A group of 61 Cuban doctors traveled this Friday to Mexico where they will join the more than 500 that already provide services in that country as part of the agreement of health signed between both governmentsreported state media.
This is the brigade of highly qualified specialists, number 11 that will provide medical assistance in Mexicosaid in the farewell ceremony the secretary general of the National Union of Health Workers from the island, the doctor Santiago Badia Gonzalez.
“They are the foundation of a cooperation that promises to be strong, lasting and sincere,” said the trade unionist quoted by the state company Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The Cuban doctors are integrated into a health plan run by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and Well-being.
This last group will arrive in the North American nation on the eve of the visit that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel will make this Saturday to the city of Campeche, invited by his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The agreement signed in May of last year during the official visit of Lopez Obrador a Havanacontemplates the dispatch of 500 doctors in a first stage to meet its goal of guaranteeing universal health.
This agreement, which entered into force from the date of its signing, is valid for two years and may be modified by mutual consent, or may be terminated at any time, by means of a written notice ninety days in advance.
The presence of hundreds of Cuban doctors in hospitals in the Mexican capital contracted to combat the covid-19 pandemic aroused controversy in the country in 2020 due to their costs and the activities they carried out.
López Obrador has affirmed that there are vacancies in the Mexican Social Security Institute and in the Institute of Security and Social Services for State Workers, but that specialists do not take them because they are in rural and marginalized areas.
The NGO Prisoners Defenders has criticized the health agreements and the conditions of the Cuban professionals who make up the medical missions abroad.
With information from EFE