Venezuelan court shelves Cuban doctor program

Miami Herald ^ | November 13, 2003 | AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

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 Chávez 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 Chávez'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 pass equivalency exams before practicing here. Chávez's political foes claim the program seeks to indoctrinate the poor with socialist ideals, charges the government denies.

Former Health Minister María 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.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I imagine Chavez got his court to rule this way to stir up the Chavistas before the three day petition drive the end of this month. I don't think the Cuban agents in Venezuela are going to be sent home while Chavez is in power.

[piasa]

He needs them to stay in power.

[holyscroller]

Cuban doctors. What do they use, voodoo dolls and pins?