Abstract

NAVARRO, Roberto Campos; SANCHEZ, Edith Yesenia Peña  and  MAYA, Alfredo Paulo. A critical examination of public policies related to indigenous health, traditional medicine, and interculturality in Mexico (1990-2016). Salud colect. [online]. 2017, vol.13, n.3, pp.443-455. ISSN 1669-2381.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18294/sc.2017.1115.

Over the last 26 years, the Mexican government has developed a number of activities and discourses around what has been called “intercultural health,” directed especially at indigenous peoples in Mexico (some 62, according to linguistic criteria). In this way, the government has built health care institutions (rural centers, clinics, and hospitals) in states like Puebla, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Queretaro, and Jalisco, proposing the implementation of cultural pertinence indicators (which are minimal and inadequate). Nevertheless, the health conditions among indigenous populations and the quality of health care provided by public institutions continue to be precarious in terms of human and material resources (health personnel, drugs, etc.) and discriminatory with respect to the form and content of the provided services. This paper describes some of the governmental interventions that purport to be institutional improvements in the field of interculturality, but that actually represent the continuity of arbitrary and exclusive policies.

Keywords : Health of Indigenous Peoples; Discrimination; Racism; Mexico.

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