Bush, Chavez, Castro Wield Scalpels in Fight for Latin America

[Jahness]

Bush, Chavez, Castro Wield Scalpels in Fight for Latin America

Bill Faries

Sept. 19 (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.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Faries in Buenos Aires at wfaries@bloomberg.net .

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