Setting the record straight on healthcare in Cuba

Debunking the Castro regime's healthcare claims

Cholera patients in Cuba (CNN)

Cuba has a two tiered health care system one tier for the nomenklatura and foreign tourists with hard currency that offers care with modern equipment and fully stocked pharmacies, then there is a second tier which is for the rest  with broken down equipment, run down buildings and rooms, scarce supplies, a lack of hygiene, the denial of certain services and lengthy wait times. Healthcare professionals are poorly paid and lack food.

On December 28, 2017 the Spanish news service EFE reported that the Castro regime had dismantled a network of medical officials and workers who'd adulterated a medicine for children made at the laboratories of the state-owned drug company BioCubaFarma. They replaced the active substance methylphenidate with a placebo substance in the manufacture of the drug marketed as "Ritalin." The active substance was sold on the black market. Nevertheless, The Miami Herald had an article touting the importance of importing drugs from Cuba on December 14th.

The statistics and numbers that the international community has access to with relation to the Cuban healthcare system have been manipulated by the dictatorship. Katherine Hirschfeld, an anthropologist, in Health, Politics, and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898 describes how her idealistic preconceptions were dashed by 'discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,' she observed a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on 'militarization' and short on patients' rights.  

News accounts from time to time break through the fog of communist propaganda like the EFE article cited above.

In 1997 when a Dengue epidemic broke out in Cuba the dictatorship tried to cover it up. When a courageous doctor spoke out he was locked up on June 25, 1997 and later sentenced to 8 years in prison. Amnesty International recognized Dr. Desi Mendoza Rivero as a prisoner of conscience. He was released from prison under condition he go into exile in December of 1998. The regime eventually had to recognize that there had been a dengue epidemic. 

On January 15, 2010 The New York Times reported the confirmed deaths of at least 20 mental patients at the Psychiatric Hospital in Cuba, known as Mazorra, due to "criminal negligence by a government characterized by its general inefficiency," a day later the Cuban government confirmed that 26 patients had died due to “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees.”

The 2012 cholera outbreak in Cuba offered an opportunity to see how the Cuban public health system operates. The well being of Cubans is not the first item on the regime's agenda. This was demonstrated in it's response. News of the outbreak in Manzanillo, in the east of the island, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to the reporting of the outlawed independent press in the island. The state controlled media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. The BBC reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with Cholera in Havana. The dictatorship stated that it had it under control.

In July 2013 an Italian tourist returned from Cuba with severe renal failure due to Cholera. New York high school teacher Alfredo Gómez contracted cholera during a family visit to Havana during the summer of 2013 and was billed $4,700 from the government hospital. A total of 12 tourists have been identified who have contracted cholera in Cuba.

The dictatorship in Cuba has both an incredibly effective propaganda and state security apparatus however what it does not have is an effective healthcare system for Cubans. As masters of propaganda the Castro regime can produce statistics and spin a story of wonderful medical care. Officials claimed that "this is the first cholera outbreak since soon after the 1959 revolution." However, doing a search through The New York Times archives the last quarantine for Cholera it reported in a headline on Cuba was on September 16, 1916. The last cholera epidemic in Cuba ended in 1882.

 Sherri L. Porcelain is an adjunct professor who has taught Global Public Health in World Affairs at the University of Miami for more than 30 years. She wrote an important analysis titled U.S. & Cuba: A Question of Indifference? I could not find this article on the ICCAS web site, found it initially at Professor Suchlicki's Cuba Studies Institute, but it is no longer online. This is troubling and what Dr. Porcelain's analysis reveals is disturbing.

"Investment in the health of people includes protecting human rights. This means allowing the health community to speak out and not to be jailed for releasing information about a dengue epidemic considered a state secret, or not sharing timely data on a cholera outbreak until laboratory confirmation of travelers returning from Cuba arrive home with a surprising diagnosis. This causes me to reflect upon my personal interviews where the remaining vigor of public health actions in Cuba exists to fight vector and water borne diseases. Sadly, however, health professionals are directed to euphemistically use the vague terms of febrile illness in place of dengue and gastrointestinal upset for cholera, in contradiction to promoting public health transparency."

Let us hope that this myth of the Castro regime being a health care super power be debunked before any more foreign patients or tourists are negatively impacted or that policy makers in other countries seek to copy the disastrous system in the island.

Cuban dissident sent to the madhouse of death for defying regime

The price of dissent in totalitarian Cuba today

Daniel Llorente running with an American flag chased by secret police on May Day

On May Day 2017 Daniel Llorente Miranda (age 52) a Cuban dissident unfurled an American flag and ran in front of the official gathering in Havana, Cuba. The image captured by international media captured the imagination of many around the world. It was a symbol of freedom and of defiance by a Cuba who understands that "Freedom begins in the mind and that is something that has to change in Cubans, they are afraid to tell the truth. The truth is that in Cuba there is a system where the biggest beneficiary is the government. The people work and benefit the State." Moments later he was tackled down by state security agents and quickly whisked away.

Daniel Llorente knocked down by political police and about to be roughed up

He was charged with "public disorder and resistance" and was initially held at the Technical Department of Investigations of the Police in 100 and Aldabó and the official media slandered his courageous action as an "annexationist dialogue." 

Things took a more sinister turn when over three weeks ago Daniel Llorente Miranda was transferred to the Comandante Dr. Bernabé Ordaz Ducungé Psychiatric Hospital better known by its pre-revolutionary name Mazorra.

Using psychiatric facilities to torture dissidents is a practice that originated in the Soviet Union but was adopted early on by the Castro regime's intelligence services. In the Cuban case Mazorra is a madhouse of death were patients have died by the score from exposure to the elements and neglect by hospital staff.

Cuba's National Psychiatric Hospital "Mazorra"

Daniel Llorente Miranda has been terrorized, responded by going on hunger strike and is now requesting to be exiled. This is the price of dissent in totalitarian Cuba. When you defy the dictatorship you risk: arbitrary detention, death or exile.

Daniel is imprisoned and his life is in danger. He carried out a series of protests and risked all to try to raise the conscience of Cubans and their desire for freedom. The price he is paying is a steep one and he is asking for international solidarity and asylum.

Three of 26 patients who died of exposure in 2010 in Cuba

 
 

Castroism's disaster in healthcare in Cuba, replicated in Venezuela

The New York Times has done an expose on Venezuela's psychiatric hospitals on October 1, 2016 that bears an eerie resemblance to the national psychiatric hospital in Cuba known as "Mazorra."

Psychiatric hospital in Venezuela in 2016

In July of 2014 Marc Masferrer in the blog Uncommon Sense reported on how Cuban guards were beating the patients to silence their screams, providing patients very poor quality food, and raping psychiatric patients in Mazorra. Marc posted the picture below in the post.

In January of 2010 at least 26 psychiatric patients died of exposure and hypothermia at the Cuban national psychiatric hospital and an outraged, unknown whistle blower was able to get shocking photos out of some of the victims.

Three of the victims of exposure and hypothermia at Mazorra in 2010

The fruits of Castroism in Cuba is a 57 year long disaster both socially and politically. For many years it was successfully covered up by clever government propaganda because there is no free press. However in Venezuela there is still a remnant of liberties and it is more difficult to cover up the hunger and misery, for now.  Hugo Chavez promised to bring the happiness of the Cuban people to the people of Venezuela. Sadly both he and Maduro are making good on that promise and the results as can be seen above are the same.

State Security threatens 15-year old knifing victim with Psychiatric hospital admission

Berenice Héctor González

 Daughter of regime official repeatedly stabbed a 15 year old girl who had asked her to stop insulting the Ladies in White scarring her for life. Now state security agents are threatening to send her to a psychiatric hospital.

The attacker, Dailiana Planchez Torres, is the daughter of a captain of the political police in the town of Cienfuegos.

Berenice Héctor González, a 15-year old young woman, suffered a knife attack on November 4, 2012 after she had asked Daliana to stop insulting The Ladies in White, of which her aunt, Belkis Felicia Jorrín Morfa, is a member.

As a result, Berenice was repeatedly stabbed in the face, neck, breast and legs.  She received 66 stitches for her injuries.

Early tonight, January 12, 2013, Angel Moya tweeted: Berenice Hector Gzlz, girl brutally stabbed for defending Ladies in White threatened by State Security with psychiatric hospital admission.

The Castro regime has a track record of using psychiatric hospitals as centers to torture dissidents and destroy their minds. In addition, the conditions in these facilities are inhumane. In January of 2010, 26 psychiatric patients died of exposure at the National Psychiatric Hospital known as Mazorra.

First they scarred her body and now they seek to do the same with her mind and reputation. Further proof that the dictatorship in Cuba remains a totalitarian regime.

One Year After Mazorra

Negligence, Indifference & A Madhouse of Death in Cuba

Fernando Comas one of the patients who died at Cuba's
National Psychiatric Hospital "Mazorra" in 2010 (Photo BBC Mundo)

Today marks one year since the world learned about the deaths of 26 psychiatric patients at the Cuban Psychiatric Hospital in Havana known as Mazorra. Yoani Sanchez denounced this atrocity last year along with other dissidents, but today on her twitter account provided an update on what has and hasn't happened since then:

They are trying to hide during these days the first anniversary of the deaths of dozens of patients at a psychiatric hospital because of starvation and cold. The results of the police investigation into the deaths at Mazorra were never made public. Official figures spoke of 26 dead, but it is clear to everyone now that the number of dead exceeded 40 victims. After that various twitterers created the tag #despidanabalaguer (#firebalaguer) calling for the minister of Public Health to be fired. Although Balaguer was removed he was never prosecuted for negligence. He was the minister and had to know what was occurring. Autopsy pictures of the dead patients were leaked. More than 300 lurid photos of emaciated skeletal bodies.

Nelly López, mother of Fernando Comas, one of the victims (Photo BBC Mundo)

BBC World in Spanish reported on the fact that a large number of Cubans are demanding accountability surrounding this crime and fear that it will not be forthcoming ending the article with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "All suppressed truths become poisonous." In the same article Nelly López, the mother of one of the victims, Fernando Comas, explains that she has been waiting for a year for an official explanation that she has asked everyone but no official replies just rumors.

[Warning the video below contains graphic images of the victims]

Unfortunately this tragedy should not have come as a surprise to human rights observers of Cuba. Amnesty International had raised the issue first in their report Psychiatry: A Human Rights Perspective in 1995:

In Cuba, there have been allegations in recent years that not only the criminally insane but also political prisoners have been sent to forensic wards of state psychiatric institutions where they are kept in unhygienic and dangerous conditions and where they are exposed to ill-treatment either at the hands of staff or fellow inmates. In 1988 Amnesty International visited the Havana Psychiatric (Mazorra) Hospital in Havana. The delegation was permitted to visit one of the forensic wards - the Sala Carbó Serviá. However, the existence of a second forensic ward, the Sala Castellanos, was denied by a hospital official. It was this ward which was alleged to present harsh conditions and to be used for the punishment of prisoners.

Amnesty International reported how prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was sent to Mazorra on November 29, 1999 to Mazorra. He was sent to Mazorra by State Security agents and forced to undergo psychiatric examinations on several occasions including November 29th.

Cuba's National Psychiatric Hospital "Mazorra"

Amnesty also reported how on December 4, 1998 Cuban dissident Milagros Cruz Cano, who is blind, was detained by State Security agents while waiting for a bus. She was initially held at the Maria Luisa police station in Havana where she was: "beaten by police officers which resulted in a swollen cheek and a bruise and scab below her eye. She was then transferred to Mazorra psychiatric hospital in Havana where she was held in an isolated cell called Córdoba. The conditions of detention were said to be degrading as she was held in a cell with iron bars which other patients and guards could see into and where she had to carry out all personal hygiene. She was released on December 14, 1998 without charge."

Observers need to take into account that in addition to negligence and indifference to human suffering that led to a situation in which more than 40 patients died of malnutrition and exposure to cold in a tropical country that this psychiatric hospital was also employed in the mistreatment and torture of Cuban dissidents and human rights activists.

Earlier today Yoani Sanchez concluded her tweets on Mazorra calling for the publication of the report of this crime stating:

I dare to venture a label to require the publication of the results of the investigation into Mazorra #muertosmazorra (#mazorrasdead)

Its easy for someone writing from abroad to second this call to action because, unlike in Cuba under the current regime, living in a part of the world were freedom of expression is respected means not having to contemplate the consequences of being harassed and prosecuted by the state for denouncing a crime. Nevertheless, there are brave people in countries like Belarus, Cuba, China and Vietnam that risk everything to do just that. Those who don't face those dangers and are people of good will could at least assist them in relaying their message to the rest of the world and not let their calls for justice remain unanswered.

Cuba: Negligence, Indifference & the Madhouse of Death

26 mental patients dead due to negligence and indifference

Foto from EFE of Cuban healthcare facility today

What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil. Elie Wiesel, The Perils of Indifference

Over the past week while the world has rightfully focused on the natural disaster that has killed tens of thousands of innocent Haitians destroying the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere necessitating an international wave of solidarity and assistance to prevent an even greater tragedy. Neighboring Cuba continues to suffer through a man made disaster that over the past week has been guilty of indifference to those too infirm to take care of themselves leading to 26 needless deaths.

The New York Times reported on Friday, January 15, 2010 that after Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez, of the "illegal" Cuban Commission for Human Rights, denounced the confirmed deaths of at least 20 mental patients at the Psychiatric Hospital known as Mazorra on Thursday due to "criminal negligence by a government characterized by its general inefficiency" and that a day later the Cuban government confirmed that 26 patients had died due to “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees” after in an interview with El Nuevo Herald the day before Sánchez expressed his outrage at the regime's silence over the man made tragedy:

“Never in the history of the republic have so many hospital patients died -- avoidable deaths. …The most irritating thing is that the government is keeping silent. … This is a great tragedy, not a hurricane, not an earthquake, but criminal negligence by a government characterized by its general inefficiency.”

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights reported that the government did not do enough for the patients due to problems like faulty windows. According to The Miami Herald report on the interview "[a]pparently there was no warm clothing, and above all no concern that the patients be warmly clothed,'' said the representative of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights adding that "[a]t 5 p.m. on Monday they received a very limited dinner. By Tuesday morning, they were dead." Let no one forget that Dr. Darsi Ferrer documented the lack of windows in hospitals and for his efforts has been beaten, threatened, and has now been imprisoned without trial since July of 2009. Back in November the myth of Cuban healthcare was outlined on this blog.



According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights, Cuba does not accept the cooperation of the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) or other nongovernment organizations that "could prevent situations dangerous to the health of people in psychiatric hospitals, prisons . . . and other entities." For example since 1959 the ICRC was only granted access to Cuban prisons once in 1989 over 20 years ago.

It makes one wonder whether in addition to Mazorra there is another madhouse at the Council of State of the Cuban dictatorship or worse a profound indifference to human suffering of those who cannot fend for themselves by those running an absolutist totalitarian dictatorship?