aforementioned text, several sources consulted confirmed that when they applied for medical residency they were offered scholarships in Argentina, the United States, Canada, Australia and Cuba. For them, the Caribbean island was the last option because they know the deterioration of medical facilities and the economic crisis in the country. However, this was the only option they were shown at the last minute. They had to choose between traveling to Havana or not studying.
“The study plans were not clear either and we did not know if they met the requirements of our country. Which could affect their validation in the future,” a Mexican doctor who did decide to go to the island explained to Cubanet.
Of the thousand students who received the scholarship, finally only 184, divided into five specialties, agreed to leave. With those 184 doctors, Cuba was able to raise 6,834,000 euros in tuition fees.
However, the local authorities also demanded to handle the student’s maintenance grants. The Mexican state, at the request of its counterpart, agreed to deposit the money for maintenance (one thousand euros per month per doctor) in the Cuban MLC accounts. As a result, Aztec doctors could only take out Cuban pesos instead of euros and buy in hard currency stores. In other words, they kidnapped your money.
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