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Bolivia protest over Cuba
medics
This was the second
protest in weeks by Bolivian doctors
BBC,
UK, 22 June 2006.
Doctors in the Bolivian capital La Paz
have staged a protest against an influx
of Cuban medics offering free care in poor
and rural parts of the country.
The doctors, whose protest included offering
free treatment themselves, say the Cubans
take jobs away from unemployed Bolivian
doctors.
They want the Bolivian government to subsidise
the national medical service, so it is free
at the point of delivery.
But the Bolivian President Evo Morales
has accused the doctors of selfishness.
Over 1,000 doctors are reported to have
been dispatched by Cuba to provide health
services in Bolivia, along with several
thousand in Venezuela.
Cuba has reportedly equipped some 20 Bolivian
hospitals and is behind Operation Miracle,
a drive to operate on the eyes of 14,000
Bolivians with cataracts.
'Foreign influence'
Thursday's protest was the second organised
by doctors from the Medical College of La
Paz.
The college president Eduardo Chavez, a
driving force behind both protests, said
"a fundamental social pillar such as
the health of a people" should not
be left in the hands of foreigners.
He complained that Bolivian doctors were
not being given opportunities to join the
ranks of the Cuban doctors working in poor,
undeveloped areas of Bolivia - one of the
poorest countries in the world.
And he said the recently elected government
of Mr Morales should focus their efforts
on providing healthcare free at the point
of delivery.
The protest comes amid growing criticism
by opposition politicians of what they say
is the influence of the Cuban government
in Bolivia.
'Medical inroads'
But Mr Morales has accused the doctors
of acting selfishly and against the interests
of Bolivia's most disadvantaged people.
Deputy Health Minister Juan Alberto Nogales
said Bolivia's health indices were among
"the worst in Latin America, if not
the world", and were a permanent preoccupation
for the government, according to the news
agency Efe.
"In those places where we are supporting
our Cuban colleagues there has never been
a medical service," he said, rejecting
the doctors' assertion that the Cubans were
taking away jobs.
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