Cuban Doctors Sent to Venezuela Say They Were Deceived, Forced to Fabricate Statistics

EspañolTwo Cuban doctors who abandoned their “foreign mission” in Venezuela said they were lied to about the conditions of the country, and forced to continue those lies in order to make it seem better than it is.

“I was in the Cuban medical mission in Venezuela 14 months and we were deceived when we arrived to Venezuela,” Dr. Yanisley Felix said. “It was not what we expected. Working conditions, living conditions, lying about what the mission consisted of and our purpose there.”

“The conditions in Venezuela are precarious,” Roldán Machado, another a doctor who abandoned travel plans, said. “We all know the lies that we are told there. We are forced to lie about hospital admissions in order to lie about those statistics that they (the government) want so much.”

Both doctors crossed the border into Colombia last October, where they were welcomed through the US Embassy to the parole program for Cuban doctors that has since been suspended.

The program was created in 2006 by President George W. Bush’s administration, allowing thousands of medical professionals to escape from Cuban medical missions abroad, but it was suspended last January by the Obama administration.

Over 10 years, more than 8,000 Cuban professionals were able to benefit from the program, especially in countries like Venezuela and Brazil.

Sources: Cubanet; Martí Noticias.