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Operación Milagro (English: Operation Miracle; also Misión Milagro in Venezuela) is a program of international solidarity launched in 2004 by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela to provide free medical treatment for people with eye problems.[1] It additionally provides the countries it operates in with new medical equipment and infrastructure.[2] By 2019, over 4 million people in 34 countries had received free treatment through the program.[3] The program is integrated into the programs of the ALBA.[4]
While in the initial phase of the program patients were transported to Cuba to be attended there, by 2017 there were 69 ophthalmological centers in 15 countries, carrying out vision-saving and restoring surgery.[5]
Origins
Vision impairment is a greater issue in the Global South, as in 2015 ninety percent of all visually impaired people lived in the developing world.[2] Latin America specifically struggles with a lack of access to healthcare and malnourishment, directly affecting the eyesight of millions in the region.[6] Eye surgeries can cost upwards of $10,000 in medical costs.[4] Issues regarding poor medical systems has led to many of the twentieth century Latin American revolutions addressing gaps in medicine.[6] Since the Cuban Revolution, the government in Cuba has committed itself to advances in healthcare.[6] This includes internationalist missions to Latin America and Africa, which have been an aspect of Cuba’s foreign policy and relationship to the Global South during the twentieth century.[7]
In the post-Soviet world, Cuban medical internationalism has greatly expanded for both political recognition and economic incentive.[7] After Hugo Chávez became the President of Venezuela in 1998, Cuba and Venezuela began an organization in 2003 called the ALBA, economically and politically connecting left-wing Latin American governments.[4] To combat illiteracy, the two governments created an initiative called “Yo, sí puedo,” or “Yes, I can.”[8] However, the program reached a roadblock, as poor vision from a lack access to healthcare in Latin America hampered the ability to read.[2] In 2004, the Cuban and Venezuelan governments then reached an agreement to create a new program to combat the issue of poor vision and blindness, known as Operación Milagro, or Operation Miracle.[2]
References
- ↑
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3
- REDIRECT Template:Cite
- ↑
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- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lamrani, Salim. “THE BOUVARIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA: THE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL INTEGRATION.” International Journal of Cuban Studies 4, no. 3/4 (2012): 347–65.
- ↑ Yaffe, Helen. “Cuban Medical Internationalism: An Army of White Coats.” In We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, 147–74. Yale University Press, 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Public Health in Latin America." In An Atlas and Survey of Latin American History, by Michael LaRosa, and German R. Mejia. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2019.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Blue, Sarah A. “Cuban Medical Internationalism: Domestic and International Impacts.” Journal of Latin American Geography 9, no. 1 (2010): 31–49.
- ↑ Salim Lamrani, and Translated by Larry R. Oberg. “Fidel Castro, Hero of the Disinherited.” International Journal of Cuban Studies 8, no. 2 (2016): 151–68.