The doctor Álvaro Pérez Pérez, the only oncology specialist on the Island of Youth, was fined 4,000 pesos this Saturday by inspectors while he was organizing a garage sale in Nueva Gerona to supplement a salary that, in his own words, is not enough for him to eat.
The doctor reported the incident in a video posted on Facebook in which he explained that the inspectors imposed the penalty for selling notebooks with brown covers at 100 pesos each, along with used clothing that he offered between 300 and 400 pesos.
"Now some inspectors come and tell me that because I set notebooks at 100 pesos, they have to impose a fine of 4,000 pesos on me," Pérez Pérez recounted in front of the camera, visibly indignant.
The specialist noted that this figure is approximately equivalent to half of their monthly salary as a doctor, highlighting the magnitude of the penalty.
"The salary is not enough to live on. I set up a stall to sell used clothes and I put a notebook for 100 pesos, and then the inspector comes and charges me half of the salary I earn in a whole month," he explained.
He also decided not to point the camera at the inspectors, clarifying that he did not want to expose them, but rather to document the situation as a testament to what it means to live in Cuba today.
The reaction on social media was immediate and overwhelming. Hundreds of Cubans expressed outrage and solidarity with the oncologist.
"What a shame for a country that barely has any doctors, and those who are available have to struggle," wrote one user. Another comment pointed directly to the corruption in the system. "Instead of doing what they're supposed to, they are looking for bribes," they contrasted.
A third person summed up the collective sentiment: "They have made me feel so bad, as if I were a criminal. Trying to survive honestly, and I have been treated like a thief."
From January 2025, inspectors will be paid based on their results —the number and amount of fines imposed— a system announced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero in December 2024 that has led to a spike in arbitrary sanctions across the country.
In an April complaint, inspectors openly acknowledged that they were required to issue fines even if the business had no violations, because "they are demanded to come back with results."
The average salary in the healthcare sector in Cuba is around 6,562 pesos, which is equivalent to about 16 dollars at the informal exchange rate, while the salary of a newly graduated doctor barely exceeds 5,060 pesos.
The basic basket for two people in Havana exceeds 41,000 pesos per month.
In May of last year, a specialist doctor left the profession, claiming that despite working more than five shifts a month, her salary never reached 10,000 pesos, and that four basic products consumed her entire income.
Between 2021 and 2024, Cuba lost approximately 77,522 healthcare professionals due to emigration, and the number of doctors fell from about 105,000 to 75,364.
That the only oncologist on the Isle of Youth has to sell used clothes to survive, and is penalized for doing so, encapsulates in a single event the dual crisis facing the Cuban healthcare system: miserable salaries and an inspection apparatus turned into a revenue-collecting machine.
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