Cuba Works Tirelessly for Safe Return of Doctors Kidnapped in Kenya

The Cuban Minister of Public Health, Jose Portal, reaffirmed on Friday that the government has not ceased efforts for the return to the country of doctors Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez, kidnapped in Kenya.

The Kenyan authorities assure that both Cuban collaborators are alive and ‘all possible actions are carried out for their safe return to their homeland,’ Portal confirmed on his Facebook page.

He recalled in a meeting with the press published on Cubadebate website that part of these efforts are telephone conversations between the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel; Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta; and Somalia, Abdullahi Mohamed.

The minister recalled that it is a complex process which requires time and the greatest possible discretion for the efforts to be successful.

According to Portal, so far ‘no one has requested any kind of condition in exchange for the freedom of Cuban doctors, despite some press reports that appeared and were later denied.

Herrera, a specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine from the province of Las Tunas, and Rodriguez, a specialist in Surgery from the province of Villa Clara, provided health services in Mandera County, Kenya.

Both were abducted on April 12 in that country bordering Somalia and Ethiopia on their way to their health centers.

Official data show that medical collaboration with Kenya began in June last year with the participation of 101 doctors.