The hell of the doctors of Castroism

• Cuba.The new dollar stores, crowded with people and products
• Cuba.The Cuban deserters, and disguised, of the Persian Gulf

More than 1,500 Cuban health professionals have been deployed in 20 different countries to fight the pandemic that plagues the planet. Governments and administrations have agreed with Havana to receive the controversial medical brigades, whose components are "subjects of a process of extreme surveillance and regulation of their life that is typical of a dystopian future of Orwell," denounces EL MUNDO José Miguel Vivanco , director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Repression, jail or exile threaten doctors who rebel against the impairment of their rights. "Doctors offer valuable services to many communities, but at the cost of their most basic liberties," concludes Vivanco.

The prestigious NGO has thoroughly investigated the interiors of what it denounces as exploitation or even forced labor. "The UN rapporteurs have warned Cuba that the conditions to which they subject these doctors could even be considered a form of modern slavery," the director of the HRW explained to EL MUNDO.

An ironclad manual of repressive norms accompanies Cuban doctors who travel abroad, who in some cases are reminiscent of social control mechanisms already overcome even on the island . The staff must report all their love relationships to their superiors. It is also prohibited to maintain relations with people who maintain "positions hostile or contrary to the Cuban revolution" or "whose conduct is not in accordance with the principles or values ​​of Cuban society." Living with unauthorized people violates codes of conduct.

The brigadistas must take careful care of their public presence, avoiding frequenting places that damage their prestige or where disturbances of public order may occur. To participate in political acts, as they often do in Venezuela, they must have the permission of their superiors.

The most severe sanctions lead to processes with penalties of up to eight years in prison, the same amount of "punishment" without returning to the island, which implies abandonment and flight from the mission . This provision violates, according to HRW, the enshrined right to enter one's own country that applies to all people, including Cuban citizens.

Being considered a "regulated population", doctors can only travel abroad with special permits . In recent recruits to fight Covid, doctors confessed to the organization Prisoners Defenders that they accepted the job because they feared reprisal or were doing so to get food or flee the country.

HRW and United Nations investigations report "excessive hours worked" , limitations on vacations and wages and the threats already reported. In its response to the UN, the Cuban government denied the allegations and singled out human rights rapporteurs for "fomenting spurious campaigns promoted by the US government." The usual excuses.

The great news is that this time HRW is not addressing Raúl Castro or the new president, Miguel Díaz-Canel , but rather to the countries that receive doctors so that they are "aware that if they do not pressure Cuba to modify this draconian system, they can become accomplices of serious human rights violations, "said Vivanco.

The priority is the European countries that financially support medical missions , as well as the countries of the Latin American region that have considered requesting these doctors to face the pandemic, such as Mexico, Peru and Argentina.

The modus operandi in revolution makes its doctors its main source of income amid a coronacrisis that has paralyzed tourism. The latest data is that the missions report 5.5 billion euros to the country , "which represents 43% of total exports," according to economist Pavel Vidal, a former Banco de Cuba official.

A matter of state, vital for the revolution and in which it turns its entire propaganda apparatus. Another thing is the work of the doctors in each country, which arouses applause and also criticism. Venezuela, a key part of this puzzle, has just received with hype and revolutionary dishes a brigade in Zulia, epicenter of the epidemic. In that state there are already a dozen local doctors who have died.

"It is a mixture of populism and lies. Our doctors do not have biosecurity means and instead they do have all the protection material," deputy José Manuel Olivares, Health Commissioner for the presidency in charge, protested.

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