Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Cuba Has Trained 170 Doctors From the US For Free
Cuba News Agency
08 Aug 2017
🖨️ Print Article
Cuba educates medical students including those from the US for free
Cuba educates medical students from around the world, including those from the US for free.

by Cuba News Agency

Under Fidel Castro’s direction, Cuban became a “medical superpower,” setting new standards for global solidarity in the interests of human health. Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) has been training students from the United States to be doctors since 1999, and “has graduated more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries, free of charge.”

Cuba Has Trained 170 Doctors From the US For Free

by Cuba News Agency

This article previously appeared in Granma.

“In my country no one helps the other student, here teachers support the preparation.”

Cuba has graduated 170 doctors from the United States through the project of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), which was initiated by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in November 1999.
In exclusive to Cuban News Agency, Zenia Díaz Catalá, director of the general secretariat of the ELAM project, said that since the first graduation in 2005, to date, ELAM have graduated more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries, free of charge.
Dr. David Floyd, from the 2016-2017 promotion, thanked the Cuban leadership, the Cuban people, the teachers and workers of this noble project, an example of integration between peoples for a more humane world.
“For me it has been a wonderful experience, I am impressed on the link between study and work, unlike training in the United States and other nations,” stressed the young physician.
“In Cuba we are trained by touching the patient, that was the greatest thing, the solidarity; in my country no one helps the other student, here teachers support the preparation with excellent behavior,” said Floyd, an African-American, who studied in Cuba for seven years, including the pre-doctor studies.
The doctor finished his curricula at the Salvador Allende Faculty of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, an institution that graduated 52 foreign doctors, 25 of them from the United States, Dr. Suiberto EchavarrĂ­a, dean of that institution, said.
David Floyd, the father of the recent graduate, conveyed his eternal gratitude and said he was very impressed, pleased and honored because his son is a doctor trained in Cuba under ethical and moral principles, with a humanist conception.
Diaz Catalá explained that currently the ELAM project has a enrollment of 4,969 students from 112 nations in the 21 faculties of the country's medical science universities, of which 83 are from the United States.

Cuba
socialism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Isaac Saney
Who Is the Failed State? Cuba, Revolutionary Ethics, and the Moral Bankruptcy of Western Capitalism
30 July 2025
The Cuban revolution endures despite more than 60 years of U.S. attacks.
Hanna Eid
Whole Process People's Democracy: The Path Forward
14 May 2025
Growing socialist and people's democratic projects, as in China and Bolivia, must be seen as examples of how revolutionary forces in the United
Nato Koury
Guantánamo Bay’s forgotten history of detaining Haitian migrants
19 February 2025
The threats by the Trump administration to detain migrants in Guantanamo Bay will not be the first time the United States has used the fac
Gabriel Rockhill
A Major Milestone in Socialist History - A Review of People’s China at 75: The Flag Stays Red
22 January 2025
"People’s China at 75: The Flag Stays Red" analyzes the People's Republic of China and its ongoing socialist project. 
Manley greets a crowd
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Riva Enteen
Remembering Jamaica in the East/West Crossfire, Part II
15 January 2025
Both class and color barriers were broken down during the Michael Manley era, but class bar
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Remembering Jamaica in the East/West Crossfire
08 January 2025
Jamaicans still remember their visionary leaders, Norman and Michael Manley, and the bloody gener
Conference Organizing Committee
Declaration of the International Conference Cuba 2024. Decade for People of African Descent. Equality-Equity-Social Justice
18 December 2024
Delegates representing organizations from around the world gathered in Cuba for the conference “Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent.
RedacciĂłn Cultural
Our full support for the Anti-Fascist International
25 September 2024
A constant in two centuries of U.S.
Clau O'Brien Moscoso
We Win Peace When We Struggle for It: Cuba and the Zone of Peace
22 May 2024
Cuba hosted its international peace seminar during May Day celebrations on the island.
Friends of Socialist China
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Lessons from China
17 April 2024
Socialist China is a powerful economic and diplomatic rival to the United States.

More Stories


  • Jonathan Forney
    7 Supreme Court Cases That Black Americans Should Track This Summer
    11 Jun 2025
    Issues before the high court range from health care access and citizenship to workplace discrimination and redistricting.
  • Struggle La Lucha
    ICE Raids Escalate in LA As Community Fights Back
    11 Jun 2025
    While ICE and law enforcement unleash raids across LA, protesters stand firm, exposing the brutal machinery of deportation and the state’s violent response to dissent and resistance.
  • Mnar Adley
    “So They’ll Never Have Children”: American Nurse Says Israeli Soldiers Deliberately Shot Boys in the Penis
    11 Jun 2025
    Gaza’s hospitals have become killing fields, and medical workers witness Israeli forces executing unarmed civilians, including children.
  • Nora Barrows-Friedman
    US and Israel Turn “Aid” Centers Into Slaughter Zones
    11 Jun 2025
    Nowhere is safe in Gaza. US-backed Israeli forces are turning aid centers into slaughter zones, targeting starving civilians as they desperately search for food and medicine.
  • Roger D. Harris
    Ballots and Bias: How the Press Framed Venezuela’s Regional and Legislative Elections
    11 Jun 2025
    Roger D. Harris analyzes Western media's biased and dishonest coverage of Venezuela's May 25 election and the sweeping Chavismo victory.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us