“They de facto took away our custody (of our children). In the new legislation called parental responsibility, we are going to legally lose parental authority over our children. It is a crime against parental authority, against the rights of the child, against humanity and the family,” said Leyva, who was on a mission in Brazil between 2017 and 2018, in the message broadcast at the press conference.
According to his testimony, the doctor did not return to Cuba after the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, announced that there were slave doctors in his country. After that announcement, the doctors denounced that they experienced surveillance by the authorities and harassment through the messaging of their phones in order to make them return to La Isla.
“They showed up at our houses, to pressure us and make us return,” Leyva lamented. She reported that her daughter also began to suffer bullying at her school by her own teachers, while her son was fired from work due to “superior orders.”
He accused that through the medical missionsthe Cuban government obtains resources that it uses to finance its own expenses.
In the presentation, Javier Larrondo, director of the organization Prisoner Defenders International, highlighted that while the Cuban doctors who came to Mexico in the previous mission allocated almost 11,000 dollars per person, most of those resources went to the coffers of that countrywhile the workers barely received two payments, one of 400 dollars and another of 324 dollars when they returned.
“The Mexican government sponsored slavery,” he said.
According to another testimony, Dr. Emilio Arteaga, a Cuban doctor who sent a message from Spain, the authorities of his country keep up to 80 percent of the profits received by doctors participating in missions abroad.
TESTIMONIALS
In addition to that testimony, there is also that of Dr. Omar Tamayo, who was on a mission in 2005 in Haiti, and had to return to Cuba for fear of reprisals and later escaped with his family. This is due to the risk that a law known as “the 8 years” will be applied to them.which limits the visits they can make to the country to once a year if they desert a mission.
Last week, Prisoner Defenders International launched a petition to the international community in favor of 5,000 minors separated from their parents due to this law.
According to the report by Andrea Meraz, from the previous mission of Cuban doctors in the country, at least 15 are still in national territory, hiding for fear of reprisals, while others tried to escape to the United States with the limitation of not being able to practice their profession in that country, since they do not have the documentation to validate their studies. A new mission is expected to arrive in the country in the coming days with at least 500 members.
Related Notes: