Interview/Entrevista: Yuri Gonzalez Hernandez on "Cuban doctors and medicines in the fight against pandemic"/"Medicos y medicamentos cubanos en la lucha contra pandemia"

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, held 19 April 2020, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews are posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. Here for a recording of the online Conference-Roundtable, "Coronavirus and International Affairs" along with links to the conference website and contributor interviews.

We continue with our COVID-19 interview series. For that purpose the Coalition for Peace & Ethics is delighted to welcome back Yuri Gonzalez Hernandez. Mr. Gonzalez Hernandez is a Cuban Lawyer (University of Havana 2009) who is currently in residence at Penn State where he is working on his LLM degree. Before his arrival at Penn State, Mr. Gonzalez Hernandez worked as legal advisor for different Cubans companies, and the tax office of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana. Since 2016 he has provided legal advice to self-employed workers, and also has participated in non-profit entrepreneur projects, aimed at the development of some communities of the City of Havana. He may be contacted at glezyuri15[AT]gmail.com.

For this interview Mr. Gonzalez Hernandez speaks to us around the broad theme of "Cuban doctors and medicines in the fight against pandemic"/"Medicos y medicamentos cubanos en la lucha contra pandemia." The object was to consider four broad questions:

1. Médicos cubanos/Cuban doctors
2. Medicamentos/ medicines and medical treatment advances
3. Lo que estan haciendo los médicos en Cuba/what doctors are doing in Cuba
4. Médicos cubanos en el exterior (Latinoamerica)/Cuban doctors abroad (especially in Latin America). 

Mr. Gonzalez Hernandez's insights were quite interesting as we spoke broadly about these issues. I hope listeners will find it equally interesting. I note that some of the issues are controversial and have sparked fierce debate.  This is particularly true with respect to the use of Cuban doctors abroad.  Our object here was not to engage in the politics of the practice but rather in its utility for meeting the challenges of COVID-19 in Cuba and Latin America. We are happy to engage in the broader political issues as well, but our focus was on action and effect rather than politics. 

We tried something a  little different this time: the interview was conducted in English, al mismo tiempo atentamos replicar nuestra conversación en español.  The idea was to try to reach both our English and Spanish language listeners. Because of the format the interview ran a little long (about 80 minutes).  But we hope our listeners will find much of value, whether you listen to the English or Spanish versions.

Listeners are welcome to send questions and comments.  Mr. Gonzalez Hernandez will be happy to answer, along with the CPE staff.

The interview may be accessed HERE  or on the CPE YouTube Channel, direct link  HERE.