(fwd from Camacaro) Cuban Doctors in Venezuela

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Cuban Doctors in Venezuela Operate Free Neighborhood Clinics
Thursday, Oct 23, 2003
  
By: Argiris Malapanis and Camilo Catalán CARACAS, Venezuela--"You can
find the Cuban doctors at the clinic until noon, but then they
continue visiting people in the neighborhood, house-to-house. It
doesn't matter what time it is, they are always there when you need
them," said María Elena León. "What the Cuban doctors have done,
Venezuelan doctors have never come close to. I had a terrible lower
back pain from December 16 to June 19. I lost 18 kilos [40 pounds]. No
one could tell me what was wrong. I finally went to a Cuban doctor who
diagnosed the problem and now, after the treatment I got for free, I
have recovered." León, a resident of the January 23 neighborhood, a
working-class district on the hills overlooking downtown Caracas,
spoke to Militant reporters there October 8. Her view was typical of
opinions expressed by the overwhelming majority of working people
interviewed by the Militant in some of the poorest neighborhoods of
Venezuela's capital, as well as in four other cities and several rural
areas of the country.  About 250 Cuban doctors, nurses, and
technicians had served in Venezuela in recent years, arriving soon
after Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998. But their presence
has increased exponentially this year under the Barrio Adentro (Inside
the Neighborhood) program. Cuban doctors now provide basic health care
to millions of Venezuelans in areas where the toilers had little or no
access to medical services. Barrio Adentro was launched in the
Libertador municipality of Caracas this spring. By early June, more
than 1,000 Cuban doctors were serving in working-class neighborhoods,
primarily in and around Caracas. Four months later, their number has
more than doubled and their services have reached as far as the
industrial city of Puerto Cabello in the state of Carabobo, and
peasant communities in the mountainous areas of the state of Lara in
northwestern Venezuela.  The more its popularity has spread in workers
districts and peasant communities, the more Barrio Adentro has come
under fire from the Venezuelan bourgeoisie and layers of the middle
classes. El Universal, in particular, and other big-business dailies
and TV stations have waged a virulent campaign against the
program. Opposition politicians--who have been leading a two-year-old
effort to topple Chávez with Washington's support--charge that the
Venezuelan government is "Cubanizing" the country. They also claim
that the Cuban physicians are not here to save lives but are "Castro
agents"--in reference to Cuban president Fidel Castro--brought to
"indoctrinate the poor." The Venezuelan Medical Federation has
denounced the program. On June 1 it asked the courts to bar the Cuban
doctors from practicing. On August 21 the First Administrative Court
obliged, ruling in favor of the Medical Federation's request, a
decision that the Venezuelan government is planning to appeal. Over
the last month, anonymous threats of physical attacks against Cuban
doctors have increased.
 
full at: http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6738/673802.html



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