One tribunal from Kenya on Wednesday sentenced a Somali citizen to life in prison whom he found guilty of kidnapping of the surgeon Landy Rodríguez Hernández and the specialist in general medicine Assel Herrera Correa, Cuban doctors exported to that country by Havana and that the coming April 12 they will serve three years in unknown whereabouts.
The man, identified as Isaac Robow was sentenced after the court found him guilty of kidnapping, aiding in a terrorist act and fraudulently obtaining an identity card.local media reported Capital News.
According to the note, Robow worked for the Mandera County Government, which borders Somalia and where the Cubans had been stationed.
His role was to lead the two Cubans when they were ambushed by militants from the jihadist militia Al Shabaab, which operates in the area.
A police officer assigned to protect them was shot and killed during the hijacking, but the driver survived and was immediately arrested.
Judge Martha Nanzushi sentenced the driver to life for his contribution to “a terrorist act” and also sentenced him to 25 years for kidnapping. He will also serve an additional six months for fraudulently obtaining an identification card. All charges will be executed simultaneously.
Rodríguez Hernández and Herrera Correa are barely mentioned in Cubaafter Havana repeatedly pledged to guarantee his safe return.
In September 2021, Miguel Díaz-Canel recalled the birthday of both doctors on his Twitter profile and sent them a hug “on their birthdays, September 15 and 16, respectively. Cuba, which does not forget its children, remains determined to return them both safe and sound to the homeland. We will never get tired,” he wrote then.
On the same date, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, said that had met with the family of one of the doctors in captivityin a letter in which he did not give details of the rescue efforts or the status of the professionals.
That was the last mention of any Cuban authority to both professionals, after references to his situation were increasingly scarce both in the official press and in the social networks of officials. In this regard, the head of Health assured that “managements continue for the return” of the doctors, as he has reiterated over and over again in the past three years.
Nonetheless, in october 2021and without mentioning the case of Rodríguez Hernández and Herrera Correa, Havana announced the sending of another 79 doctors to Kenya.
As a result of the announcement of this agreement to export doctors, the Island’s ambassador in Nairobi, Ernesto Gómez Díaz, said that “our doctors are happy to work in Kenya”.
Havana recognized that the export of medical and other health-related services It was the line that generated the most money in 2020the most recent official figure released to date.
“In 2020, exports of health services were 50% of exports of services (in general), and these, in turn, 80% of the country’s total exports”said Yamila de Armas Águila, president of the Cuban Medical Services Marketer, SA (CSMC).
Human health services and care services generated for the Government of Cuba 3,997,948.3 of the 6,879,664.9 million pesos received in 2020 for the concept of export of services. Health was exactly 58.1% of that total. Despite this, Havana insists that its “medical missions” are an expression of its “internationalist vocation” and part of the “humanist” purpose of the Revolution.
This, while complaints grow from doctors, nurses and other health specialists for the conditions of slavery to which they are subjected in the so-called “missions”.