The Government of Mexico announced this Monday the hiring of more than 500 Cuban doctors and the acquisition of vaccines against covid-19 to apply to children two years of age and older.
According to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his daily press conference, they are part of the health agreements reached with his counterpart Miguel Díaz-Canel during his visit to the island.
López Obrador assured that Mexico has a “deficit of specialists” and there are health workers who do not want to move to remote areas, so Cuban pediatricians will have “the Guerrero Mountain” as their base of work, one of the most conflictive points in the country, not not only because it is the poorest area –with rates similar to those of deep Africa–, but also because of the presence of several cartels that dispute the movement of drugs, which make it a permanent source of insecurity, as well as other problems, such as the sale of girls in marriage in some indigenous communities.
López Obrador assured that he has not received “any complaint”: “Whenever I speak with President (Joe) Biden, the issue comes up that it is a relationship between equals”
In addition, he announced the acquisition of Cuban doses against covid that still do not have the endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO) to apply to girls and boys.
When asked about which of the vaccines it would be, he replied: “Abdala, I think that’s the name.” On the Island, a combination of Soberana 02 and one of Soberana Plus was applied for pediatric patients two years of age and older.
Regarding the possible problems that this aid to Cuba could cause in Mexico’s relations with the United States, López Obrador assured that he has not received “any complaint”: “Whenever I speak with President (Joe) Biden, the issue comes up that It is a relationship between equals and that they are respectful of the sovereignty of Mexico.
The statements of the Mexican president did not take long to raise reactions against. “It is an agreement that does not benefit Mexico at all and it is going to cost us, from treasury money, to health (if not lives),” He pointed out on his social networks the consultant for health issues Xavier Tello. “General practitioners going to do residencies in Cuba. This was already proposed (imposed) since last year and it was a failure,” said Tello, referring to the Conacyt scholarship fiasco to study on the island.
“This true absurdity is just a way to validate the human trade and slavery that the dictatorship promotes, with the island’s doctors,” the specialist said.
López Obrador assured that Mexico has a “deficit of specialists” and there are health workers who do not want to move to remote areas, so Cuban pediatricians will have “the mountain of Guerrero” as their base of work
“Politics continues to make Mexico’s health sick,” posted on his Twitter account the internist, infectologist and National Health Award 2020 Francisco Moreno Sánchez. “Health problems cannot be solved by hiring 500 Cuban doctors.”
Laurie Ann Ximénez-Fyvie, a researcher in microbiology, described as “incredible” the decision of the Government of Mexico, just a few days after the Health Institute for Well-being (Insabi) was singled out for forcing doctors to resign who had a contract with another dependency, when this is not stipulated in the law.
The hiring of doctors from the Island has been marked by opacity and controversy. In 2020, brigades were sent, according to the Mexican authorities, in support of the coronavirus pandemic. Schools and public opinion questioned them for not being prepared to face the health emergency, working little and that their presence cost almost eight million dollars. This Saturday, the Cuban official press itself He gave the exact number of doctors he sent to Mexico for that contingency, between 2020 and 2021: 1,479.
To hire 585 of them, “untitled”, as reported in September 2021 the opposition National Action Party (PAN) Mexico and Cuba “orchestrated a fraud” of 255,873,177 million pesos (about 12,692,940 million dollars) to the detriment of Mexico’s health budget.
The coordinator of the PAN in the Senate, Julen Rementería, published documents obtained through the transparency portal and specified that each Cuban health worker disbursed about 21,700 dollars, while a Mexican doctor earns about 843 dollars at the Mexican Social Security Institute.
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