Havana/Christmas once again finds hundreds of Cuban health professionals in Angola trapped between family distance, job uncertainty and administrative silence. Hired by Antex, the state corporation that manages these official missions abroad, many doctors and professors arrive at the end of December without having received the salary corresponding to this month and without minimum guarantees to organize a temporary return to the Island. The scenario is not new, but it is repeated with a regularity that erodes any institutional promise.
From Luanda, a Cuban doctor summarizes the dominant feeling among his colleagues: “This Christmas will be a little more painful.” Added to the separation of children, parents and partners is the inability to afford a dinner other than the daily routine. “For Antex it is already customary to delay payments. Normally the salary arrived around the 20th, but that is just memory,” he laments, referring to the equivalent of 200 dollars that they must receive in Angola, while most of the salary is kept in a bank on the Island.
Antex had announced that most likely only half of that amount could be paid, but, as the days go by, the promise has been reduced to $50. “If so, they would have to guarantee us a dinner for the end of the year, at least, but I doubt they will,” says the doctor.
“If so, they would have to guarantee us a New Year’s Eve dinner, at least, but I doubt they will.”
In December, as in other months, payment has been delayed and questions accumulate without answers: whether there will be a special year-end meal organized by the Cuban official side, whether the pattern of 2023 will be repeated – when some remained without pay for more than two months – or whether, simply, we will have to resign ourselves to another end of the year in suspense.
The testimony coincides with other complaints that have reached the 14ymedioin which Cuban doctors in Angola recount systematic delays in paymentsnon-transparent discounts and obstacles to accessing your statutory holidays. The situation not only persists, but worsens in a context of local inflation, rising food prices and weakening of the purchasing power of salaries.
Added to the economic uncertainty is the chronic delay in return trips for vacations in Cuba. Many professionals expected to return between August and September, but that schedule was missed almost completely. “Antex has not even removed 10% of the teachers who should have traveled in that period,” explains the doctor. The domino effect is evident: mission time accumulates, vacations for all staff are postponed and cases of colleagues who have been in Angola for 15 months without a clear return date multiply. For some, the wait even becomes a forced contract extension.
“The manager who leaves on his scheduled date always appears,” he adds, fueling the perception of privileges.
The official explanation changes depending on the situation, say those affected. When there are no TAAG Angola Airlines flights, the answer is that there are no connections available and renting a charter would be too expensive. When there are flights, the argument is reversed: the airline would have raised prices and, therefore, it would be preferable to rent a charter. “But neither one thing nor the other,” denounces the doctor. In practice, almost no one travels. “The manager who leaves on his scheduled date always appears,” he adds, fueling the perception of privileges and arbitrariness.
The impact of these breaches goes beyond the economic. For many, the mission in Angola was presented as an opportunity to improve income, help the family in Cuba and accumulate savings. However, salary arrears and travel restrictions turn that expectation into frustration. Christmas, with its symbolic load, accentuates the feeling of abandonment. Without money in hand and no certainty of return, even basic gestures—buying a gift, preparing a different meal, connecting with family—become difficult.
From a contractual point of view, professionals insist that the agreed conditions are not met. Late payments, lack of information and “total silence”, as they describe, contrast with official rhetoric about international medical cooperation. Angola is one of the historical destinations of these missions and a relevant source of income for the Cuban State, which intermediates and retains a substantial part of the salaries. For workers, this intermediation should imply clear responsibilities: punctuality in payments, transparency and guarantees of rest.
Angola is one of the historical destinations of these missions and a relevant source of income for the Cuban State.
The institutional response, however, remains elusive. There are no statements explaining the delays or public schedules to regularize salaries and flights. The absence of information fuels rumors and anxiety, especially on sensitive dates. “Will we not be able to have a New Year’s Eve dinner?” some ask, without waiting for a formal answer.
In a context where medical missions are presented as one of the pillars of Cuban foreign policy, the complaints from Angola once again bring to the fore the human cost of the model. For professionals in Luanda, Christmas brings no respite: it comes with pending accounts, unfulfilled promises and the certainty that, once again, the calendar moves faster than the solutions.
