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The government of Lenin Moreno has decided to put an end to the agreements signed between the Ecuadorian and Cuban health ministries of the time of the ex-president Rafael Correa, champion of the socialism of the XXI century.
Doctors have long been a true export product of Havana. With the reputation of its medical schools, the Cuban regime has sent tens of thousands around the world, especially in the regimes close to it. This allowed him to get dollars into his crates that desperately needed, recalls our correspondent in Ecuador, Eric Samson .
The system was very simple: instead of paying directly to Cuban doctors, countries like Ecuador poured the money directly to the Cuban embassy, which donated a small portion to its citizens. In addition to the fact that the Ecuadorian Labor Law prohibits the payment of wages to an intermediary, the result of the system was that Cuban doctors were in fact employees of their government when they were supposed to work for Ecuador. The Minister of the Interior, Maria Paula Roma, is proof of the number of Cuban doctors with an official passport.
Replaced by local practitioners
This is what Quito is questioning today. The Minister of Health announced Tuesday that her country no longer wanted to maintain this kind of contractual relationship with Cuba. The minister said that the population would not be affected by the departure of Cuban doctors, often detached in disadvantaged geographical areas. The latter are in fact only 400 and their posts will be proposed by the end of the year to Ecuadorian candidates.
This decision has been approved by many local doctors who for years have questioned the quality of their Cuban colleagues trained in universities where equipment is often not last generation for lack of money.
Questioning the system in Latin America
Beyond the Equator, Cuban doctors seem to be no longer welcome in a Latin American landscape that has changed, says our correspondent in Havana, Domitille Piron . The medical cooperation agreement was signed between Raul Castro and Rafael Correa in 2013. And it is also the time when Cuba and Brazil of Dilma Rousseff set up a similar exchange program. The political context of these two countries has changed, as in El Salvador, with the arrival of right-wing presidents who seem to want to maintain a certain distance with Cuba.
Havana denounces a campaign led by Washington to convince the Latin American countries to no longer hire Cuban doctors. This export of health professionals brings Cuba more than six billion dollars a year.
And there are already fears of the questioning of Cuban medical cooperation in Bolivia. In the midst of a political crisis and with the departure of Evo Morales, the 700 doctors on the spot were asked not to leave their homes, so as not to put themselves in danger and wait for instructions from Havana.
Six other agreements threatened
Ecuador also reported that six other agreements with Cuba in the area of health would be investigated and could be canceled as well. It is thus the very nature of these programs of cooperation with Cuba which are questioned.
Already last year, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the International University of Quito had criticized the exploitation of Cuban doctors and considered that their presence was purely political. At the time, the Cuban ambassador had to react by explaining that these accusations were false and that Cuba paid the accommodation, the holidays and the salary of his doctors, without specifying the amount.
And regularly, Cubans seem to have to justify their program of medical cooperation in the world: President Miguel Diaz-Canel recalled last week that it was an international solidarity program and currently 29 000 professionals Cubans operated in 65 countries around the world with vulnerable populations.