Bush, Chavez, Castro
Wield Scalpels in Fight
for Latin America
By Bill Faries,
Bloomberg.com
(Bloomberg) -- The
latest battle for
influence in Latin
America is pitting the
U.S. Navy's medical
corps against brigades
of Cuban and Venezuelan
doctors.
President George W.
Bush, eager to limit
fallout from
congressional delays in
approving trade deals
with Peru, Panama and
Colombia, has dispatched
the U.S. Naval Ship
Comfort to the region.
With 12 operating rooms
and a 1,000-bed
hospital, the converted
oil tanker has performed
about 180,000 free
surgeries and exams
since June.
The U.S. health
offensive is designed to
blunt the influence of
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez and Cuban
President Fidel Castro,
both of whom provide
free medical care in
Latin America and the
Caribbean, often
subsidized by Venezuelan
oil proceeds. Cuba also
builds clinics and
hospitals and trains
foreign medical students
in a six-year curriculum
at the Latin American
School of Medicine in
Havana.
Skeptics say the
Comfort's port calls
won't substantially
enhance America's
influence in the
hemisphere. ``It's hard
for the U.S. to compete
with Cuba and Venezuela
in this way,'' said
Peter Hakim, president
of the Inter-American
Dialogue, a policy-
research group in
Washington. ``It makes
us look like we're
trying to imitate them.
Cuba's doctors aren't
docked at port for a
couple days but are in
the country for years.''
U.S. officials counter
that the Comfort's
mission ``is a very
visible way to
demonstrate our
commitment to America's
friends and neighbors,''
Undersecretary of State
Karen Hughes said in a
telephone interview.
Warm Welcome
Bob Kapcio, the
Comfort's captain, said
the ship even received a
warm welcome in
Nicaragua -- whose
president, Daniel
Ortega, fought
U.S.-backed rebels in a
civil war with his
Sandinista government
during the 1980s.
``When we arrived in
Nicaragua, the local
Sandinista party mayor
kept giving me bear
hugs,'' said Kapcio,
whose previous
assignment in 2004 was
aboard a destroyer in
the Persian Gulf.
Kapcio, 47, gave a tour
of the ship to
Nicaragua's Army
commander, General Omar
Halleslevens, and Vice
President Jaime Morales,
who said at a press
conference afterwards
that the country was
``grateful for the
help'' the Comfort gives
``the most destitute
Nicaraguan people.''
Eight-year-old Maria
Francisco had bandages
around her nose and
mouth after an operation
for a cleft pallet on
the Comfort when it was
docked off the coast of
Corinto, Nicaragua.
``She's doing great,''
said her aunt, Luisa
Sanchez, 32, before she
and Maria were lowered
from the 10-story-high
ship into a small boat
for the ride home.
Message: `We Care'
When Bush, 61, announced
the Comfort's deployment
in March, just before he
started a tour of five
Latin American nations,
he declared that ``we're
making it absolutely
clear to people that we
care.'' Chavez shadowed
him on the trip, telling
30,000 people in Buenos
Aires while Bush was
across the Rio de la
Plata in Uruguay that
``he's dressed in a
sheep's skin, but he's a
wolf trying to divide
us.''
The Comfort has so far
visited Belize,
Guatemala, Panama, El
Salvador, Peru, Ecuador,
Colombia and Haiti. This
week the ship is in
Trinidad and Tobago,
with more stops planned
in Guyana and Suriname.
In addition to providing
onboard operations and
exams, the Comfort sends
technicians to repair
medical equipment at
local hospitals and to
check on children at
orphanages and schools.
The U.S. also, through
the Agency for
International
Development, funds
programs in Latin
America to reduce the
transmission of HIV/AIDS
and improve child
survival and maternal
health.
Scoffing at the U.S.
Castro and Chavez, 53,
scoff at the U.S.
efforts, which they say
pale next to their own.
In a July 16 article for
the Havana-based daily
Granma, Castro, 81,
contrasted the Comfort's
one-week stay in Haiti
with Cuban doctors who
work ``in 123 of the
country's 134
communes.''
The Communist nation has
more than 32,000 medical
professionals in 101
countries worldwide,
according to its embassy
in Bolivia. The
ambassador there, Rafael
Dausa, said in an
interview that Cuban
doctors completed their
6 millionth free consult
in Bolivia in July.
Chavez's Venezuela,
meanwhile, has paid for
more than 81,000 eye
surgeries as part of the
country's ``Miracle
Missions'' project, said
Dr. Rosalinda Prieto,
45, director of the
Perez Carreno hospital
in Caracas. The program
has flown in patients
from countries including
Chile, Ecuador, Mexico
and Nicaragua for free
operations.
``They didn't ask for
anything,'' said Alicia
Alemany, 72, a Chilean
who received a free
cornea transplant in
Caracas. Chavez is ``an
example for other
countries,'' she said.
``He's distributing
wealth.'' |
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Military Sealift Command
hospital ship USNS Comfort is moored in Manta, Ecuador,
on Aug. 15, 2007. Photographer: Mass Communication
Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Karsten/U.S. Navy via
Bloomberg News |
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