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Venezuelan
court shelves Cuban doctor programVenezuelan
court shelves Cuban doctor program
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The
Miami Herald, november 12, 2003.
CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela's Supreme Court
threw out Tuesday the government's appeal
of a lower court's decision to suspend a
program putting hundreds of Cuban doctors
to work in Caracas slums.
The decision was a blow to a program that
President Hugo Chvez has hailed
as a cornerstone of his professed ''revolution''
for Venezuela's poor majority. The program
is one of several initiatives into which
the government has poured millions of dollars
ahead of a possible recall referendum on
Chvez's rule next year.
The ruling was a victory for Venezuela's
medical establishment, which argues the
so-called ''Inside the Slum'' program violates
laws requiring foreign doctors to equivalency
exams before practicing here. Chvez's
political foes claim the program seeks to
indoctrinate the poor with socialist ideals,
charges the government denies.
Former Health Minister Mara Urbaneja
and Freddy Bernal, the mayor of the Caracas
district where most of the Cuban doctors
work, had challenged the lower court's Aug.
21 decision to suspend the program until
about 1,000 Cuban doctors working in Caracas
take equivalency exams.
The Supreme Court declined to hear their
appeal, arguing neither official was qualified
to file cases in representation of collective
interests, according to a statement released
by the Supreme Court.
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