The National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) will deliver 1,500 euros as “additional single support” to Mexican medical students who have accepted the controversial scholarships to pursue a specialty in Cuba.
According to the callwhich does not specify the number of beneficiaries, the support is to encourage “permanence in their academic programs” given the dropouts and refusals to accept study on the Island. The money will be deposited in the Banco Popular de Ahorro, which is the entity that manages these scholarships from the Mexican Government.
In the first year of the program, which began in 2020, of 1,600 spaces planned to study the specialty in Cuba, only 172 were filled. For these residents, the Government of Mexico gave 1,501,766 dollars to Cuba. The transaction was made by Conacyt to Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA, the Cuban company that has been accused on countless occasions of promoting “trafficking in persons and forced labor.”
The UNAM medicine graduate, Luz Elena Rodríguez, rules out traveling to the island to pursue a specialty in pulmonology. “I am not convinced by her study plan and based on the experience that some Mexican doctors who have been in Cuba have shared with me, it is preferable to do the specialty in Mexico.”
Rodriguez assures 14ymedio that the theoretical part “is acceptable, but in practice it lacks the basics” in hospitals. “Last year a friend applied for a scholarship abroad, but the only option was Cuba,” she says.
She also says that what ended up discouraging her friend were several reports that began to come out, in which “the shortage of medicines and the lack of supplies were denounced.” That’s not scary, she asserts, because “in Mexico it exists in rural areas, but why go to another country, if here the conditions seem to be much better to continue specializing.”
Regarding the second generation of scholarship students on the Island who were selected last January, there is total secrecy, which suggests that perhaps, once again, the call has once again been received lukewarmly.
In a March publication on his social networks, the consultant for health issues Xavier Tello pointed out that of “the 995 vacancies for medical residencies, Conacyt pulled out of its sleeve, only five were filled.” Due to this lack of interest, “now, they accuse doctors of being selfish and that they only want scholarships in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.”
In addition to the controversial scholarship program, the Government of Mexico hired 641 Cuban doctors to serve in marginal areas. These health assumptions were denounced by the president of the Prisoners Defenders association, Javier Larrondowho assured that they did not have any specialty and among the group there were State Security agents.
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