Cuba's effort to recruit U.S. students backed by U.S. congressmen
By Jon Dougherty. WorldNetDaily.com.
Tuesday, February 20, 2001
The Cuban government's offer of free medical training scholarships to "low-income
Americans" is based on "false medical claims" and "requires
[students'] dedication to communism," according to an American
physicians group and former program attendees.
For years, Cuban leader Fidel Castro's "doctor diplomacy" -- a
program of exporting Cuban health care abroad -- has sent doctors to many
countries and played host to health "tourists" while Cuba developed
medications and drugs to treat some of the developing world's worst
health-care problems.
Indeed, Cuban doctors now work free of charge in some of Central America's
most remote villages, many of which have never had regular medical attention.
Also, Cuba has more than a thousand doctors in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize,
Honduras and Haiti, and has sent them to Africa as well.
Perhaps as a way of polishing his image internationally, Castro took his
program to a new level in 1999 by opening the Latin American School of
Medical Sciences, "after 18 Latin American governments selected and sent
1,929 of their most promising students -- evenly divided between men and
women -- from mostly rural, disadvantaged backgrounds," the Philadelphia
Inquirer reported March 9, 2000.
Successful applicants chosen to attend the school receive what Cuban
officials say is a "regular medical doctor degree" after six years
of training. The education and housing are provided free of charge.
Students live at the school, which has a theater, dormitories, 28 teaching
laboratories and a post office. They get uniforms, food and a small stipend
for expenses on weekends. After remaining there for two-and-a-half years, they
are then integrated into the Cuban system for the rest of their medical
education, the Inquirer said.
And while some U.S. and Latin American officials have praised Cuba's medical
system as one that rivals American health care, critics say there are
substantial loopholes in the program that include, among other things, a
requirement that students pledge allegiance to communism and the Cuban
Marxist form of government.
According to a report
on the "doctor diplomacy" program,written by former Cuban
medical program attendees and published by the Medical Sentinel, the official
journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, "in
addition to ideological and political conflicts, there are compelling public
health reasons for rejecting" Cuba's claims.
The authors of the report, AAPS said, "cite public documents that
reveal that Cuban medical schools require that a physician 'must become a
communist and he or she must pledge to improve his or her skills as a
communist.' Cuban medical school graduates must also 'swear to be like [Cuban
communist revolutionary] Che Guevara.'"
Also, the physician's group said, Castro's program is "based on false
medical claims," and that despite glowing reports, "Cuban medical
training is poor in comparison to the U.S."
Last summer, Castro made an "offer that could not be refused" to "provide
Cuban doctors and free medical training to the U.S.," AAPS said.
Moreover, the group asserted, the offer -- which was made last June by
Castro to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mich., and members of the Congressional
Black Caucus who were visiting Cuba -- is being taken seriously by some U.S.
lawmakers.
Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, D-Texas,
has embraced the program, and
in a Jan. 25
statement called on eligible district constituents to consider applying
for the program.
"The Latin American School of Medical Sciences is recognized throughout
Latin America as a leading school in general medicine," Rodriguez said. "For
many of South Texas' brightest, the prohibitive cost of higher education
rules out advanced studies -- especially in medicine.
"The Latin American School is an excellent tuition-free alternative and
I encourage those who are interested to seriously consider this great
opportunity," he said. "The Cuban embargo should not stop
humanitarian efforts to ease pain and suffering at home and abroad.
"I am excited about this outstanding educational opportunity. It's a
program that, at the very least, will benefit our students and the
communities they will later serve," he added. Also, Luis Mariano
Fernandez, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section at the Cuban
embassy in Washington, D.C., met with local upstate New York officials last
Wednesday to push the program.
Fernandez met with Amsterdam, N.Y., Mayor John M. Duchessi, Jr. "for a
breakfast at Centro Civico of Amsterdam, Inc. to discuss the offer being made
to high school students in disadvantaged neighborhoods across the United
States," the local newpaper, The Recorder, said.
"The idea of the scholarship came out of a visit from the Congressional
Black Caucus to Cuba," Fernandez confirmed to the New York paper.
The Caucus, which has no Republican members and is
currently chaired by Rep. James
E. Clyburn, D-S.C., is supportive of lifting most trade sanctions against
Cuba.
Fernandez said Castro's offer is being promoted by the Caucus and another
group, Pastors for Peace, a group of churches that have provided medicine,
medical supplies and other related gear through humanitarian efforts to Cuba
for years, the Recorder said.
"The only condition is that after they finish their study in Cuba after
six years, that [graduating students] go back to the community and work with
the community," Fernandez said. "This is basically the philosophy
that we've followed with students from other Latin American countries."
He added that Cuba was prepared to offer 500 scholarships to students in
upstate New York.
Ladan Alomar, executive director of Centrol Civico, also pledged support.
"We're going to do the best we can to utilize this opportunity,"
Alomar said. "This is really going to open doors to both sides.
"We'll be able to travel either way and get an understanding of the
cultures and governments," she said. "The world is too small to
[have] barriers."
Other critics call the program a well-orchestrated piece of political
propaganda, alleging that to study at a Cuban university or college,
applicants are required to show a detailed list of revolutionary activities
-- including participation in demonstrations against the U.S. government and
its policies, as well as a disclaimer about being a member of any religious
group or organization.
School officials denied any political or ideological underpinnings as
prerequisites to attendance.
"We don't teach politics, just medicine," Nancy Nunez, director of
the school's foreign affairs department, told the Inquirer last year. "We
hope they come out of this course with the same human sensibility as the
Cubans who spend time in other countries. We hope they don't see medicine as
merchandise, but as humanitarian."
AAPS disagrees, citing public and research documents -- as well as
statements from those who have served in the "doctor diplomacy"
programs.
"Medical students who accept Castro's offer of free medical training
may find themselves indentured serfs to Cuba's communism," the group
said. "Regulations require that 'medical doctors must serve 3 to 5 years
in designated areas on the island of Cuba before they are considered for
permission to leave the island.'"
More alarming, the group said, was that "even if [students] are ever
allowed to return to the U.S., they may not be able to shake the influence.
The physicians serving in these units are essentially under surveillance all
the time and any change in their plans not consistent with the orders given
them from Havana invariably leads to the involvement of police or
paramilitary security forces."
The AAPS said the training program is also a huge moneymaker for the Cuban
government. "Doctors [exported abroad] generate tens of millions of
dollars for the Castro regime," even though many earn only about one
dollar a day and, as the Inquirer said, may have to sell trinkets and liquor
on the side to make ends meet.
"Cuba's so-called 'doctor diplomacy' may have begun in the manner of an
assistance program for guerilla movements" some 40 years ago, AAPS said,
"but soon turned into big business for Havana."
The group said the Castro regime takes in $1.2 million a month from Zimbabwe
alone under the program. "A very small fraction of this goes to pay the
physicians themselves and their families in the island," said the AAPS
report.
Additionally, the physician group said Cuba's claims of superior medical
outcomes "compared to the U.S. are false," noting that lower infant
mortality rates claimed by Havana are based on flawed comparison studies and
are actually "about 4-5 times higher than that of the U.S. rate."
Jon E. Dougherty is a staff writer for WorldNetDaily. | 