The US government, particularly the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is maintaining strong pressure aimed at ending the presence of a brigade of Cuban doctors in all the Calabrian provinces, denounces an article published on the website of the newspaper Avvenire.

The article remembers that, to this end, the US Charge d’Affaires in Cuba, Mike Hammer, traveled to Calabria last February with the US consul General in Naples, Terrence Flynn, who met with the regional governor, Roberto Occhiuto. “It is rare for Washington’s diplomacy to be concerned about the healthcare personnel of an Italian region,” the text points out, alluding to the real intention: to try to deprive the island of the income derived from these services, which help finance healthcare expenses in that country.

Furthermore, Italy is the only European Union nation that employs a significant contingent of Cuban doctors in its hospitals, so achieving the cessation of that presence represents “a symbolic political objective” for Washington, observers indicate.

The agreement dates back to July 2022 when Occhiuto, who also served as regional health commissioner, signed an agreement at the Cuban Embassy in Rome with the Cuban Medical Services Company to provide up to 497 professionals to Calabria.

The result “has been very positive,” Dr. Francesco Moschella, head of emergency services at the Polistena hospital in Gioia Tauro, told Avvenire. He described the local health situation as disastrous until the first doctors arrived on the island, and now there are almost 400.

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