Opposition bloc criticizes agreement to bring Cuban doctors to the country

Andrea Becerril and Victor Ballinas

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, May 12, 2022, p. 6

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s tour of Central America and the Caribbean provoked a strong debate yesterday in the Permanent Commission, in which Morena and her allies defended that visit, framed – they highlighted – within the guiding principles of Mexican foreign policy and the position of the federal Executive against the exclusion of Cuba and other countries from the next Summit of the Americas.

They responded to disqualifications from senators and deputies from the PAN, PRI and MC, who complained about the extension of some social programs, such as Sembrando Vida to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and the agreement with the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel to hire 500 Cuban doctors.

The coordinator of the PAN senators, Julen Rementería, even called pseudo-medical to the Cuban doctors, since, he maintained – between exclamations of disapproval from the majority group – they have not accredited their degrees, but they are going to win as NASA scientists.

He argued that the 585 doctors hired during the covid-19 pandemic charged 145,000 pesos a month each, when a Mexican doctor earns 17,000.

In addition, he insisted, these resources are paid directly to the Cuban government, which, he said, is thus supported by President López Obrador. Before the session, at a press conference, the leader of the PAN, Marko Cortés, referred to this issue, which was later taken up again and again by the legislators. blue and white in the Permanent.

PRI deputy José Francisco Yunes Zorrilla asked what López Obrador brought from the tour and insisted that Cuban doctors displace nationals and that the federal Executive removed resources to the Mexican people to take them to Central America.

His companion on the bench, Senator Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín, added that the President of the Republic acted as the older brother of the Central Americans.

The deputy of Morena and former leader of that party, Yeidkol Polevnski, called them greedy and selfish and demanded that the PAN member Rementería do the math right, since the 585 Cuban doctors who arrived two years ago to help deal with the pandemic actually charged 38,000 pesos each.

He asked PRI and PAN members not to forget how many scholarships the Díaz-Canel government has awarded to low-income students who thus graduated as doctors. And even if it hurts, President López Obrador’s tour was very successful!

PVEM senator Rogelio Israel Zamora stressed that Cuban doctors are among the most qualified in the world, adding that he understands envy and annoyance of the opposition, since their governments never achieved that defense of sovereignty against the United States and the possibility of unifying America promoted by López Obrador.

Faced with the opposition’s demands for López Obrador’s call that no one be excluded from the Summit of the Americas, Zamora replied that they leave their imperial and conservative mentalities, in front of whom has dignified foreign policy.