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Chávez’
‘agents’ in Havana
BY
ELSON CONCEPCION PEREZ —Special
for Granma International—
THE
opposition in Venezuela has launched all kinds of
actions against the Bolivarian program headed by
President Hugo Chávez, ranging from last April’s
coup d’état, strikes and economic sabotage to
paralyzing schools so that children cannot learn,
closing banks and calling for civil insubordination.
The
coup organizers and their press have linked the name
of Cuba to that campaign with fascist aspects by
employing diatribe and lies and stating that the
Venezuelan government has sent its agents to be
trained in Havana.
That
calumny has prompted me to investigate the true
nature of those "agents."
Martha
Bolívar, coordinator of the Cuba-Venezuela Health
Agreement in the Presidency of the Bolivarian
Republic, explained the identity of the alleged
agents from her country currently in Havana or who
have returned home after receiving medical treatment
on the island to Granma International.
The
31-year-old sociologist relates the plan:
"The
first flight of Venezuelan patients to be treated on
the island was on November 30, 2000. On that
occasion we brought 48 sick people. It was a very
moving experience, because it was the first contact
of that kind with the most needy persons in my
country who had been through the entire Venezuelan
heath care system without receiving a positive
response.
"That
is why President Chávez perceived this agreement as
a brilliant response to that population in
need."
How do
you know that they are the most needy?
"Centrally
because we have direct contact with them. We
interview those who apply from all parts of the
country.
"Currently
we have around 10,700 applications in the data base.
Counting the last flight, which was number 51, 3,120
patients have already traveled, plus 2,699 people
who accompanied them; in other words, a total of
5,819 Venezuelans. Of them, 1,202 were operated on
in Cuba, involving a large variety of surgical
interventions, including bone marrow transplants,
heart surgery etc."
How do
you select who has priority?
"The
majority of those to have benefited to date are
people with very scant financial resources, without
discriminating against others with certain
resources; in other words we were guided by a
medical criterion and a human one, as there are many
cases that even with some resources could not afford
the attention and medical services offered free of
charge in Cuba.
"Health
is the right of all human beings. But persons
without economic possibilities have priority. For
example, surgery for a child with congenital heart
disease in a private Venezuelan clinic would cost at
least 10 million bolívars ($5,500 USD).
"What
do you think of those persons in your country who
are saying that Cuba is training Chávez agents?
"Those
are purely mercenary criteria. What those
oligarchies want is to recoup the space that they
have lost.
"Look,
when patients who have treated in Cuba return to
Venezuela and land at Maiqetía airport, that is a
tremendous experience, really gratifying for all of
us who work on the agreement, and for their
families.
"One
of the things that most impresses them is the human
warmth with which they are treated in Cuba by
doctors, nurses, and workers at La Pradera and other
institutions."
Recuad¼
"Agent"
Tito
Of all
the agents sent for training in Cuba by Hugo
Chávez, he is perhaps one of the best known. His
name is José Israel Castillo, he lives in Maracy
and came for eye treatment.
He
tells us: "I got a cyst in my eyes, was
operated on in Venezuela but was left blind. My mom
knew about this plan and talked to people so that I
could come to Cuba and see if my sight could be
recovered. I came, that have given me ozone therapy
treatment to try and improve my vision even a
little. I have recovered something and I’ve been
here two years. They arranged for me to study in the
Abel Santamaría special school in Liberty City. I
am in fifth grade there and have learnt a lot.
And
your future?
"When
I’m grown up I want to be a Braille teacher and a
singer¼ of salsa and merengue."
Have
you got a message for the Venezuelan children?
"Tell
them to study hard and fight a lot so that the
schools are opened and they can study, so that when
they grow up they can graduate as doctors and help
the people."
"Agent"
Juan de la Cruz Rosas
Aged
36. From Caracas. "I came on August 16 last
year due to a urological disorder. I have already
had two operations and still have one more to go. I
am 100% recovered. I had no possibility of having
those operations in Venezuela because with my
economic situation I could never pay the cost of
such treatment. I think what they have done in Cuba
is worth more than 60 million bolívars ($33,300
USD) and the care has been excellent.
"Agent"
Wilmer Manzanares
Aged
46. Suffering from spinal damage. "In
Venezuela, after my accident, they told me I would
have to pay 100 million bolívars to replace two
vertebrae, without the security of being able to
walk again. That price was just for the operation,
without the rehabilitation.
"Then,
thanks to my Comandante Chávez and Fidel, that
marvelous agreement was reached to benefit the poor
people of Venezuela. I live in Barquisimeto, a part
of Sabana Grande. I’m a worker and would have to
sell everything that I have, including my house, to
have an operation. I should have to throw my three
children out on the streets and sell the house, for
an operation that they couldn’t assure me would
result in me walking again.
"In
the three weeks that I have been here I can already
feel my feet, they have done all the examinations
but, most important of all is the human warmth. In
fact, I don’t need those two vertebrae as I was
told in Venezuela. It’s not a problem of vertebrae
but rehabilitation, and that’s what they’re
doing.
"Agents"
Miriam Romibert and Mirian Vegas
Miriam
Romibert is the first Venezuelan patient to have
open-heart surgery at the Santiago de Cuba Cardiac
Center, says her mother, adding: "They operated
on December 18 and now, exactly one month later, she’s
going back to Venezuela, completely recovered.
Thanks to God everything went fine. They did the
rehabilitation right there in Santiago." (The
child, smiling, pulled up her T-shirt and showed me
a completely healed scar). Her mother continued:
"We’re from Maracy. I have three
children."
And
why wasn’t she operated on in Venezuela?
"It
would be an extremely expensive business. I went to
four institutions, the catheter they were going to
implant would have cost me nine million bolívars
($5,000 USD), and the operation another 4-5 million
(about $3,000 USD). We are poor. The only person
working is my husband, a store man in a
pharmacy."
Anything
else in particular?
"Yes,
to the doctors and nurses in Santiago de Cuba, that
they go on helping the Venezuelan people. I am
leaving feeling very content. Dr. Cueto, all the
nurses, all of them treated us marvelously. It was a
family."
"Agent"
Yumié Yakary Pérez
A
child of four, with infantile paralysis. She has
been in Cuba for three months. Marbelys, her
maternal aunt, explains while the rehabilitation
therapist works so that the child can do things by
herself: "The improvement is tremendous. In
Venezuela the doctors told me not to waste time and
money, that the child was never going to be able to
walk; however, her she can already stand up and move
her legs. See for yourself.
"The
rehabilitation process here would have cost me
around 25,000 bolívars ($14 USD) every two hours,
and here it is all day, with doctors and therapists,
totally free of charge.
Nota
especial¼
The
day of the interviews with these patients of modest
means, I heard that one of the accompanying
Venezuelans had given birth in La Pradera.
The
baby was a beautiful little thing with dark, dark
hair, named on her Child Identity Card as Branllelys
Coromoto Medina. She is the daughter of Yeissi
Medina, a young woman who has been here three months
with her father Rito Medina, who is a paraplegic as
the result of a gunshot wound.
"My
dad arrived unable to walk, and he is already taking
steps with crutches." Yeissi came on her own
with her father and is now returning with a baby in
her arms and the hope of being able to complete
higher education studies in her homeland.
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