Venezuela slams ruling barring Cuban doctors

More than 1,000 Cuban doctors, sports trainers, sugar experts and other technicians are working in Venezuela. · The cooperation treaty includes the shipment of 53,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan oil to Cuba.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's left-wing government Friday condemned as politically motivated a court decision to bar Cuban doctors from working in Caracas' slums and said they would remain in their jobs.

The ruling Thursday by the First Administrative Court rekindled a fierce debate in Venezuela about growing cooperation between President Hugo Chavez's government and communist Cuba.

Accepting an appeal by the Venezuelan Medical Federation, the court decided that 417 Cuban doctors working in Caracas' Libertador district under a bilateral cooperation program were practicing illegally and should be replaced by local doctors.

Calling the decision "grotesque," Health Minister Maria Urbaneja said the government would appeal. She told a news conference the Cuban doctors would stay in Venezuela and their numbers would be increased.

"There is not a court decision that can be above our commitment to provide health and well-being for the people," she said.

Urbaneja and other officials said "coup-mongering" foes of Venezuela's president were behind the court decision.

Opponents accuse Chavez, a close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, of trying to install Cuban-style communism in Venezuela. He says his self-styled "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil exporter aims to help the nation's poor.

Leaders of the Venezuelan Medical Federation had argued that the Cuban doctors were hired in violation of Venezuelan laws regulating the practice of medicine.

They accused the Cubans of being political activists, of not having proper training and of taking jobs away from local medical professionals.

Urbaneja said the Cuban doctors were brought in because the government could not find enough Venezuelan doctors willing to work in crime-ridden slums of Caracas.

Venezuelan Medical Federation President Douglas Leon said the government should respect the court ruling. "I hope they are going to send the Cubans home," he said.

Fears of Cuban 'infiltration' in Venezuela (Castro's communism)

Chávez's school plans ignite furor in Venezuela ***A new constitution written by Chávez supporters requires all schools to teach ``Bolivarian principles'' ---- a code phrase for Chávez's brand of leftist populism ---- and the pro-Chávez majority in the legislative National Assembly is preparing a bill laying out the exact curriculum. Last month, the president issued Decree 1011, creating a corps of ``itinerant inspectors'' empowered to close schools and fire teachers that don't follow government-set procedures and standards.

``Political commissars,'' Agudo called them. Jaime Manzo, head of the national teachers' union, called it ``a sword hanging over the head of any teacher who refuses to sing Chávez's praises in the classroom.'' Parents' groups and the teachers' union have appealed to the Supreme Court to block the decree and submitted to the assembly an alternate education reform plan that guarantees a ``pluralist education'' and bans ``partisan politics'' from the classroom.

New history texts for fourth- and sixth-graders published in 1999 praised Chávez's coup attempt and branded as ``corrupt oligarchies'' the two parties that ruled Venezuela since the late 1950s, Democratic Action and COPEI. Chávez has also greatly expanded a system of paramilitary classes in public high schools that had long been on the books but were seldom held, portraying them as ``the founding stones of the new Venezuelan man.''

``He is promoting militarism, infecting texts with viruses that foster class hatreds ... and speak against globalization and privatization,'' Raffalli said in an interview. Chávez recently signed a deal with Cuba under which Havana will train Venezuelan teachers and provide educational materials, and Education Minister Hector Navarro last year approved a nationwide essay competition on the life of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ``Ché'' Guevara.***

A woman carries a bag filled with rice, powdered milk, beans, oil, sugar, and cornmeal sold at a discounted price of 10,000 bolivars (US$6), delivered in a government truck decorated with an image of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the words 'A plan to fight against inflated prices, a decision of President Hugo Chavez' in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Thurs. Aug. 21, 2003. Chavez's personable style have persuaded millions that he is their only hope, even as Venezuela plunges deeper into misery. (APPhoto/Leslie Mazoch)

Thanks For The Post

One day a Chavez could come to rule America if the 3rd world poor over run the current population. President Bush should put Pat Buchanan in charge of the INS.

Pat is good man for this job and is the only
person addressing the immigration problem.

SOURCE: Pat Buchanan on Immigration.

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