Guatemala, a Working Example of Cuban Medical Collaboration
The Cuban medical collaboration in Guatemala is continuing after 17 years. The Cuban health workers who are fulfilling a mission in Guatemala have been celebrating the 17th anniversary of the arrival of the Cuban collaborators after Hurricane Mitch in 1998
By Mariela Pérez Valenzuela
Life goes by very fast in 17 years. Guatemalan youths who are enjoying today the presence of the Cuban medical staff in the territory, were barely babies when Hurricane Mitch devastated Guatemala and left the country with basic needs in health care.
The first Cuban doctors arrived in Guatemala, one of the most violent nations in Central America, together with Mitch; however Guatemala welcomed the Cubans with open arms. Cuban doctors are celebrating almost two decades of fulfilling the sacred mission of taking health to the poorest in Guatemala, the majority of them are indigenous, in the same way Cubans do in other countries that also ask for the Cuban help.
The the Human Rights Procuraduría reports that of the more than 15 million inhabitants of Guatemala, nearly 53 percent live in poverty conditions and 17 percent live in extreme poverty. The same source also announced that from January to October there were around 4,26 murders in the national territory.
Amid of these conditions what have been the results of the Cuban’s presence, which has become indispensable for the Guatemalans who had never seen a white coat in the farthest and inhospitable places in Guatemala?
The Coordinator for the Cuban Medical Brigade in Guatemala Dr. Manuel Torres Sobrino assured recently that since 1998 until now “more than 38,994,558 medical visits were made by Cuban professionals, having an annual average of 2,293,797 patients.”
Torres Sobrino said that doctors and the rest of the medical staff have seen cases not only in the specialty of general and comprehensive medicine, but also in other health areas like gynecology, ophthalmology, pre-natal care, and training for midwives, community leaders and work teams.
At present, 450 Cuban doctors, nurses and technicians are in Guatemala. Of them, 395 are working in the Comprehensive Health Program, and 55 in Operation Milagro, that has given vision back to millions of Latin-American and Caribbean people, thanks to the idea of commander Hugo Chávez, from Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, from Cuba.
The media remembered those fateful days of Mitch –which left more than 11 thousand dead in Central America- and the fast mobilization of the professionals from Cuba, to begin to see the people affected by the hurricane.
On that occasion, the first 19 representatives of the staff of the Cuban Public Health arrived in Guatemala, and they had to rehabilitate, in only 48 hours, the La Tinta hospital, in the Northern district of Alta Verapaz, for begin to offer their invaluable work to the victims of the Hurricane Mitch.
After the passing of the hurricane, Commander Fidel Castro guided the training of doctors from Centro-American and other regions, among the youth without economic solvency, so that they could substitute Cubans when it was necessary. Thus, the Latin-American Medical School, located in Havana was founded. And, more than 200 graduates from that university are Guatemalans.