Havana – The official Cuban Communist Party newspaper defended on Monday “Operation Miracle,” a health-care initiative being carried out by Cuba and Venezuela, against the “selfish and rich ophthalmologists” who oppose the program.
Granma said the health-care program was initially launched by Cuba and later joined by Venezuela, providing free eye surgery, especially for cataracts, to the poor and helping some 250,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Despite the great emphasis it places on people and solidarity, it paradoxically brings out opponents among those who hate and spurn, especially among the ranks of those selfish and rich ophthalmologists who charge thousands of dollars for just one operation,” Granma said.
President Fidel Castro on May 24 defended three Cuban doctors who were sued in Uruguay after selecting patients for the program without having licenses to practice medicine in the South American nation.
Castro said the Cuban doctors “have not violated any laws” and those who wished could go to the Cuban Consulate in Montevideo to check their credentials.
The Cuban leader also railed against the “rich ophthalmologists,” who he said were the main enemies of the program.
Several days ago, Dr. Albert Lue, head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Jamaica’s Kingston Public Hospital, tried to “cast doubt on the high level of qualifications of our specialists, their surgical ability and the technology they use” after conducting a survey of patients treated in Cuba, Granma said.
The newspaper said that among the people who underwent operations were patients with “hard cataracts” linked to glaucoma, trauma and other problems who “normally are excluded by ophthalmology services to prevent the great possibility of complications that could occur among the patients.”
The Cuban-Venezuelan health-care program also briefly became an issue in the campaign for the Peruvian presidential runoff election, which was won over the weekend by Alan Garcia.
The Peruvian government said last week it was keeping tabs on 80 Venezuelans newly arrived on a private flight due to concerns that they might be planning to cause disturbances during the runoff election.
Socialist Party Congressman Javier Diez Canseco said Wednesday, however, that the charter flight from Venezuela was actually carrying Peruvian patients who had been operated on by Cuban and Venezuelan doctors.
Diez Canseco said the 79 patients from poor rural areas in Peru aboard the flight had undergone eye surgery under Operation Miracle.
