SANTIAGO DE CUBA, June 19 (Luis Alberto Rivera, APLO) - Two doctors joined
nine other health care workers who have been on a hunger strike since June 7.
The strikers are demanding better pay, the right to rest after on-duty
periods, and the freedom to travel out of the country. Health care professionals
in Cuba have to obtain special permission to leave the country.
The doctors, Evelio Manteira Barbán and Ariel Valverde Cuevas, work
in community polyclinics near Santiago. Dr. Cuevas has a visa to emigrate to the
United States and has been denied permission to travel by the Cuban government.
Two officers of the Department of State Security, Alberto Dorkis and Ramiro
Tamayo, showed up at the home of one of the strikers, Dr. Milagros Beatón
Betancourt, and said they were "concerned" by the strike.
"This is no way to ask for something," said Tamayo. Dr. Beatón
said that Cuban doctors are tired of petitioning the government and not being
heard.
The agents warned Dr. Beatón not to talk to (U. S. based station)
Radio Martí or write about the matter for foreign publication.
Dr. Beatón writes regularly for CubaNet.
Dr. Beatón, along with two daughters aged 10 and 14, also has a visa
to emigrate to the United States but is denied an exit visa by the Cuban
government.
Versión
original en español
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