López Obrador pays more than 24 million dollars to the Cuban regime for two years of service from slave doctors.

The government of Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) paid more than 24 million dollars to the Cuban regime for two years of service from slave doctors, according to revelations from the press in that country.

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) paid the Cuban private company Comercializadora de Servicios Cubanos, S.A. the amount of 472 million 441 thousand 229 pesos for the contracted services of 610 Cuban doctors sent by Havana on a medical mission.

That amount, at the current exchange rate, would be around 24 million 340 thousand dollars. The payment, however, was made in euros and, according to an investigation conducted by El Universal, amounted to 23 million 241 thousand 156 euros granted through three agreements divided over periods of 10, two, and five months each, from July 2022 to December 2023.

"Of this amount, the IMSS is unaware of how much money was invested in the salary of each of the 610 healthcare professionals included in the agreements, as the hiring procedure absolutely belongs to the company based in Cuba," the aforementioned outlet highlighted after inquiring about the topic with the federal government entity.

The agreement signed between the INSS and the Commercial Services of Cuba, S.A. does not refer to the salary of Cuban doctors, nor does it specify the destination or to which medical units these health professionals are assigned. As acknowledged by the IMSS, the Mexican entity does not direct its activities or maintain a labor relationship with them.

The IMSS Transparency Unit indicated that the last agreement signed with the Cuban Services Marketing Company, S.A. expired on December 31, 2023. The arrival of more Cuban doctors in Mexico after that date remains unclear, as there is no public copy of an alleged agreement signed in 2024, of which the IMSS stated it has no record.

At the beginning of August, the Cuban ambassador in Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez Costa, reported on his social media the arrival of 200 new doctors at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport in Mexico.

In theory, this brigade would join the other health professionals already working in the hospitals of IMSS Bienestar; however, the Transparency Unit of that entity has no information about any agreements in that regard.

The diplomat indicated that "mutual cooperation for the benefit of both peoples, humanism, and solidarity are precepts that guide us"; however, beyond that discourse, many Mexicans believe that this cooperation is a disguised way of financing the regime in Havana with public money.

The Comercializadora de Servicios Cubanos, S.A. signed the first agreement with the IMSS on July 20, 2022, receiving one million 177 thousand 300 euros monthly for 11 months in compensation for the services provided by 610 Cuban health professionals.

A second agreement was signed between both parties on May 11, 2023, lasting until July of that same year. The extension allowed the Cuban entity to receive one million 636 thousand 308 euros monthly for an additional three months.

Finally, a third Cooperation Agreement, established on July 28, 2023, until December of that same year, granted the Commercializadora de Servicios Cubanos, S.A. a monthly quota (up to December 2023) of up to one million 636 thousand 308 euros.

Legal limbo or opacity starting in 2024

The hiring of Cuban doctors by the AMLO government has not stopped and aims to continue increasing, as announced on July 16, 2024, by the head of IMSS, Zoé Robledo Aburto, revealing that by that date 950 Cuban doctors were working in 23 Mexican states.

According to his words, about 2,700 new Cuban specialists would arrive in Mexico "to strengthen medical care for patients without social security in the IMSS-Bienestar programs." His words came after a meeting in May with the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel during a trip to Havana, where both governments announced the signing of "an unprecedented contract."

The day after the announcement made in Mexico by Robledo Aburto, El Universal requested information from the IMSS about the new agreement that covered what was communicated in AMLO's morning press conferences, but the Transparency Unit responded that as of that date, it did not have the corresponding information.

From the IMSS-Bienestar program, it is recognized that the request for services from Cuban health professionals does not fall within its management and it insists that there is no labor relationship with them and that there is no information about them, nor the specific salary they receive, a matter that is the responsibility of Comercializadora de Servicios Cubanos, S.A., which holds direct responsibility for their hiring.

The clauses of the agreements consulted by El Universal specify that the healthcare professionals designated by Comercializadora de Servicios Cubanos, S.A. to provide services in Mexico should not be hired individually in the facilities belonging to IMSS.

The hiring of doctors occurs amid a deep crisis in the Cuban healthcare system, where the lack of medications, supplies, and the shortage of staff in hospitals are chronic problems.

Cuba is facing a severe brain drain of healthcare professionals, driven by salaries that, adjusted for current inflation, amount to nearly 20 dollars a month.

This exodus is exacerbated by the terms of the contracts that the government signs for the service of its doctors abroad, which have been referred to as new forms of slavery, where the State retains the majority of the professionals' salary and exerts coercion over them and their families.

The remaining money from each doctor's salary is deposited in bank accounts in Cuba, subject to an official exchange rate that is much lower than the informal market rate, effectively devaluing the little that the doctors receive.

According to the mentioned Mexican media, as of December of last year, 48 specialists had deserted their activities for unspecified reasons, and their whereabouts were unknown to the Mexican authorities.