CUBA NEWS
November 12, 2003

Venezuelan court shelves Cuban doctor programVenezuelan court shelves Cuban doctor program 1t122y

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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