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XINHUA

The leftist administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced this week that it plans to nearly double the number of Cuban doctors working at state-run hospitals, especially in remote towns.

“We have just received the great news that we are going to be able to increase the number of Cuban doctors to almost double, with 600 more doctors on the way,” Zoé Robledo, general director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), told Xinhua.

Currently, 610 Cuban specialists are working under an IMSS program, allegedly to boost access to healthcare, Robledo said.

In an effort to improve Mexico’s sadly ailing state-run healthcare system, the López Obrador administration has hired some 4,721 specialist doctors to date, according to official Mexican statistics.

Notwithstanding, Lopez Obrador has been accused of allowing the system to languish by using it as a political tool and cancelling the purchase of essential medications, leading to the illnesses and deaths of many Mexicans, according to critics.

AMLO first brought in Cuban doctors as a temporary measure to help during the covid-19 crisis, but later decided to expand the program.

Many Mexican physicians are opposed to the contracting of the Cuban doctors, who, they claim, are not licensed to practice in Mexico and who receive nearly double their salary for comparable positions.

By the same token, many opponents to the president’s program to bring in Cuban doctors maintain that it is primarily a ruse to help indoctrinate the nation with leftist propaganda.