Doctor to Honduras’ Garifuna Persecuted for Work
10/25/2009
The plight of a doctor who provides health care to Honduras' forgotten people
On Oct. 6, Honduran military police invaded the only Garifuna hospital in the country, located in remote Ciriboya on the Atlantic coast. According to eyewitnesses, 15 armed military police broke into the hospital in the early morning hours, later claiming they were searching for illegal drugs. No one was injured in the raid, which was timed during a hospital shift change.
The military raid follows a series of measures by the defacto government of Honduras in its attempt to shut down the hospital. The hospital was inspired by Dr. Luther Castillo and other Garifuna doctors. Garifuna are an ethnic minority group in Latin America. The institution serves surrounding indigenous communities, whose members were active in the construction of the hospital. "The community feels great ownership in this project," said Dr. Castillo. "We are not just providing health care to a forgotten people. We are creating a new model of free health care, an example for other poor regions in Latin America."
The hospital, staffed by Garifuna and Cuban doctors, has treated more than 300,000 cases since its inauguration in December 2007. Located in one of the poorest municipalities in the country, with few roads and no electricity, the hospital runs on batteries generated by solar energy, and with generous donations has been able to include a laboratory, x-ray and ultrasound equipment. Plans are under way for expansion to include pediatric and dental wings, as well as a library.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya attended the official inauguration of the hospital in December, 2007, and his government signed an agreement affirming the right of the indigenous Garifuna to direct and administer their own health care in the region. Since the June military coup, the defacto government has cancelled the accord, eliminated physicians' stipends, and has re-classified the hospital as simply a "health center." This has not deterred the medical staff nor the community from supporting the hospital and keeping it open 24 hours a day, stretching quickly diminishing resources.
A statement by the Garifuna organization OFRANEH (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña) called the recent military action "a clear message to the Garifuna people (in response to) their participation in the resistance movement against the coup, and particularly to Dr. Castillo and hospital personnel. For OFRANEH, such a punitive action against the hospital is one more indication of the prevailing racism among the coup leaders and their military."
The Garifuna hospital and its community health outreach are supported by a number of U.S. and other international organizations, including the Central Labor Council of Sacramento, CA, Global Links, The Birthing Project and MEDICC. Several U.S. medical schools also have cooperative arrangements with the Garifuna hospital, including Johns Hopkins, Emory, Charles Drew and the University of California, San Francisco.
Just months before the inauguration of the hospital, Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter.
A few weeks before the coup, Dr. Castillo was named director of international cooperation in the Honduran Foreign Ministry. Since July 3, he has been been active in national protests against the coup, and has been included on a list of persons whose lives and safety were declared at risk by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Dr. Castillo, who was featured in the documentary ¡Salud!, is currently in the United States, where he is part of an effort to rally support for the hospital, and to lobby the U.S. Congress to demand the return of basic constitutional and human rights in Honduras. "The people who suffer the most consequences in this situation are the poor," he said before returning to Honduras. "We must stop further attacks on our hospital."
What You Can Do
1)Help keep the hospital alive.
2)Circulate this information to listservs, blogs, press and human rights organizations.
3)Contact the White House, the State Department and your congressional representatives and press them to preserve the autonomy and integrity of the Garifuna Hospital, and to protect the lives of Dr. Castillo, his colleagues and all those protesting the coup.
4) Write the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protest the harassment of the Garifuna hospital.
Diane Appelbaum, RN, MS is the U.S. director of MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba).
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— Medical Schools Sacramento on 2009-11-19