Miami, United States. – The humanitarian visa that would allow the Cuban child Damir Ortiz Ramírez, 10 years old, to travel to the United States to receive specialized medical treatment was denied this Thursday due to the lack of updated documentation. This was denounced on social networks the Diasniurka Salcedo and Yamilka Laffita activists (known as Lara Crofs), who held the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba (MINSAP) responsible for not delivering the documents required for the application.
“The visa was denied to Damir. Lack of documentation! Thanks for everything, Ministry of Public Health of Cuba ”, Laffita published on Facebookin a message loaded with irony. For its part, Salcedo He emphasized that the refusal of the US embassy in Havana was due to the fact that “the child did not present updated documents because the regime did not give them.”
The child’s mother, Eliannis Ramírez, had already denounced the Minsap’s refusal in A live broadcast on January 30. According to his testimony, the authorities of the Pediatric Hospital “Juan Manuel Márquez” refused to issue the authorization letter required for the request of the humanitarian visa, arguing that Cuba has the resources to treat the child.
“They didn’t give me the letter, I implored them, I begged them to give me the letter. The Cuban public health system, until today, with my son with 10 years paraplegic, has done nothing, ”said Ramírez, in tears, in his video.
An urgent case that does not find an answer in Cuba
Damir Ortiz Ramírez suffers from type 1 neurofibromatosis, a disease that has seriously deteriorated its health. The child’s last resonance showed that his column was full of tumors, which, in addition to maintaining it paraplegic, puts it at risk of losing vision.
In the absence of responses from the Cuban health system, the family managed to make a hospital in Miami accept to treat it. A campaign on the Gofundme platforminitiated by Diasniurka Salcedo, seeks to raise the necessary funds to cover medical and transfer expenses, estimated at $ 40,000.
However, Minsap’s refusal to deliver the documentation has prevented the child from obtaining the humanitarian visa necessary to travel. His mother has reiterated his despair and has called on the international community to intercede in the case.
“I want to get my son from Cuba, I don’t trust … I ask any representative, any congressman, the president of the United States, to help me get Damir out of Cuba, please,” Ramírez begged in his live broadcast.
The refusal of the “Juan Manuel Márquez” pediatric hospital contrasts with previous official statements on the possibility of receiving medical care in other countries. In September 2024, Dr. Wilfredo Roque García, director of the Institute of Hematology and Immunology, affirmed that Minsap had “anything against these possibilities” and recognized the right of Cuban families to seek treatments abroad.
However, Damir’s case is not the first in which the Cuban health system hinders access to medical care outside the country. In 2023, the parents of the child Cristian Miguel Bencomo denounced that the Minsap delayed the delivery of the documents required for transfer abroad. The child, just three and a half years, He died in Cuba waiting for a liver transplant that was never done.
