Cuban Government Swindles Doctors Returning from Angola

Two doctors told ’14ymedio’ that the bank told them it did not have the foreign currency to pay them what they were owed under the contract upon their return to the island.

By Natalia Lopez Moya (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – After years of medical missions in Angola, Cuban doctors are returning to the island to find a very unpleasant surprise: the banks do not have the foreign currency needed for them to withdraw the dollars accumulated in their accounts. Their only legal alternative is to use their savings in devalued magnetic dollar MLC stores, a possibility they consider “highway robbery.”

Ana Isabel, a Cuban doctor whose name has been changed for this report, spent two years at a Mother and Child Hospital in Camama, Luanda. Separated from her family, the specialist placed all her hopes in the money accumulating in her Banco Popular de Ahorro account in Cuba while she worked in Africa.

“We were supposed to receive a total of $1,200 per month. They had to give us $200 in kwanzas [Angola’s currency] and deposit the remaining $1,000 here,” she told 14ymedio. “But we never even got the $200. Something always happened, and we’d only receive $100 [about 82,500 kwanzas], with the option for our family in Cuba to withdraw another $50 depending on currency availability.”

Cuban professionals in Angola must tighten their belts. Although they receive free housing, food and other expenses come out of their own pockets. “Sometimes I couldn’t even afford to top up my phone, but I believed the sacrifice was worth it if I’d have my dollars guaranteed upon returning, as the contract with Antex stated,” Ana Isabel explains.

Antex Corporation is part of Cuba’s military conglomerate GAESA. In Angola, it handles businesses ranging from highway construction and airstrip repairs to travel agencies. Between 2013 and 2017 alone, Angola paid Antex over US $1 billion, according to a report by El Toque.

Cuba has long profited from its involvement—funded by the former USSR—in Angola’s civil war between 1975 and 1991, mainly through Antex. Portuguese press reported that in 2015, 70% of Angola’s healthcare workers were Cuban.

The contract signed by all Cubans on official missions in Angola—over 2,000 currently, including doctors, nurses, health techs, builders, drivers, and university professors—states that Antex, “as long as cash availability exists, will credit the Worker… one hundred percent (100%) of the USD amount derived from their monthly salary during the month prior to their return to the Homeland.” For most doctors, the accumulated amount ranges from $20,000 to $22,000.

However, the contract has become meaningless. “When we got back, they told us the bank had no foreign currency and that we could only use our money via our MLC cards,” the doctor tells the paper. Still, she considers herself lucky. “When I came back to Cuba for vacation mid-mission, I was able to withdraw about $1,500 because the bank had funds at the time. But now they don’t, and it doesn’t look like they will anytime soon.”

In February, a group of doctors complained to Antex about the currency shortage. The official response was that efforts were being made to switch their magnetic cards to the “Classic” prepaid mode so they could shop in the new dollar stores opened across the island this year. “It wasn’t ideal, because most of us just want cash, but at least we’d be able to buy daily necessities.” That promise remains unfulfilled. “They’ve stolen our money,” she says bitterly.

“We have to sell our MLC on the street, risking arrest for illegal currency trafficking, just to then buy dollars on the black market,” says María Isabel, noting the informal exchange rate is now 260 pesos per MLC and 375 per dollar. “With the cards we currently have, we can’t shop in real markets like 3rd and 70 in Miramar. All we have are nearly empty, dimly lit stores without even detergent.”

A very similar situation is faced by Dr. Arnaldo, who worked two years in several hospitals, including one in Cuanza Sul. Speaking anonymously to avoid retaliation, he recounts that he had to grit his teeth during his last year in Angola to avoid deserting. “I wanted to leave because we were treated like garbage, but my parents in Cuba are very old—I couldn’t abandon them.”

Arnaldo knows Angola pays Antex $5,000 per month for his services. Of that, he only received about $100 a month in kwanzas. “I had planned to use my Cuban bank account savings to go to Brazil with my brother, start a new life there, and eventually bring my parents too,” he says. But so far, he hasn’t been able to access a single dollar from his Cuban bank account.

Unlike Ana Isabel, when Arnaldo visited Cuba mid-mission, he couldn’t withdraw any money, despite the contract stating he could access up to 50% of his accumulated earnings during vacation. “They told me the bank had no funds even though I submitted a withdrawal request months in advance,” he says. “That didn’t help—they just gave me the usual talk about the crisis and the country’s lack of access to international currencies.”

“The contract is clear: the Antex account for our salary is a dollar deposit,” Arnaldo emphasizes. “They told us we’d be guaranteed access to the money once we returned and hadn’t deserted, but I haven’t been able to withdraw anything.” He feels swindled and regrets not accepting offers to work privately in Angola.

“I made good friends there, including Cubans working independently in Luanda clinics who told me to stay and not return to Cuba—I’d be better off. But I believed Antex would honor the contract, so I came back.” On many occasions, when the meager $100 he received in Cuanza Sul wasn’t enough to eat, his brother in Brazil had to send money. “No one would believe this, but when I vacationed in Cuba, a friend had to lend me dollars to survive back in Angola.”

“I had offers to do private consultations and earn some extra cash, but it was too risky. If you got caught working independently, they’d send you back to Cuba with a sanction and confiscate all your savings. So I didn’t risk it,” Arnaldo says. That caution turned out to be worthless.

“Now I’m like a criminal. I had to create a Facebook account under a different name to offer my MLC and see if someone would buy them in pesos, so I could then try to buy dollars.” His goal: to recover at least $5,000 to $8,000 to buy a plane ticket out of the country and have some funds left to make his way to the Brazilian border. “I’m done fighting with Antex and the bank. All I want now is to leave this place.”

First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

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