Unicef: Cuban Health Care Could Save 700,000 Latin Lives a Year

This nugget comes from Fidel's recent book written by Ignacio Ramonet, editor for the prestigious Le Monde Diplomatique. I knew things were bad in the region but 700,000 lives a year is a huge number of people who die needlessly. Apparently these human's rights mean nothing to the major rights organizations who spend their time worrying about comfortably paid agents of the United States. Same with President Bush and his so-called committment to life. I guess you have a right to be born into poverty, but no right not to die. Just the way God likes it I suppose?

The infant mortality rate in the (Latin America) region is 65 per every thousand births, while ours is less than 6.5; that is, ten times more children die in Latin America than in Cuba, as an average. Malnutrition reaches 49% of the Latin American population; illiteracy is still rampant; tens of millions are unemployed, and there’s also the problem of the abandoned children: 30 million of them. As the President of UNICEF told me one day, if Latin America had the medical care and health levels Cuba has, the lives of 700.000 children would be spared every year.