In the midst of a collapsed health system, the regime calls doctors who denounce the precarious conditions in which they worked in Cuba as “ungrateful” and “traitors.”
MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban regime launched a new discursive offensive against doctors trained on the Island who have decided to emigrate and denounce the critical conditions in which the national health system finds itself. Through a publication on the page of TV Santiago Facebookattributed to the Public Health Union in Santiago de Cuba, the Government described the complaints made by these professionals from abroad as “ingratitude” and “betrayal.”
“Enough of seeing how some who were trained in Cuba, with Cuban teachers, in Cuban hospitals, with Cuban books, today dedicate themselves to insulting the medicine that made them doctors. It is not criticism: it is ingratitude. It is not testimony: it is betrayal,” says the text, which has unleashed criticism on social networks.
The message, which aims to praise the “dignity” of the Cuban health system, comes in the midst of a sustained collapse of hospital infrastructure and an unprecedented wave of migration in the sector. While the regime appeals to “loyalty” and “gratitude”, thousands of doctors abandon a system in which they work for miserable salaries, with hospitals without water, without basic supplies and under political surveillance.
“Are there a lack of resources? Yes. Is there fatigue? Yes. Are there things to improve? Of course. But that does not erase the fact that the Cuban doctor is trained with excellence, with ethics, with vocation,” the message continues. This superficial admission of deficiencies contrasts with the reality of hospitals that cannot guarantee basic care, surgical rooms without conditions, and professionals who must improvise with the minimum. To describe this collapse as a simple “lack of resources” is, at the very least, a trivialization of a deep crisis.
“Emigrating is legitimate. But using your freedom to spit on what formed you is miserable,” adds the official text. With this phrase, the regime not only disqualifies the legitimate criticism of those who have experienced firsthand the precariousness of the system, but also attempts to impose a duty of silence on professionals who, in many cases, have been exploited by the State itself.
For decades, the Government has used doctors as the centerpiece of its international propaganda, presenting them as an “example of solidarity”, while denying them job autonomy, paying them ridiculous salaries and subjecting them to mechanisms of political control. Instead of taking responsibility for the deterioration of the system, the regime blames those who decide to leave, treating them as traitors.
The text ends with another phrase full of symbolic manipulation: “Cuban medicine is a lighthouse. And the lighthouses are not extinguished by the poison of those who forgot where they come from.” The appeal to the “homeland” and “gratitude” seeks to reinforce a narrative that demands unconditional obedience, even though the working conditions are unworthy and the structural crisis is undeniable.
The official publication also generated a wave of reactions on social networks, where many users openly questioned the regime’s speech. “For me, Cuban doctors are extraordinary beings because with few resources, tired from the blackouts, exhausted from struggling to live through these difficult times on the island, they save lives, cure pain and sometimes with their own resources… my respects go to the Cuban doctors giving diagnoses without reagents or devices to check. They are true heroes,” wrote one user.
Other comments directly dismantled the official narrative: “Yes, the white coat in this country is a symbol of slavery, because they are not paid what they deserve, because they live in misery. Because they have to go like cattle to another country to more or less solve some needs. And yet, the government keeps the money that should belong to the doctors. Don’t be so shameless.” Another user added: “Get to giving conditions to the hospitals, to guarantee the supplies that this brave army of white coats needs to care for the population, to supply the pharmacies, to care for the doctors as they deserve, at least guarantee them a decent meal inside the hospital, instead of so many reasons and justifications that solve nothing, stop worrying about the Cubans outside and take care of to those inside.”
According to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba, Between 2021 and 2024 more than 77,000 health workers left the system.
Meanwhile, those who remain on the island face extreme conditions: collapsed hospitals, reduced staff, chronic shortages, and political pressure not to publicly denounce the situation. The State demands heroic sacrifices, but does not guarantee labor rights or minimum working conditions.
Exploitation in medical missions
Control over Cuban doctors does not end at the border. As recently documented CubaNet, Professionals who participated in the medical mission in Calabria, Italy, denounced that even in Europe they were subject to surveillance, the withholding of their professional titles and restrictions imposed by the state company Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos SA.
“Not even in Europe are we free,” they said. Those interviewed indicated that they were obliged to hand over a good part of their salary to the Cuban Government and could be sanctioned for “desertion” if they decided to abandon the program. These mechanisms, which have been denounced by international human rights organizations, constitute forms of labor exploitation and political control, disguised as medical cooperation.
This context dismantles the official discourse: these are not “ungrateful” doctors, but professionals who for years have been used as a captive workforce, subjected to restrictions that violate fundamental rights, inside and outside Cuba. The regime’s indignation at the criticism is nothing more than a reaction to a story that it can no longer control.
