Paraguay
Clash in the Senate over the agreement with doctors: Samaniego questioned Martínez and she apologized without changing her stance
The senators had a heated exchange amid the debate over the health crisis. Esperanza Martínez apologized for her remarks, but reaffirmed her rejection of the agreement signed with a sector of the medical profession.
The discussion over the agreement with doctors led to a strong clash between senators Lilian Samaniego and Esperanza Martínez, during a meeting of the Senate Steering Committee, according to ABC Color.
Samaniego reproached her colleague for the terms she had used to refer to those who took part in the negotiations promoted by the Government. According to ABC Color, she recalled that Martínez had described that meeting as “a farce” and said those remarks hurt her especially because they came from a colleague with whom she has shared nearly 20 years of political struggles linked to the defense of Paraguayan women.
The senator also said she was one of the first to receive the doctors and that she presented a proposal to channel the wage claim over 14 months and seven stages, with a base salary. In addition, she said one of the points that upset her most was that her name appeared in the agreement record with the doctors even though, according to her version, she did not take part in that negotiation.
In her remarks, Samaniego defended the need to find a way out of the health crisis. According to ABC Color, she said the Senate helped prevent 446 resignations by doctors and warned about the suspension of some 1,500 scheduled surgeries at the Trauma Hospital.
Martínez, for her part, acknowledged that she had an outburst and publicly apologized to Samaniego and Noelia Cabrera. However, she made it clear that she remains opposed to the agreement. As she explained it, her anger stemmed from her belief that a parallel negotiation with anesthesiologists and other specialists could divide the medical union amid its demands.
Still according to ABC Color, Martínez said the specialists who resigned were part of a union strategy and stated that then Health Minister María Teresa Barán should have stopped the agreement because, in her view, the negotiation with the union was moving forward. She also considered that the intervention of the senators had a “boomerang effect” and ended up strengthening unity among different medical sectors.
Amid the exchange, Senator Walter Kobilansky called for lowering the tone of the discussion and focusing on resolving the health crisis. According to ABC Color, he also called for greater discretion in the negotiations and questioned the debate’s drifting into cross-accusations instead of focusing on solutions.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this event.
