Two more Cuban medical professionals have been attacked and injured in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one of them chopped on the hands in Georgetown, the northeastern town that is the regional capital of that area.
The attacks Tuesday night follows the one on July 1, when a Cuban physician was left in intensive care after being slashed in the abdomen in Kingstown.
iWitness News was reliably informed that Daima Ves Aeosta, a 39-year-old medical engineer of Cuba, residing at Georgetown, was chopped on the hands by an unidentified assailant about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday night.
Also, Janet Gameo Fableone, a 46-year-old x-ray technician, also of Cuba and residing at Georgetown, was struck with a stone to the nose, resulting in injury, also around 10:20 p.m. Tuesday.
Police have launched an investigation into the incidents, which come 11 days after Dr. Alfredo Batista Salgado, a member of the Cuban Medical Brigade, was attacked on his way home to McKies Hill.
An unknown assailant cut Batista across the abdomen, resulting in his intestines being exposed and hospitalisation in the Intensive Care Unit.
There are a number of Cuban healthcare professionals performing various roles in the public and private healthcare sector in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves condemned the July 1 attack saying he felt “so terrible” about it.
“I feel so terrible about this incident which happened where someone inflicted this very severe wound on a Cuban doctor,” Gonsalves had said on local radio.
Gonsalves also spoke of the excellent relationship between the Cuban medical professionals and the people and the other health workers in the Georgetown area, where many of the Cubans are based.
The prime minister noted that the attack on the doctor comes days after the announcement by Havana that it will grant 21 scholarships to Vincentians this year, an increase over last year’s figure.
The prime minister said he was surprised at the increase in light of “all of the difficulties that Cuba is facing”.
My heart goes out for those Cuban healthcare workers, it’s so sad to hear some Vincentians are so heartless. Those Cubans are doing a great job here, rendering their services to us, they do not have to be here, but they chose to. Those people MUST be caught and pay for their crime. Wishing those workers a speedy recovery.
Find them and deal harshly with them. It’s so evil ‘ you DONT bite the hand that feeds you’. The society is sick!!!