Cuban medical brigade arrives in Panama in spite of US pressures

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 24 (ACN) For the first time in the history of the Henry Reeve Medical Contingent, one of its brigades will arrive this Thursday in Panama, after the government of that country requested Cuban health assistance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, saw off the team of 231 collaborators at the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation (UCCM), most of them doctors, but also including transfusion medicine graduates and administrative staff, professionals, all representing the 15 Cuban provinces and the special municipality Isle of Youth.

Dr. Carlos Pérez Díaz, chief of the brigade, stated that nothing and no one will be able to prevent the Cuban doctors show that a better world is possible.

In statements to the Cuban News Agency, he pointed out that arriving for the first time in Panama is of great importance for the Henry Reeve Contingent, as it is a country very close to Cuba and with strong bilateral diplomatic ties.

He considered that for the professionals of the Island it will be very satisfactory to be able to share with Panamanian colleagues, in addition to contributing to saving lives, the main purpose of the mission.

Dr. Santiago Badía González, general secretary of the National Workers' Union of Health, in the words of farewell he expressed that these collaborators will follow the example of the more than four thousand professionals who have integrated the Henry Reeve Brigades in the combat to pandemic.

He assured that the Cubans will provide the highest quality service to Panamanian people and also insisted that the aid workers participate under the principle of voluntariness.

Health professionals in Cuba are trained to value, with special sensitivity, the life of patients, without interfering in the political affairs of the countries where they provide collaboration, he said.

For Meyling Hung Molina, a first-degree specialist in Internal Medicine, Panama is her first internationalist mission, so she confessed to ACN that she feels a little tense because of such a high responsibility but that she is eager to learn and help.

She commented that she is proud to belong to this medical force that has placed Cuba's name at the top of the continent and the world.

Despite the risks involved in the pandemic, the doctor stressed that all the collaborators are prepared and are a big family, which among themselves will take care of themselves to be able to fulfill the mission, she stressed.
Pressure from the U.S. government did not prevent Panama from receiving medical aid from Cuba, which has also reached 39 other nations to combat the effects of the pandemic.