Guanajay has a central park that looks like one of a larger town and a gazebo with the majesty of an entire capital. Right there, for 28 days, Jeovany Jimenez staged a hunger strike demanding his right to return to his practice as a physician. He had been expelled from his profession in 2006 when he protested a miserable wage increase for public health personnel. He complained about the meager 48 Cuban pesos ($2 USD), to be added -- with great fanfare -- to the salaries of surgeons, anesthetists, nurses and other health care professionals. Along with the administrative action applied to him, he was also expelled from the Communist Party in which he was active. In late 2010 and in the absence of any institutional response to his complaints, he opened the blog Citizen Zero on the Cuban Voices platform.
After sending the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) a score of letters over these last five years, the proscribed Dr. Jiménez resorted to a desperate strategy, to stop ingesting food until reinstated in his position. Amidst the sadness of his friends and the curiosity of passersby in Guanajay Park, he started to lose both pounds and hope. From March 5, he refused to eat and saw only two options: abandoning his strike without achieving his goals, or ending up in a coffin. The most unlikely scenario was his legal reinstatement as a doctor, given the stubbornness of our institutions when it comes time to rectify an injustice. And yet, the miracle happened.
On Sunday, two officials from the Ministry of Public Health brought Jeovany Resolution 185, which allows him to return to work in his profession. It even reinstates the monthly salary that he was not paid over those six years of unemployment. To achieve this "happy ending" Dr. Jimenez came armed primarily with his tenacity, this constant that many of his acquaintances cataloged as almost an obsession. This protest didn't have a political slant, it was work, relying on the magnificent tool of the Internet to give it visibility, along with the microphones of journalists from foreign radio and television stations who shed light on such a disproportionate administrative punishment. But the final touch was his own body. That body that he was sworn to care for in others and that he put at risk in himself to return to the right to heal. A doctor who has struggled so as to return to the clinic, stethoscope around his neck, in whitest coat, with his prescription pad, deserves more, he deserves a diploma in gold.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
This doctor claimed a salary incleasing from 25 dollrs a month to 30 dollars a month, for this reason he was fired of his job........ that was the reason of his hunger strike......
It is a dangerous weapon to use as the most harm will always come to the person that uses it.
How effective it is depends on the demands of the person, the publicity given to the act, the notoriety of the person using it - he Mahatma Gandhi as pinnacle of the practice - and the propensity of the government targeted to "give ion" given the demands and level of publicity.
This weapon is used a lot in Cuba. too much even.
In this case the demands were in a way harmless to the regime - allowing him to work as a doctor - and the publicity rather great making it in fact a "no-brainer" for the regime to give in to the demands. They can still get to him in many ways even if he is re-instated as a doctor.
Lots of other Cubans that resort to this tactic and that remain unknown are risking a lot more.
that is why we set up this site to inform people about hunger strikes in Cuba:
http://huelgadehambrecuba.impela.net/
We try to keep it up to date as much as possible.
Roberto López Chávez, killed 12/11/1966 Isla de Pinos prison.
Luis Álvarez Ríos, killed 8/9/1967 Castillo del Príncipe prison.
Francisco Aguirre Vidarrueta, killed 9/9/1967 Castillo del Príncipe prison.
Carmelo Cuadra Hernández, killed 7/29/1969 some of Havana’s prisons.
Pedro Luis Boitel, 34 años, killed 5/25/1972 Castillo del Príncipe prison.
Olegario Charlot Spileta, killed 1/15/1973 Boniato prison.
Enrique García Cuevas, killed 5/23/1973 Pretensado prison.
Reinaldo Cordero Izquierdo, killed 5/21/1975 Pinar del Río prison.
José Barrios Pedré, killed 9/22/1977 Pretensado prison.
Santiago Roche Valle, killed 9/8/1985 Kilo 7 prison.
Nicolás González Regueiro, killed 9/16/1992 Manacas prison.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, killed 2/23/2010 Brothers Aimeijeiras Hospital.
Wilmar Villar Mendoza, killed last year in some dark hospital in Santiago de Cuba.
Jiminez is just one of tens of thousands of Cuban doctors, 99.9% who work for their patients without thought of personal advantage. Jiminez should take himself off to the US simply because his selfishness would fit right in with America's profiteering insurance company and drugs company system which cares only for large profits and gives not a twopenny damn for the patients.
"You think you're dying, Elmer? Give us your credit card or you certainly will."
If Americans who are in urgent need of medical care went on hunger strike, than maybe, just maybe, doctors and insurance companies would give in and provided them with medical care.
– Miguel de Cervantes
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/the-company-she-keeps/
The Pope was certainly right to visit Fidel since he has more in common wtih the Pope, Jesuits, and Catholic Church than Marx and Lenin.
I have been advising you since long time ago...... regime in Cuba is a fascist one not a socialist one......... with the time you will understand also the rest of those that oppose castrofascism and understand that real socialism is what opponents wants while castro is just a fascist that turned coat to communism when fascism were defeated in WWII in order to have the support of Cuba's communist party for his plane to seize absolute power.
Castro was raised in a family where fascism was worshiped; his father (a war criminal) had the home’s walls covered with portraits of Francisco Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. Castro turned coat from fascism to communism after fascism defeat at WWII. He turned to communism to get the support of Cuban Communist Party (which until the last day supported Batista), Castro’s fascist background was the real reason behind USA’s backing him and pushing Batista out the power, Batista always was a socialist and anti-imperialist (furthermore black skinned) backed by communists what made USA to want him out.