Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Cuba Has Trained 170 Doctors From the US For Free
Cuba News Agency
08 Aug 2017
🖨️ Print Article
Cuba educates medical students including those from the US for free
Cuba educates medical students from around the world, including those from the US for free.

by Cuba News Agency

Under Fidel Castro’s direction, Cuban became a “medical superpower,” setting new standards for global solidarity in the interests of human health. Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) has been training students from the United States to be doctors since 1999, and “has graduated more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries, free of charge.”

Cuba Has Trained 170 Doctors From the US For Free

by Cuba News Agency

This article previously appeared in Granma.

“In my country no one helps the other student, here teachers support the preparation.”

Cuba has graduated 170 doctors from the United States through the project of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), which was initiated by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in November 1999.
In exclusive to Cuban News Agency, Zenia Díaz Catalá, director of the general secretariat of the ELAM project, said that since the first graduation in 2005, to date, ELAM have graduated more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries, free of charge.
Dr. David Floyd, from the 2016-2017 promotion, thanked the Cuban leadership, the Cuban people, the teachers and workers of this noble project, an example of integration between peoples for a more humane world.
“For me it has been a wonderful experience, I am impressed on the link between study and work, unlike training in the United States and other nations,” stressed the young physician.
“In Cuba we are trained by touching the patient, that was the greatest thing, the solidarity; in my country no one helps the other student, here teachers support the preparation with excellent behavior,” said Floyd, an African-American, who studied in Cuba for seven years, including the pre-doctor studies.
The doctor finished his curricula at the Salvador Allende Faculty of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, an institution that graduated 52 foreign doctors, 25 of them from the United States, Dr. Suiberto Echavarría, dean of that institution, said.
David Floyd, the father of the recent graduate, conveyed his eternal gratitude and said he was very impressed, pleased and honored because his son is a doctor trained in Cuba under ethical and moral principles, with a humanist conception.
Diaz Catalá explained that currently the ELAM project has a enrollment of 4,969 students from 112 nations in the 21 faculties of the country's medical science universities, of which 83 are from the United States.

Cuba
socialism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

2026 Casa Ben Linder Bluefields Delegation
Nicaragua and The Miseducation of the People of the United States
17 June 2026
Nicaragua is a living example of anti-imperialist resistance and people-centered development. The job of those in the U.S.
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
Cuba will not surrender! Cuba persists and resists! And that persistence is intolerable to the empire!
10 June 2026
Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of
Carlos Martinez
Siege Socialism or Barbarism: Why We Must Stand with Cuba
10 June 2026
Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are astounding, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it loo
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: To The Aircraft Carrier Intrepid, Pedro Mir, 1962
03 June 2026
Oh, carrier Intrepid/you in these torrid waters of Santo Domingo/only out of fear.
Sam E. Anderson
Beyond the Algorithm: Defending the Cuban Revolution’s Record Against Ahistorical Attacks
03 June 2026
A critical analysis of the U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: Statement at the 19th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, 1964
27 May 2026
“Cuba ...
Joshua Reaves Charmelus
Unity and Sovereignty: Cuba’s True ‘Threat’ To US Interests
27 May 2026
The U.S.
Stephen Kimber
True Lies Across the Water
27 May 2026
The real story behind the so-called murder charge against former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
Roger Harris , Sara Flounders
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
20 May 2026
The same week Cuba mobilized millions to defend its revolution, the White House imposed even more illegal measures in an effort to strangle the
Struggle La Lucha
Cuba: New U.S. sanctions aim to starve people, justify military aggression
13 May 2026
Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba — Havana, May 7, 2026

More Stories


  • Jill Clark-Gollub
    Growing Calls to End Unilateral Coercive Measures
    29 Apr 2026
    The United States has made economic coercive measures, sanctions, its primary foreign policy tool, committing war by other means with a comparable death toll.
  • Zeinab Al Saffar
    Negotiations or Annihilation: Can the Resistance Be Talked Away?
    29 Apr 2026
    Israel's diplomacy with Lebanon is a fiction. The goal is complete capitulation and annihilation of the resistance, at the cost of thousands of lives.
  • Radikha Desai and Ajamu Baraka
    The State of Trump’s Union: Geopolitical Economy Hour with Ajamu Baraka
    24 Apr 2026
    In this Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika converses with one of the foremost left political leaders and Black political activist and journalist in the US, Ajamu Baraka. Together, they understand the…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio April 24, 2026
    24 Apr 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the importance of including African-descended people in discussions around climate change and a just transition from fossil fuel production. But we begin with a…
  • Carmella Charrington
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Deed Theft and the Loss of Black Property
    24 Apr 2026
    Evangeline of the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft, a grassroots New York City organization, discusses efforts to stop deed theft and the need for legislation to protect homeowners. She also…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us