One-Fifth of Cuba's Doctors Working in Venezuela

[cal04]

One-Fifth of Cuba's Doctors Working in Venezuela, as Venezuela's Oil Flows to the Island

Cuba's communist government is expanding a humanitarian mission that has already sent a fifth of the island's doctors to work in Venezuela, committing more aid to its close ally as Cuba receives massive shipments of Venezuelan oil.

The Cuban doctors are a welcome sight in the dusty village of Los Potocos and other forlorn corners of Venezuela where physicians seldom set foot. Amid the rows of shacks inhabited by poor farmers and unemployed laborers, doctors in white coats make house calls, dodging children running barefoot and chickens pecking at piles of trash. "Thank God those doctors are here," said Maria Aray, 50, who said the Cubans helped her 14-year-old daughter recover from severe anemia.

The Venezuelan government says its "Inside the Barrio" health care project involves about 20,000 Cuban health care workers, including more than 14,000 physicians - an estimated 20 percent of Cuba's doctors. Cuban President Fidel Castro has pledged to boost the number of medical workers in Venezuela to as many as 30,000 by year's end. Castro has long sent doctors to countries ranging from Haiti to Equatorial Guinea, always treating the poor for free, but Venezuela has become the top destination.

In turn, Venezuela ships Cuba 90,000 barrels of oil a day under preferential terms, a deal giving the island one of its strongest economic boosts since the Soviet Union's fall left it relatively isolated.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRA8AU2BE.html

[bullimiami]

1. cuba sends doctors.

communist dictator compared to democratic president...

the first sent doctors the second death squads...to where?

haiti.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. Cuba sends medical personnel abroad, healing and saving lives

.
.
.

The US sends soldiers abroad, killing and maiming

So the US boycotts and ostracizes Cuba -

why exactly? :shrug:

Someone enlighten this poor Canuk brain of mine ??

[Billy Burnett]

3. Money money money...

As in: campaign money. Both pro sanctions and against it. Status quo rules and the money pours in to both sides.

American democracy at it's best.

[Judi Lynn]

4. I'd like to mention a misperception people have about the oil deal

Both Mexico and Venezuela have made agreements going back years with either 11 or 12 seperate islands and countries in the Caribbean and Central America. These countries are struggling economically, and they ALL receive more favorable rates. You can do a check on the "San Jose Agreement" or "Accord" and also the "Caracas Agreement" to learn more about it.

Information which isn't thorough enough about this arrangement often leaves people with the belief that Cuba gets free oil by sending doctors to Venezuela. That would be a serious misunderstanding.

Here are some photos I just found of the hills around Caracas where the Cuban doctors WILL go to help the poor, and the Venezuelan doctors have NEVER gone.



"Nuevo Tacagua" is one of Caracas' most impoverished communities, made up mostly of tin and cardboard shacks that sit on a muddy hillside. In the past few years, many people's homes have collapsed during mudslides.



Maria Concepcion Enriquez is 67. She is back in school seeking her high school degree with a government grant. Asked what she thinks about Hugo Chavez, she simply blushed and said that this government is the first to recognize people like her.



Juanita Lopez stands in her living room, which is slowly collapsing like the house behind it. She is waiting to be placed in a new home.



Juan and Victoria Osuna (as with most people we interviewed) feel that the "Bolivarian Revolution" is deeper than Chavez. A veteran community activist told us, "Chavez is just a translator for the people, for the popular movements. All these programs that are happening are proposals and demands the popular movements have been making for years. Now we have a President who is willing to listen and implement these things...this is not a revolution that Chavez is engineering or imposing."



"These programs are not meant to last," said one man, "they are temporary services returning a historical debt and helping people in the moment, but they are really only tools and material expressions of something much larger...They are showing us a process, teaching values of how to build a society…they are showing what was lacking and what a government can do…we are awakening, re-learning a sense of dignity and collectivity."



There was no grand celebration after the referendum. There is a sense that now the real work begins.

More: http://www.salonchingon.com/exhibits/caracas2004/index2.html

[Mika]

5. Thanks for posting those photos Judi Lynn

I'm very glad that Cuban Drs are stepping up to the plate and helping these poor people.

:thumbsup:

"Chavez is just a translator for the people.."

Good quote. I guess that the same could be said for Mr Castro also.

:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

7. Hi, Mika! You've said the same thing, basically, in earlier posts.

It's a truth which gets drowned out by all the deliberate confusion inherent in propaganda. Misdirection, and outright lies substitute for reality when the right-wing takes the initiative in providing all the information to the public.

I love learning that there are so many people now who are NOT willing to take the right-wing's word for things any longer, and are making the effort to start doing their own research.

[bribri16]

6. Cuba may well be one of the best places to live on earth in a few years.

I hope that those who left Cuba under Castro will never be allowed to return after he dies. Only the Cubans who stayed deserve to reap the future of Cuba.

[MisterP]

8. but what will they do without mass murderers, mobsters, and fundie madmen

and -women?