U.N. agency may sponsor “modern-day slavery”

Posted on Wednesday, 08.28.13



U.N. agency may sponsor "modern-day slavery"

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

AOPPENHEIMER@MIAMIHERALD.COM



The United Nations Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is doing

great things in Latin America, but I wonder whether its latest role as a

middleman to help place 4,000 Cuban doctors in remote areas of Brazil

does not amount to sponsoring slavery.



Under a deal between Brazil and Cuba that was brokered by the

Washington-based PAHO, the Latin American branch of the U.N. World

Health Organization, the Brazilian government will pay Cuba the

equivalent of $4,080 a month — or nearly $49,000 a year — for each of

the Cuban doctors.



The Brazilian government says the Cuban doctors are needed in remote

areas of northern and northwestern Brazil, because no Brazilian

physicians want to take those jobs. The first 400 Cuban doctors started

arriving in the South American country on Aug. 24 amid public criticism

from Brazil's biggest physicians' associations.



Brazil's National Federation of Brazilian Physicians, Fenam, has said

that "the Cuban doctors contracts have the characteristics of slave labor."



Under the PAHO-brokered Brazilian program, called Mais Medicos (More

doctors), Brazil pays Cuba the entire amount of the Cuban doctors'

wages, and Cuba later pays a fraction of it to the doctors.



Here's the problem: Neither Brazil, nor Cuba, nor PAHO are saying how

much of the $4,080 a month per doctor will go to the doctors working in

Brazil.



Solidarity without Borders, a Miami-based organization that helps Cuban

doctors around the world, says the Cuban government pays its doctors

working in Brazil and other countries between $250 and $300 a month, or

about 7 percent of the full amount it gets from the Brazilian

government. The remaining 93 percent are pocketed by the Cuban

government, the group says.



"It's a modern-day slavery system," Solidarity Without Borders President

Julio Cesar Alfonso told me in an interview. "The only difference is

that it uses highly skilled slave work."



Asked how does he know the amount paid by Cuba to its doctors in Brazil,

since it's an official secret, Alfonso responded, "It's very simple:

there are about 30,000 Cuban doctors in Venezuela, and other tens of

thousands around the world, and more than 5,000 have already defected.

They tell us how much they were being paid by the Cuban government."



Former Cuban ruler Fidel Castro created this doctors-for-export racket

in 1982 as a way to earn cash for the country. Castro opened medical

schools throughout Cuba to produce as many doctors as fast as possible.

As Cuba's economic situation deteriorated over the years, Cuba stepped

up its doctors' export business, Alfonso says.



Some of the Cuban doctors that are being sent abroad have not even

graduated, Alfonso said.



"They are now exporting 5th and 6th-year medicine students to Venezuela,

as part of their training to get their degree," he said.



Cuban doctors who are sent to Brazil, Venezuela and other countries

don't complain about their pay: the $250-$300 a month that they can make

in Brazil is nearly ten times more than the average of $30 a month that

they make in Cuba. In addition, it gives them a chance to defect,

Alfonso says.



"It's a good business deal for Cuba, and it also serves as a way to

export Cuba's ideology to the poorest parts of the world," Alfonso says,

adding that Cuban doctors played a big role in helping late Venezuelan

President Hugo Chavez win support in poverty-stricken parts of

Venezuela. "In remote jungle regions where they never saw a doctor, the

presence of a fifth-year Cuban medicine student is a godsend."



When I called PAHO to ask how much the Cuban doctors in Brazil will be

paid by Cuba, I was told that PAHO's director, Carissa E. Etienne, was

not available but that PAHO's Brazil office would respond via e-mail.



A few hours later, I got PAHO's non-answer. It said that that "the Cuban

doctors are Cuban government officials," and that they will be paid

their normal wages with "an additional salary" by the Cuban government

"according to the laws of that country."



As for the Brazilian doctor's federation assertion that the deal amounts

to "slave labor," PAHO's response was that, "This question has been

examined by various departments of the Brazilian government and the

country's authorities do not agree with that assertion."



My opinion: There is nothing wrong with Brazil hiring Cuban doctors who

are willing to go to remote areas of the country, where Brazilian

doctors allegedly refuse to go.



But the Brazil-Cuba deal whereby the Cuban government reportedly pockets

93 percent commission on the Cuban doctors' salaries is scandalous.



And for an affiliate of the United Nations — an organization whose

charter calls for the abolition of all sorts of slavery, and that

celebrated the U.N. International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave

Trade just last week — is even more outrageous.



Cuban doctors should be allowed to work in Brazil, but they should be

paid their full salary. Otherwise, it's hard to see the ongoing deal —

and the fact that all three sides are not disclosing how much the Cuban

doctors in Brazil will be paid — as anything other than a modern day

high-skilled slave trade.



Source: "Andres Oppenheimer: U.N. agency may sponsor "modern-day

slavery" - Andres Oppenheimer - MiamiHerald.com" -

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/28/v-fullstory/3592257/andres-oppenheimer-un-agency-may.html