MINREX statement
In the last hours different authorities acting in the Plurinational State of Bolivia have presented the idea that Cuban collaborators encourage the protests that are taking place in Bolivia, to which a similar approach in social networks is joined, through accounts of doubtful origin and false profiles that incite violence against health personnel.
In that context, on November 13, four members of the Medical Brigade in El Alto were arrested by the police as they went to their place of residence with money taken from a bank to pay for basic services and rentals of the 107 members of the Brigade Medical in that region.
The arrest came under the slanderous presumption that the money was dedicated to financing protests. The representatives of the police and the Public Ministry, visited the headquarters of the Medical Brigade in El Alto and La Paz and confirmed, based on documents, payrolls and bank details, that the amount of money coincided with the amount regularly extracted every month.
The four collaborators arrested are:
• Amparo Lourdes García Buchaca, Bachelor of Electromedicine. In Cuba he worked at the Provincial Center of Electromedicine in the province of Cienfuegos before starting the mission in Bolivia in March of this year.
Idalberto Delgado Baró, Bachelor of Economics from the Special Municipality of the Isla de la Juventud, who worked at the Municipal Electromedicine Center of the Isla de la Juventud when he joined the mission in Bolivia last March.
• Ramón Emilio Álvarez Cepero, Specialist in Intensive Therapy and Endocrinology who worked in Cuba at the General Gustavo Aldereguía Hospital in the Province of Cienfuegos until he began his mission in Bolivia in July 2017.
• Alexander Torres Enriquez, specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine who worked in Cuba at the Carlos Verdugo Polyclinic in the province of Matanzas when he left to complete a mission on February 3, 2019.
Permanent contact with these Cuban cooperators has been maintained, through the Cuban Embassy in La Paz and the Medical Brigade Headquarters.
The four Cuban collaborators have a recognized trajectory in accordance with their occupational profile and, like the remaining, they have strictly and rigorously adhered to the humanitarian and cooperative work that motivated them to travel to that country in accordance with intergovernmental agreements.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects the false accusations that these partners encourage or fund protests that are based on deliberate lies without any foundation.
In the circumstances described, the immediate return to the Homeland of the Cuban collaborators has been decided.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that detained cooperators be released immediately and that the Bolivian authorities guarantee the physical integrity of each of the Cuban collaborators in accordance with the responsibilities acquired by the Bolivian State with the security and protection of the corresponding employees with signed intergovernmental agreements.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Bolivian authorities to stop the exacerbation of irresponsible anti-Cuban and hateful expressions, defamations and instigations to violence against Cuban cooperators, who have given their solidarity contribution to the health of that Bolivian brother town. The millions of Bolivians who have received the altruistic attention of the hundreds of Cuban doctors know perfectly well that lies cannot hide the meritorious contribution and noble purpose of our health professionals.
(Translate by Embassy)