Cuban MD's Coming to the U.S.?

["Jay Moore" <research@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Communist Invasion-2000:Cuba Offers Medical Help
Sunday, September 17, 2000

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   WASHINGTON -- Cuban lawmakers Saturday outlined an offer to send doctors
to poor parts of the United States and to provide free medical training in
Cuba annually to 500 Americans, mostly minorities.

    Pedro Saez, who led the delegation of five black members from Cuba's
National Assembly, said at a news conference that Cuba has a surplus of
doctors and is offering to send an undetermined number to Mississippi and
other U.S. states where trained medical personnel are in short supply.

    "The figure depends on the needs," said Saez, a member of the country's
policy-making Politburo.

    Cuba also is offering medical training for 250 black Americans and for
250 Latinos, American Indians and nonminority Americans from poor families.

    A State Department official said the Clinton administration has taken no
position on the Cuban proposals.
    The leader of an anti-Fidel Castro group in Miami said the Cuban
government should worry about taking care of its own citizens and ensuring
that medicine is available.

    "Cuban-Americans send millions and millions of dollars to Cuba each year
to help the Cuban people [buy] medications," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, head
of the Democrat Movement. "If [Castro has] enough resources to send to the
United States, why doesn't he utilize them to better the conditions of the
Cuban people?"

    Saez said the legality of Americans traveling to Cuba for medical
training must be determined, given the restrictions the U.S. government
imposes on travel to the island.

    Generally, the Clinton administration has been encouraging Americans to
go to Cuba for purposes unrelated to tourism.

    President Clinton stressed his commitment to that principle this summer
in response to a legislative effort to block any further liberalization of
travel by Americans to Cuba.

    Also to be explored is whether a Cuban medical certificate would meet
U.S. licensing standards. Many Cuban doctors who have resettled in South
Florida have had difficulty obtaining licenses.

    Cuban leader Castro first made the offer during a Havana meeting in May
with visiting U.S. lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus.

    "It would be hard for your government to oppose such a program," Castro
told the Americans. "It would be a trial for them. Morally, how could they
refuse?"

    Castro's offer came after Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson told him about
high infant-mortality rate in parts of his Mississippi Delta district.

    Saez said 6,000 Cuban doctors were practicing at the time of the Cuban
revolution 41 years ago, but that figure has since risen to 66,000. Castro
decided to commit 3,000 doctors for service abroad, Saez said.

    Cuba says its family doctor program ensures that all Cubans, including
those in remote areas, have access to free health care.

    Critics of the Cuban health system point out that the country is heavily
dependent for basic supplies on donations by U.S.-based relatives and by
humanitarian organizations.

    There also have been complaints by ordinary Cubans that the best care on
the island is reserved for foreigners under a program designed for those in
need of medical treatment that is unavailable or of substandard quality in
their native countries.

    In addition, a number of disaffected Cuban doctors serving in Venezuela,
Zimbabwe and Zambia have asked for political asylum in recent months.