By Paul Shepard, AP National Writer. Yahoo! February 15,
2001
Members of Congress from New York to the Mississippi Delta are looking for
hundreds of low-income minority students to apply for free medical study in Cuba
at the invitation of Fidel Castro (news - web sites).
"We have people in the Bronx trying to identify students for the
program,'' said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y. "This is an exciting idea and I
just hope that politics don't get in the way.''
The State Department said it sees no legal problem with the plan.
The notion of sending as many as 500 low-income Americans to Cuba for
medical study - half would be black - was hatched last year during a meeting in
Havana between Castro and members of the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web
sites). Castro offered slots in Cuba if the congressmen fill them.
"It would be hard for your government to oppose such a program,''
Castro said at the time. "Morally, how could they refuse?''
Blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented in the nation's 125 medical
schools, according to studies published last fall in the Journal of the American
Medical Association (news - web sites). The number of black, Hispanic and
American Indian applicants fell by nearly 7 percent in 1999; of that year's
freshman class, just 7.9 percent were black and 6.9 percent Hispanic.
The U.S. population is 12 percent black and 12 percent Hispanic.
Under the six-year Cuban program, medical training, texts, uniforms, meals
and housing would be free - a sweet deal, since the average U.S. medical school
student is $93,000 in debt after training.
Eligible students would be between the ages of 18 to 25. They would have to
have at least a high school diploma and pass academic and physical exams.
Spanish lessons would be provided if needed.
Emile Milne, spokesman for Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, said the program
will be administered by the black caucus. Registration could begin this spring,
though there are still plenty of questions for lawmakers who want to nominate
students.
Among them: Will Cuban medical credentials be worth much in the United
States? Many Cuban physicians who fled to the United States have had difficulty
obtaining licenses to practice. And some physicians trained abroad are required
to complete additional U.S. training.
"We would hope these doctors would be treated like any other doctors
from another country,'' Serrano said. "We aren't asking anything special be
done for them. If they have to pass extra tests to practice here, fine. We just
wouldn't want them to be denied because of politics.''
Cuba has a surplus of doctors and dispatches thousands abroad each year to
work in impoverished countries. More than 25,000 Cuban doctors have worked in 83
countries, Cuban officials said.
Luis Fernandez, a secretary for the Cuban Interests Section, Cuba's
diplomatic presence in Washington, said of the project: "We hope to create
relationships among our people. Something concrete. We are not asking for
anything in exchange.''
But the public relations benefit is obvious for an island nation that has
been under a U.S. trade embargo since shortly after the communists took power
four decades ago.
"The offer is a propaganda ploy by the dictatorship,'' said Stephen
Vermillion, a spokesman for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who opposes the
program.
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