The incredible story of Cuban medical internationalism

Source: The New Internationalist

A revolutionary agenda

Operation Miracle

One of the problems frequently highlighted in Cuba - including by the Communist Party newspaper Granma - is that of low productivity. On our recent visit to the island with the Morning Star/Cuba Solidarity Campaign media group one friend told me ruefully: "Cubans have become used to getting everything given to them. In a sense the state has been too paternalistic."

On the one hand one can feel impressed by the somewhat leisurely pace at which work appears to be going on in the country. Tobacco workers at a factory in Pinar del Rio told us for instance that they each had a quota of 100 a day to make, from the original leaf to the finished rolled cigar, but the pace seemed unstressful and the staff were chatting and laughing as they worked.

On another occasion in Havana we stopped to chat to a flour depot worker who was having a break, sitting on a low wall against the pavement. We got talking with him and he soon told us that wages were not enough for him to buy what he wanted in cucs (the Cuban convertible peso). A discussion ensued and we must have talked for a good 20 minutes before a foreman came up and told him to get back to work. I couldn't help thinking that such a long break would not have been permitted in most workplaces in Britain.

That worker's relaxed, unhurried and unworried attitude may seem a good thing to many of us from a humanitarian point of view. But we have to admit it is probably not so good as regards efficiency or productivity. That does however raise a further question - what is a socialist society for if not to provide a comfortable and enjoyable life for all citizens? Should workers have to work at breakneck speed in order to make a living wage? Most workers would say No - working conditions should be pleasant and reasonable.

The problem is that Cuba, despite its socialist system, is still an underdeveloped country. Although the national income is more equitably distributed among the population than in any capitalist country it has to be able to afford the health and social care, education, sports and cultural facilities it provides the population.

Most Cuban people perceive the existence of a dual currency as unfair and corrosive. While at least Cubans are spared the indignity of separate hard currency shops as existed in the Soviet Union, where one could not enter unless one had hard currency, nevertheless many sought-after goods which have to be imported are only available if paid for in cucs.

One cuc is equivalent to 25 pesos. Wages are anything from 250 to 450 pesos a month, so one can see that a pair of trainers costing 50 cucs is pretty expensive. Cubans can trade their pesos for cucs and the flour-depot worker mentioned above told us that he pays 100 pesos (4 cucs) monthly towards buying his own flat, out of a monthly wage of 300 pesos.

The dual currency is a measure forced on Cuba by economic isolation due to the US blockade. The blockade prevents Cuba importing goods at cheaper rates and the US sabotages food import deals with other countries by stepping in and offering third countries more for the goods than the price already agreed with Cuba. It stops Cuba from importing advanced medicines available only in the US and prevents it from selling its own new home-developed cancer drugs, based on scorpion venom, which have proved effective in trials for certain types of cancer. It bars US citizens from visiting Cuba and it punishes banks and firms in other countries but which also have branches in the US if they try to do business with Cuba.

The blockade continues mercilessly despite the fact that at the United Nations general assembly 186 countries called again for its abolition in 2011. Only the US and Israel backed the embargo, with the tiny island states of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau abstaining.

The blockade is not merely an expression of US disapproval of the Cuban system. It is an act of war against Cuba intended to stifle the revolution, prevent the country's development and thus cause dissatisfaction among Cuba's citizens. The revolution's continued success will no doubt depend on the extent to which the Cuban Communist Party remains close to the people and is able to interpret what the people want.

The latest measures enacted by law last November allowing citizens to buy and sell their homes and cars suggest that the party is responding to popular demand. Cubans are well educated and have already achieved all the basics - good health care, social care, enough food and cheap, if still inadequate, housing. But it's probably true to say that many Cubans, especially the young, want more consumer goods, cars and better housing.

Cuba's excellence in medicine is well known and this is also now a money-spinner for the country. Cuba has contracts with several other countries to provide doctors to operate health clinics and carry out operations such as cataract removal. Operation Miracle, for example, has already restored sight to hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans. Cuban doctors work abroad for a few months or a year through such inter-government contracts and Cuba benefits from the income this generates.

Similar schemes exist for literacy teachers and increasingly for sports trainers too. Cuba is justifiably proud of its many achievements, one of the most impressive being the Latin American School of Medicine which trains doctors from poor regions of Latin America and, more recently, from other parts of the world.

We met staff and students from the school, which is set in a lovely campus by the sea. We met Vice-Dean Maritsa Gonzalez and Vice-Rector Eladio Valcarcel who told us that the idea of the school, which was set up in November 1999, came from medical brigades Cuba had sent to earthquake zones in Indonesia, Pakistan and Haiti, where they saw that poverty-stricken local populations had little or no access to doctors.

The Havana school started with 1,900 students from 18 Latin American countries. Today, after seven years of graduations, it has 10,000 students from 100 countries. All are trained free, with no tuition fees and food, lodging and a small student grant paid for by the Cuban state. The course is six years long after a one-year initial course which includes language classes for non-Spanish-speaking students.

Second-year students Joel from Guyana and Mark from the Solomon Islands told us their course was tough but that they have a lot of support to help them succeed. Mark said students are allowed to repeat years if necessary, and Joel told us: "The worst thing is getting used to the different food!"

The school is proud of the fact that 50,000 students in other countries have been trained by Cuban health brigades. Most go back to their own countries to work in the poor communities they came from. Ms Gonzalez told us: "It's like a gift from Cuba to other countries."

This article was written by Kate Clark and originally appeared in the Morning Star. The first part of the article can be read here.

Che's Murderer and Operation Miracle

Che and Fidel

Mario Terán, a retired noncom notorious for having executed the legendary guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara on Oct. 9, 1967, at a little school in La Higuera in Bolivia, lived in the deepest anonymity in Santa Cruz. Steeped in indigence, he lived on his miserly pension as a former soldier and had lost his sight to cataracts that he had been unable to cure, for lack of resources.

In 2004, Cuban President Fidel Castro launched a broad humanitarian campaign throughout the continent, named Operation Miracle. Supported by Venezuela, it consists in operating – at no personal cost – on those low-income Latin Americans who suffer from cataracts and other eye diseases. In 30 months, about 600,000 people from 28 countries, including U.S. citizens, recovered their eyesight thanks to the altruism of the Cuban doctors. The avowed objective is to operate 6 million people by 2016.

The election of Evo Morales as President of the Republic of Bolivia in December 2005 and his willingness to establish social policies that will improve the wellbeing of some of the poorest people in the continent have allowed Bolivians to gain access to the humanitarian program launched by Cuba. About 110,000 Bolivians have regained their eyesight without paying a single penny.

Among them is Mario Terán, who was rid of his serious illness by the Cuban doctors. Pablo Ortiz, a Bolivian journalist who works for the newspaper El Deber of Santa Cruz, told the story: "Terán had cataract problems and was cured in Operation Miracle by Cuban doctors at absolutely no cost."

Then he gave more details: "The fellow is a perfect unknown. Nobody knows who he is. He is destitute and when he appeared at the hospital hosting Operation Miracle nobody recognized him; he was then operated. The story came from his own son, who came to the newspaper to express his gratitude in public... It happened last August [2006]."

Sometimes, history keeps some surprises in reserve. Thus, the murderer of Che was cured by doctors sent by Fidel Castro, the most faithful and intimate companion of "the heroic guerrilla." Terán owes his eyesight to the emissaries of health that follow the internationalist example of the man he killed.

According to the former CIA agent Félix Rodríguez, who participated in Che's capture, Terán volunteered to execute the rebel leader. Earlier, he had murdered in cold blood all the other prisoners. But his valor failed when he faced Che.

"When I entered the classroom, Che was seated on a bench. When he saw me, he said: 'You've come to kill me.' I felt inhibited and lowered my head without answering.

"Then he asked me: 'What did the others say?' I told him they had said nothing, and he commented: 'There were brave men!'

"I didn't dare to shoot. At that moment, I saw a big Che, very big, enormous. His eyes shone with intensity. I felt that he was overwhelming me and when he looked at me fixedly I felt woozy. I thought that, if he moved quickly, Che could take away my weapon.

"'Stay calm and aim carefully,' he told me. 'You are going to kill a man.'

"I took a step backward, toward the door, closed my eyes and fired the first burst... I regained my composure and fired the second burst, which struck him in an arm, a shoulder and the heart. He was already dead."

Che, despite the execrable media campaign designed to stain the image of one of the greatest revolutionaries of the 20th Century, remains "big, very big, enormous" and continues to shine "with intensity" thanks to the sacrifice of tens of thousands of Cuban doctors who, from the anonymity of their heroic action everywhere, continue to believe that another, less cruel world is possible.

Article by Salim Lamrani

Evo Morales Highlights Example of Operation Miracle

Fidel Castro and Evo Morales

Bolivian President Evo Morales has highlighted the example of Cuba during a meeting in honour of the more than 600,000 eye surgeries carried out as part of Operation Miracle.

He underlined the unconditional nature of this help, the exponents of which are Cuban internationalist physicians offering their services in the Andean nation. This made it possible for these humble persons of scant economic resources to recover their sight, the Granma newspaper reported.

Morales explained that this mission also favored that in addition to almost 500,000 Bolivians, citizens from neighboring countries like Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay were also seen at eye centers located in bordering areas.

The head of state acknowledged the self-denial of the Cuban physicians who, far from their homeland and families, work in Bolivia to help the needy, without any economic or political interest.

The Bolivian president pointed out that more and more peoples and governments in the region follow the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist course of the Cuban Revolution and its leader Fidel Castro, the architect – he recalled – of Operation Miracle.

According to the blog of Cuban National Television special correspondent Yosvany Noguet, the meeting was held at the Eye Center of the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the southeastern part of the country, which has 10 surgical posts corresponding to the six eye centers of the Cuban Medical Brigade.



Story courtesy of Cuban News Agency

Over 4 million patients seen by Cuban doctors in Nicaragua

The Ernesto Che Guevara medical brigade working in Nicaragua since 2007 has offered more than four million consultations as part of a collaboration program between Cuba and Nicaragua.

Dr. Alfredo Rodriguez, head of the group, told Latin American news agency Prensa Latina that the Cuban doctors, at the request of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), will continue offering their help to low-income people in far-off areas.

The Cuban specialists are working in the poorest areas of Nicaragua including Siuna, Bonanza, Puerto Cabeza, Waslala, Mulukuku, Laguna de Perlas, Bluefields and Kukrahill.

They are also providing their services in the Lenin Fonseca Institution, in Managua and in the hospitals of Muelle de los Bueyes (Autonomous Region of the Southern Atlantic) and Waspan (Autonomous Region of the Northern Atlantic).

Rodriguez told Prensa Latina that their work does not simply involve consultations in health care centres, but includes home visits to local families.

Out of 172 Cuban specialists, 43 are participating in the Operation Miracle program which offers people with blindness or poor eyesight free surgery. Over two million people across Latin America have had corrective eye surgery through Operation Miracle.

Cuba also helps Nicaragua by providing medical training to more than 300 youngsters in under and postgraduate programs at the Latin American Medical School based in Havana.

For the FSLN, the Cuban help contributes to meeting the government's objective of restoring the Nicaraguan peoples' rights that were neglected during 16 years of neo-liberalism.

A Chance Encounter with Operación Milagro

CSC member Steve Wagstaff tells CubaSí what happened when he bumped into a Cuban Medical Brigade on a recent trip to Cochabamba, Bolivia

One morning I was passing through Cochabamba’s main square, Plaza 14 de Septiembre, when I spotted a gazebo adorned with a banner advertising Operación Milagro. Under the gazebo, six or seven youthful people were grouped around a table giving out information about the service.