Cuba denounces shameful pressure from the US on Italy for hiring Cuban doctors

Havana, March 23 (RHC) The recent pressure from the US government on Italy against the hiring of Cuban doctors in Rome, was described as shameful, when trying to apply the economic blockade to the island extraterritorially.

In a statement released this Thursday, the Italy-Cuba Friendship Association also indicates that it is an "absurd interference by the United States in the internal affairs of this sovereign nation, by asking for explanations on this issue from the Italian health authorities”, as revealed by the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

According to this news outlet, the US embassy in Rome demanded Italy’s Ministry of Health to clarify "the procedures for hiring fixed-term professionals and their remuneration" in Calabria.

On December 28, 51 Cuban health specialists arrived in Calabria, including cardiologists, pediatricians and surgeons, who provide services in hospitals in the towns of Locri, Polistena, Gioia Tauro and Melito Di Porto Salvo.

The president of that region, Roberto Occhiuto, stressed that "we are happy for the opportunity to have highly specialized doctors." Occhiuto pointed out that Calabria seeks to guarantee all the tools at its disposal for the care of citizens, in the face of the existing health emergency in that area of ​​the country.

The assistance of Cuban doctors is "a concrete way to give immediate responses to the needs of citizens, provide services adequately, to guarantee operational health facilities throughout the region and functioning hospitals," said the Calabrian politician.

On January 8, the Italy-Cuba Friendship Association, together with other Spanish, French and Swedish organizations, sued the European Parliament to protect the countries of the region against the extraterritorial application of the "blockade imposed by the world's leading power on a small country in the Third World". (Source: Prensa Latina)