In Yucatan, parents of children with cancer protest against shortage of medicines

The demonstrators assured that they are not coup plotters (as the Undersecretary of Health called them), but parents worried about their children.

Although in Yucatan the authorities assure that there is no shortage of oncology medicines, parents of children with cancer held a demonstration to deny this situation. “We are not coup plotters, but parents worried about their children,” they said, many of them dressed in black. At the Monumento a la Patria in the heart of Paseo de Montejo, Merida’s main avenue, they gathered peacefully with signs explaining their situation.

In this regard, the state Secretary of Health, Mauricio Sauri Vivas, insists that there is no such shortage in Yucatan. “There is no significant shortage of oncology drugs in the state,” he said.

Despite recognizing that such a deficit does exist at a national level, Sauri Vivas claims that Yucatan does not have this problem.

“We have seasons in which there is a lack of some medicine or another; however, we continue to work in a coordinated and continuous manner for the wellbeing of all the boys and girls who require these medicines,” the state Secretary of Health added.

The official informed that the state government has a line item to buy the medicines that are needed.