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Viewing cable 06GEORGETOWN130, Guyana Snares Cuban Medical Aid And Scholarships

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06GEORGETOWN130 2006-02-07 15:22 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Georgetown
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 000130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV EAID PREL SCUL KPAO KHIV CU GY
SUBJECT: Guyana Snares Cuban Medical Aid And Scholarships 
 
 
1. President Jagdeo returned from a two-day visit to Cuba 
and held a press conference to trumpet several pledges of 
assistance, including the establishment of an ophthalmology 
clinic and a scholarship program for Guyanese students to 
study medicine, agriculture and engineering in Cuba. The eye 
clinic, to be established in the hospital in the eastern 
Berbice Region city of Port Mourant, will be staffed by 
Cuban physicians and will provide up to 10,000 eye surgeries 
per year free of charge. 
 
2. Castro has also offered to fund 965 scholarships for 
Guyanese students to study in Cuba, including 715 
scholarships over the next 5 years to study medicine and 250 
for agriculture and engineering. Guyana currently has some 
300 students studying in Cuba, 70 of which are studying 
medicine. Cuba is also exploring the possibility of 
supplying instructors to train nurses. Castro's offers will 
not come without cost for Guyana, as Guyana was reportedly 
asked to earmark US$1.2 million to finance the purchase of 
equipment for four treatment centers to be established in 
Guyana and staffed by 27 Cuban physicians. In addition, 
while Cuba will pay the doctors' salaries, Guyana will fund 
accommodation and stipends for the doctors in the amount of 
GD40,000 (USD199) per month. 
 
3. Jagdeo demurred from questions about the West's response 
to his courtship of the Castro regime, as the government- 
owned Guyana Chronicle reported that "[Jagdeo] added that he 
does not make decisions based on who would be comfortable 
but on the needs of the people to whom he has an 
obligation." A government press release entitled "Would Cuba 
aid affect Guyana/US relations" issued on February 6 stated 
that Jagdeo and Castro did not discuss politics and quoted 
Jagdeo as saying "We have many common views on how our 
countries should develop, but our countries are different 
and the model practiced in Cuba, would be different from the 
model practiced in Guyana. You already know where I want to 
take this country and that includes private capital playing 
a very important part." 
 
4. COMMENT: Politics aside, Post questions the 
sustainability of Cuba's programs to train Guyanese medical 
professionals. The GOG typically waives migration 
restrictions on trained professionals when their immigration 
petitions become current, suggesting that such programs in 
the long run will not noticeably check the "brain drain" of 
skilled professionals. The Cubans' involvement in laboratory 
matters also comes as a surprise, for the Guyana and the 
regional Caribbean plans for lab services do not appear to 
include any mention of such a plan. The public relations 
impact of such a program, however, is evident from the 
sizable media coverage of Cuba's efforts. The Cubans are 
receiving the kind of press that will help them win the 
hearts and minds of the Guyanese. Each time Cuban doctors 
come to Guyana to provide eye treatment, they receive front 
page headlines in the three major daily newspapers.  This 
contrasts greatly with the efforts of TDY U.S. military 
physicians and the Mission's PEPFAR initiatives taken in 
country which are often relegated to less noticeable 
sections of the newspapers. 
 
BULLEN