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By Raul Cortes
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico said on Tuesday it will receive 2,700 Cuban doctors to alleviate a shortage of specialists despite criticism from opponents who say it will support the communist-led Caribbean nation to the detriment of local medical professionals.
Cuba has already sent Mexico hundreds of doctors, the first wave of them arriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are employed by Mexico's public health service.
"In the latest agreement, in addition to the 950 doctors (from Cuba) who are already working in 23 states of the country, 2,700 of these specialties are being added... mainly in internal medicine, pediatrics and emergency medicine," the head of Mexico's Social Security Institute Zoe Robledo said in a press conference.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has defended Cuba's government and argues the country is the victim of an unjust U.S. economic blockade.
Political opponents and representatives of Mexico's medical field say the doctor agreements support cash-strapped Cuba.
While the government contends there are not enough specialists, Julen Rementaria, senate leader for Mexico's opposition PAN party, said in May there are 51,000 unemployed doctors in Mexico that could do the work being given to Cuban doctors.
Cuba's government has said its deployment of doctors around the world is its primary source of foreign income.
The U.S. State Department in May warned about "serious concerns with Cuba's recruitment and retention practices surrounding this program, exacerbating workers' vulnerability to being subject to forced labor."
NGO Prisoner Defenders alleged in a 2022 report that Cuban doctors traveled to Mexico in military planes, bypassing immigration, working under "slave-like" conditions, and receiving minimal compensation.
In 2023, Lopez Obrador's government began sending oil to Cuba from state-owned oil company Pemex. The exports were valued at $400 million in the second half of the year.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
