Hunger Striker Dr. Jeovany Jimenez Survives, and Wins, in Cuba
Posted: 04/ 2/2012 4:28 pm
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.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuba-hunger-strike_b_1397775.html
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