The National Party of Honduras (PNH) described as ideological interference the recruitment of 123 Cuban professionals in Education by the Government of Xiomara Castro. The opposition denounced that the objectives are “doubtful” and questioned the lack of transparency in the disclosure of the terms of the contracts.
The Honduran government signed a three-year agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Education on December 27 to “refound” the educational system of the Central American country. In a statement by the PNH caucus, posted on january 5it was pointed out that this alliance is “opaque, not very transparent and with dubious pedagogical objectives”.
The bench questioned why the Cuban teachers will travel to the 298 municipalities, if the Honduran Ministry of Education assures that the professionals will only “advise” the ministerial cabinet. “This is illogical,” she clarified, at the time that she assured that the doubts of different sectors of society “are obvious.” “There are many demands from Latin American countries about Cuba’s political and ideological presence on the continent, which uses health and education as a pretext for its purposes,” she added.
For the opposition party, there are enough pedagogues and teachers “with enormous experience” who can support the Ministry of Education to promote an efficient program to eradicate illiteracy, which affects 12% of the Honduran population. Likewise, he questioned that the Honduran government has not disclosed the profiles of Cuban professionals on its transparency portal when there is a history of “shady agreements” between the “dictatorial and repressive regime” of Havana in countries of the region, such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil.
“The 40 million that the Government says will be allocated to pay them to the Island should be an investment in hiring national teachers and repairing the educational infrastructure”
In his position, he concluded that the “Honduran people must be alert to stop Cuba’s interference.” “The 40 million (lempiras, equivalent to 1.6 million dollars) that the Government says will be allocated to pay them to the Island should be an investment in hiring national teachers and repairing the educational infrastructure.”
The Tegucigalpa authorities have defended the agreement arguing that it is one of the “best” educational systems in the world and that it will allow Honduras to achieve an equal one, “universal, inclusive, participatory, secular and scientific,” according to a video. promotional article published on their networks after the signing of the memorandum.
Before this agreement, Cuba and Honduras had another agreement to advise the national literacy plan, known as “Yo Sí Puedo”, and which generated a wave of criticism from the opposition. The Honduran Vice Minister of Education, Edwin Hernández, came out of the way, who, in August 2022, assured that Cuban professionals will not give classes and will only dedicate themselves to developing the program, whose beginnings date back to the administration of former President Manuel Zelaya.
With the coming to power of Xiomara Castro, Zelaya’s wife, there were new rapprochements between her government and Cuba. In July 2022, they signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations, which opens the doors to “traveling on new paths” of collaboration in the areas of science, technology, literacy and the exchange of scholarships, the Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eduardo Enrique Reina, said at the time.
The export of professional services –above all, doctors and teachers– is the main source of foreign currency for the Government in Havana, which has been the subject of numerous complaints from international organizations for appropriating most of the wages of aid workers.
The most recent data on the international missions of Cuban teachers dates from 2013, when there were 2,326 teachers displaced in different countries. The largest group was in Venezuela, with 423 hired, followed by Equatorial Guinea, with 221, and Angola, with 219.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time making you a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
