Murder in Havana Read Online Free PDF

ongoing for years. We’ve heard about his work, but only tangentially. The metal vanadium, as many of you know, is a soft, ductile metallic element found in several minerals, notably vanadinite and carnotite, both of which are abundant in Cuba. Dr. Caldoza and his team have developed innovative methods for purifying vanadium and are making good use of it. Of course, because Cuba is a closed society, it’s difficult to ascertain the accuracy and validity of the experimental results they reportedat the meeting. Also, I’m not blind to the fact that allowing him to present only a small portion of his work to us here in the States represents a tease on the part of Fidel Castro. Although his presentation isn’t nearly complete, it’s impressive. According to Dr. Caldoza, they’ve been testing more than two dozen drugs that utilize vanadium, and claim to have had positive results against eleven different laboratory cancer cell lines, as well as cells taken directly from patients.”
    Dr. Mancuso looked out over the sparsely populated auditorium and noticed a small, balding, nondescript man wearing round rimless glasses and a green suit. He sat far apart from the doctors. Until Mancuso had begun her report on the Cuban research team, the man seemed indifferent to what she had been saying. Now he took notes, not looking up as he transcribed Mancuso’s words.
    “You aren’t really taking what they say seriously, are you?” an older physician asked from the first row. He had a large, square face; his jaw enjoyed more lateral movement than normal. “Pure Communist propaganda. They claim to have invented everything from the light-bulb to baseball. Now they say they’re going to cure cancer?” He guffawed and shook his head, jaw in motion. The doctor next to him laughed.
    Barbara Mancuso, M.D., held her tongue. She’d been reading everything that she could about medical research in Cuba for good reason; despite the island nation’s impoverished society, she was impressed that Cuba’s medicine and research had long been the envy of nations in the Southern Hemisphere and beyond. True, validating the results claimed by Cuba’s state-owned medical research facilities was difficult. However, Mancuso’s exploration of the caliber of medical research on Castro’s island had convinced her that the Cuban efforts were as sophisticated as those of many independent labs and hospitalsdoing cancer research in the United States and other wealthier nations. She addressed the naysayer directly.
    “Dr. Meadows, I understand the natural inclination to be skeptical. I was too, at first, until I made my own unofficial inquiries. The truth is—and it may be a bitter pill to swallow for the anti-Castro forces—that medicine in Cuba, and medical research in particular, especially with cancer drugs, is impressive. Sure, they’re short of medicine and physicians now because of the blockade that’s been ongoing for almost forty years, and cessation of financial support by the Soviets. But Castro stated early in his administration that finding a cure for cancer was to be a priority, and he’s committed considerable resources to that goal.”
    She felt her anger rising. She knew that the older physicians in the room were thinking that aside from her impressive medical training and knowledge, she was young and wide-eyed and naïve and liberal, all the things most of them were not.
    She continued.
    “Before Cuba lost Soviet financial backing, UNICEF ranked the country just a few notches behind us in health care despite a Gross National Product representing one-twentieth of our own. A Cuban’s average life expectancy is almost seventy-four years, the highest in Latin America. A child born today in Cuba is twice as likely to survive as a baby born in Washington, D.C.”
    Another physician in the audience asked, “Aren’t we doing research into the use of vanadium here in the States?”
    “Yes,” Mancuso answered. “In Minnesota, at Parker