14ymedio, Madrid, December 4, 2023 — The Cuban Observatory for Social Audit (OCAC) accuses the Cuban Government of having appropriated almost 70 billion dollars from international missions, money that was never reinvested in the National Health System. The organization – based in Madrid, made up of activists, researchers and journalists and part of the network of the Cuba Siglo 21 ideas center — has released a report titled Cuba: GAESA’s plundering of health security in which it describes the military conglomerate’s plundering from the national Public Health.
The text is based on the premise, put forward by the Cuban regime, that the appropriation is carried out to sustain the universal and free health service; an appropriation that can amount to 90% of the salary of health workers sent to work abroad.
The authorities defend that their system is based on the free training of professionals who, in exchange, receive a small part of the payment that foreign governments make for them and deliver the rest to the State, so that the State can continue to offer Cubans medical assistance without making payments. The regime has defended this repeatedly when they have been accused of sending doctors to do forced labor.
Gaesa, the holding company of the new Cuban oligarchy, using the International Financial Bank, not only robbed the doctors, it robbed the nation, thereby promoting the dismantling of the public health system
However, the OCAC has analyzed the statistics released by the Government itself through the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) which show that in the last 13 years – the period studied – at least 13 times more was invested in the construction of hotels than in the healthcare sector.
According to a note published by this newspaper, in 2022 alone the amount was even greater, since 33% of the State budget (23,360 million pesos, almost one billion dollars at the official exchange rate) was allocated to “business services and real estate,” while 2.1% went to Health and public assistance (1.52 billion pesos or 63.4 million dollars), that is, 16 times less.
The OCAC report precisely details the money “looted” by Gaesa at 69,866,399,679 dollars and requests that both it, the Ministry of Public Health and the companies exporting Cuban medical services make public all their accounts and immediately refund the money into the system.
“Gaesa, the holding company of the new Cuban oligarchy, using the International Financial Bank, not only robbed the doctors, it robbed the nation, thereby promoting the dismantling of the public health system,” t
