An annual review of work carried out in 2019 by Cuba’s 13 social missions in Venezuela, led by the office that supervises them, served to highlight the accomplishments of these doctors in solidarity and sisterhood, an option for humanistic professional development urgently needed by all powerful decision-making bodies and institutions of higher learning around the world, regardless of ideology, political system, religious belief, or race, since the destiny of humanity depends on respect for these values.
Party Central Committee member Julio Cesar Garcia Rodriguez, head of the office in Venezuela, described with great clarity the problematic situation: Cuba and Venezuela have established a comprehensive cooperation agreement that could serve as a universal paradigm, since it is characterized by complementarity and mutual respect based on an inclusive model of social justice. But these nations are victims of a brutal economic and media war waged by the United States government, in flagrant violation of international law.
The damage caused can be captured in alarming figures: according to published data, this hostile policy, from April 2018 to March 2019 alone, caused Cuba losses of over four billion dollars; and Venezuela has witnessed the U.S. appropriate 30 billion in assets and impose an oil embargo extended to third countries.
García noted, in his synthesis, other elements defining the context in which Cuban professionals work in the land of Bolivar: increased political, economic and diplomatic sanctions, in combination with actions of electronic, cybernetic and psychological warfare; and repeated attempts to destroy civic-military unity and create a climate of ungovernability.
Within this adverse environment, last year cooperation recorded undeniable successes: 75,394,559 medical consultations and care for 106 million patients provided; 26,465,000 examinations in high-tech Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers, and services provided to 11,841,064 patients in comprehensive rehabilitation centers.
The performance of the Cuban Medical Mission alone shows the perfidious nature of the U.S. slander campaign against this honorable work, which at this stage, among other achievements, surpassed projections for surgeries, performing 68,589 major surgeries, and 51,661 ophthalmological surgical procedures – a significant contribution to meeting the goal set by Fidel and Chávez in the Sandino agreement, reaching six million operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. All of them provided free of charge.
Close attention was paid to victims of the economic war victims, through a specific program offering services at 407 mission centers, where
3,065,711 persons were assisted.
Significant results were achieved in other spheres, but no complacency was evident during the meeting, and the debates, animated by the principles of Bolivar, Marti, Fidel, Chavez and other heroes who dreamed of true, definitive Latin American independence, focused on the search for scientific answers to a question: How best can we serve the homeland of Bolivar?
The field of action was evident in projections made for this year, during which the country’s constitutional President, Nicolás Maduro Moros, has said will see Venezuela allocate 76% of its battered budget to social investment, and in the majority of programs in which Cuban collaborators work.
A bilateral decision has been made to seek alternatives to overcome the empire’s attacks in sensitive areas, including efforts to revitalize the Barrio Adentro community health and sports missions; strengthen the Diabetes Patient Care Program, which currently has a presence in all 24 states; prepare 48 new Bolivarian apiary cores; reduce the illiteracy rate to 2% through Mission Robinson; and contribute to food self-sufficiency and the promotion of a new agro-productive culture with an impact in the country’s 24 states.
The review had a top level panel of experts serving as jury, including Aristóbulo Istúriz and Carlos Alvarado, Venezuela’s vice-president for Social and Regional Socialism, and People’s Power Health Minister, respectively, who explained the strategic lines of development policy being implemented by the Bolivarian government this year, recognizing and thanking Cuba for its support in making these goals a reality.
Since the free community health mission Barrio Adentro was launched in Venezuela, some 700 million medical consultations have been provided.
(Granma)