SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The European Union (EU) allocated 500,000 euros to “strengthen” the health system, amid a severe crisis of supplies and medicines in Cuban hospitals.
According to a report release The funding, published by the EU on Monday, includes the purchase of medicines, supplies and medical equipment and improving access to essential sexual and reproductive health services. The money is also intended to support neonatal services in order to guarantee quality care for sick newborns, including “training health professionals in comprehensive neonatal care.”
The amount granted seeks to “increase” the response to the most urgent health needs of children, adolescents and women of reproductive age.
The note stated that the monetary aid will benefit almost 30,000 people, including high-risk newborns, the pediatric population, adolescents, pregnant women and women of reproductive age.
The financial support, which will be implemented by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will focus on the provinces of Holguín, Havana and Sancti Spíritus, “which address the most urgent needs in terms of maternal and child health services, according to the Ministry of Health.”
“With these funds, we aim to support local capacity to provide health services and improve access to medicines and medical equipment that help meet essential needs,” said Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, EU ambassador to Cuba.
The EU has continued to finance the Cuban dictatorship for years. Since 1994, it has provided more than 107.5 million euros for humanitarian projects and has forgiven its debts.
However, MEPs and activists from human rights organisations have recalled that the regime does not invest this money in medicines or food, but rather uses it to reinforce its mechanisms of repression, which have increased after the popular protests of 11 July 2021. (11J); a situation that is not supervised by the European Union.
At the beginning of this year, in an open letter Addressing the EU, members of parliaments from Europe and Latin America expressed their deep concern about the links between the EU and the Cuban regime through the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA).
Signed on December 12, 2016 and ratified in 2017, this alliance has been criticized for failing to promote improvements in the field of human rights in Cuba.
The MEPs criticised the management of these funds, pointing out that “most of the EU support goes through the UNwhich mediates the funds,” and questioned the effectiveness and final destination of these resources, especially given that the Cuban regime has prohibited the entry of special rapporteurs on human rights.
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