Cuban-Portuguese relations

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Cuban-Portuguese relations
Location of Portugal and Cuba
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Portugal Cuba

The Cuban-Portuguese relations describe the intergovernmental relationship between Cuba and Portugal . The countries have had formal diplomatic relations since 1929. At the consular level, direct relationships have existed since the beginning of the 19th century.

Both countries are partners in a number of international organizations, including the Ibero-American Summit , the World Health Organization and the Latin Union .

Relations are determined by Cuban contract doctors in Portugal and Portuguese patients in Cuba, but also by the slowly increasing bilateral trade. In addition, Cuba is popular with Portuguese tourists .

In 2015, 901 Cubans were registered in Portugal, with 272 most of them in Lisbon. In 2014, 13 Portuguese citizens were registered in Cuba (2008: 48),

history

Group picture of the heads of state at the 2009 Ibero-America summit in Portugal

Among the various hypotheses on the origin of Christopher Columbus there is also a Portuguese variant. According to her, Columbus was born and raised as an illegitimate offspring of the Portuguese royal family in the small town of Cuba in Portugal, before naming the Caribbean island he discovered in 1492 after his hometown. The "Portuguese Hypothesis" was filmed in 2007 under the title Christopher Columbus - The Riddle by Manoel de Oliveira .

Cuban bar in the Portuguese seaside resort of Figueira da Foz

From at least 1929 direct diplomatic relations existed. Since 1931 the Portuguese ambassador to the USA has had double accreditation here .

After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the end of the anti-communist Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal, Cuba and Portugal became somewhat closer. The MFA general and revolutionary strategist Otelo visited Cuba in 1975 and met a. with Fidel Castro . Otelo encouraged Fidel to help the communist MPLA against the harassment of UNITA , FNLA and the South African army in the approaching civil war in Angola . However, there was no further intensification, as a result of Portugal's increasing orientation towards the West and Cuba's involvement in the civil war in the former Portuguese colony of Angola, which was halted until 1991 .

In 2006, some of the mostly southern Portuguese municipalities began to cooperate with Cuban municipalities. In particular, eye patients who had to wait a long time for an operation or treatment in Portugal should be cared for in Cuba. For the first time, Vila Real de Santo António made such an agreement with Playa in the greater Havana area in 2006 , and a number of other municipalities followed. In 2008 a total of 200 Portuguese traveled to Cuba for treatment, the costs were borne by the respective Portuguese municipalities.

From 2009 Portugal recruited doctors from Cuba with a Luso-Cuban agreement to compensate for a lack of doctors. The agreement sparked protests among the Portuguese medical community as their new Cuban colleagues were severely underpaid.

Cuban doctors in Portugal

The Ministry of Health of Portugal reached an agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Health to recruit Cuban doctors to address a shortage of doctors in Portugal. The doctors had to pass professional and linguistic aptitude tests and were then distributed to hospitals and health centers via the Portuguese state health system with a (renewable) annual contract .

In the summer of 2009 the first 44, according to other sources 42 Cuban doctors came and were deployed mainly in the Alentejo and the Algarve , but also in the greater Lisbon area. After the agreement was renewed in 2012, another 50 doctors were most recently contracted in 2014 after the majority of Cubans did not renew their contracts. About a third also settled in Portugal and left the agreement.

Cuban doctors also work in the health center of the community of Vila Nova de Milfontes

The protest by Portuguese doctors made headlines, drawing attention to the poor working conditions, especially the inadequate pay of their Cuban colleagues. As the text of the recruitment contract was not made available to the Portuguese medical organizations or the press, the details of the contract are still unknown. The sum of 4,000 euros that Portugal pays to Cuba for each doctor became known, but the doctors themselves received barely 10%, later 20%, initially even only € 300, i.e. less than the Portuguese minimum wage (then around € 400). In addition to the aspect of solidarity co-financing of the Cuban health system through the foreign currency income, the Cuban side refers to further remuneration, pension entitlements and social benefits in Cuba for its doctors in Portugal, their costs and the like. a. for housing, water and energy are also borne by the local Portuguese municipalities.

Nevertheless, Portuguese medical representatives spoke of a "white slave trade " in this context. While ordinary Portuguese doctors received around € 2,800 in 2014, Cubans were paid € 900, which is just over 20% of the money that Portugal pays for them (€ 4,000).

In 2014, 98 Cuban doctors were working under the agreement, and an unknown number of Cubans had previously terminated their contract and switched to private Portuguese clinics. This means that Cubans are a minority among the 1,867 foreign doctors in Portugal, most of whom come from Spain and former Portuguese colonies (as of September 2015).

The relationships between patients and Cuban doctors, on the other hand, are mostly described by both sides as very good and trusting. In the rural communities in the Alentejo in particular, patient satisfaction is very high, and the better medical care had a particularly positive effect here.

diplomacy

Portugal maintains its embassy in the Miramar district in the capital Havana , on Av. 7ª Number 2207. There are no other Portuguese consulates in Cuba.

Cuba's embassy is located in the Restelo district in the Belém district of Lisbon , at 14 Rua Pêro da Covilhã , São Francisco Xavier municipality . There are no Cuban consulates next to the embassy in Portugal.

Twin cities

Seven cities in both countries have been city ​​friendships since the 1990s . The Portuguese city of Serpa maintains partnerships with three Cuban cities, while the nearby Cuba has no partnership with Cuban locations, despite its possible role in naming the island of Cuba.

The port of Havana, the main gateway for Portuguese goods in Cuba

economy

The Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP does not have an office in Cuba, but is represented here by the Portuguese Embassy.

In 2016, Portugal exported goods worth 49.8 million euros to Cuba (2015: 45.9 million; 2014: 33.6 million; 2013: 34.9 million; 2012: 44.4 million) , of which 18.4% plastics, 17.5% ores and minerals, 16.6% machines and devices and 14.6% metals.

In the same period, Cuba delivered goods worth 46.9 million euros to Portugal (2015: 26.8 million; 2014: 15.6 million; 2013: 32.6 million; 2012: 32.3 million) , of which 88.5% food, 8.5% wood, 0.7% agricultural products and 0.6% shoes.

In 2016, Cuba ranked 53rd as a buyer and 63rd as a supplier for Portuguese foreign trade. In Cuban foreign trade in 2015, Portugal ranked 12th among buyers and 19th among suppliers.

Culture

The Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões is located in Cuba u. a. represented with an editing and a chair cooperation at the University of Havana .

At the Festa do Avante! Which has taken place every year since 1976 , the largest cultural festival in Portugal, Cuba has its own stands and is often represented in the cultural program. Cuban flags and motifs are also very widespread on the festival site.

Musicians from both countries often worked together. Examples include the former Trovante musician Luís Represas , who produced his first solo album in Cuba in 1993 and recorded a well-known duet with Pablo Milanés , or Bernardo Sassetti's collaboration with the Cuban band Sierra Maestra .

In 2019, the television series O Nosso Cônsul em Havana (German: Our Consul in Havana) of the Portuguese public television channel RTP1 started . The historical drama , directed by Francisco Manso , takes place between 1872 and 1874, when the Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz was consul in the Cuban capital Havana.

Web links

Commons : Cuban-Portuguese Relations  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Overview of diplomatic relations between Cuba and Portugal , diplomatic institute in the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs , accessed on May 4, 2019
  2. ↑ Sum of the number of Cubans in the official immigration statistics by district , Portuguese Immigration and Border Agency SEF, accessed on March 28, 2017
  3. ↑ Overview of Cuban-Portuguese migration (Table A.3) from the Portuguese scientific Observatório da Emigração , accessed on March 28, 2017
  4. ↑ Otelo aconselhou Fidel Castro a avançar rumo a Angola ["Otelo advised Fidel Castro to move forward in the direction of Angola"], article by Deutsche Welle on April 24, 2014, accessed on March 29, 2017
  5. ↑ 90 portugueses foram a cuba este ano para tratar os olhos [“90 Portuguese went to Cuba this year for eye treatment”], article from August 1, 2009 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias , accessed on March 29, 2017
  6. ↑ Médicos cubanos a trabalhar em Portugal recebem 20 por cento do ordenado [“Cuban doctors working in Portugal only receive 20% of their wages”], report from May 30, 2014 on the situation of Cuban doctors on the Portuguese public television broadcaster RTP , accessed on 29 May 2014 March 2017
  7. ↑ Número de médicos estrangeiros a trabalhar em Portugal cresce desde 2012 [“Number of foreign doctors working in Portugal has increased since 2012”], article of September 4, 2015 in the Portuguese newspaper Público , accessed on March 29, 2017
  8. ↑ Médicos cubanos querem renovar contrato [“Cuban doctors want to renew their contract”], article of January 9, 2012 in the Portuguese newspaper Público, accessed on March 29, 2017
  9. ↑ List of Portuguese missions abroad , website of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed on March 25, 2017
  10. ^ Website of the Cuban Embassy in Portugal , accessed March 29, 2017
  11. ↑ Overview of the activities in Cuba , website of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on March 29, 2017
  12. ↑ a b c Bilateral economic relations between Portugal and Cuba , Excel file retrieval from the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on March 29, 2017
  13. ↑ Overview of the activities in Cuba , Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões , accessed on April 27, 2017
  14. ↑ Website for the TV series O Nosso Cônsul em Havana on the Portuguese television station RTP, accessed on August 26, 2019