[News] Cuba Withdraws from More Doctors Program in Brazil

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Withdraws-from-More-Doctors-Program-in-Brazil--20181114-0024.html 



  Cuba Withdraws from More Doctors Program in Brazil

Published 14 November 2018
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Cuba's Ministry of Public Health announced Wednesday it is withdrawing 
from the Mais Medicos (More Doctors) cooperation program with Brazil, 
which functioned since August 2013 and ensured health coverage for over 
a hundred million Brazilians who had no prior access to healthcare.

    */RELATED:
    Brazil: Bolsonaro Threatens to Cut Ties With Cuba
    <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-Bolsonaro-Threatens-to-Cut-Ties-With-Cuba-20181102-0014.html>/*

Cuban health authorities also announced they had notified the 
Pan-American Health Organization and its Brazilian counterparts of the 
decision to end its participation in the program.

The decision comes after Brazil's far-right president-elect Jair 
Bolsonaro criticized the program, saying it was torture for Cuban 
mothers who were "not allowed" to go with their children and questioning 
diplomatic ties with the island.

"Can we maintain diplomatic relations with a country that treats its 
people that way?" Bolsonaro said in early November.

"The elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, with direct, 
derogatory and threatening references to the presence of our doctors, 
has declared and reiterated that he will modify the terms and conditions 
of the More Doctors Program 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuban-Doctors-Spur-Amazing-Improvement-in-Brazil-Healthcare-20150804-0022.html>, 
with disrespect to the Pan American Health Organization and to the 
agreement with Cuba," the statement reads.

"It is not acceptable to question the dignity, professionalism, and 
altruism of Cuban collaborators who, with the support of their families, 
currently provide services in 67 countries," the statement argues.

Cuba's Health Ministry particularly rejected statements by 
Bolsonaro questioning the preparation of Cuban doctors and conditioning 
their permanence in the program to the revalidation of their degrees 
and individual contracts.

On Bolsonaro's comments against paying 75 percent of doctors' salaries 
to the Cuban state, the ministry explained: "In the overwhelming 
majority of missions completed, the expenses have been covered by the 
Cuban government. Likewise, in Cuba, 35 thousand 613 health 
professionals from 138 countries have been trained for free, as an 
expression of our solidarity and internationalist vocation."

The statement also highlighted the program was widely respected and 
highly regarded, earning 95 percent acceptance according to the Federal 
University of Minas Gerais and urged the Brazilian people to recognize 
where the responsibility for the end of the program lies.

"The Brazilian people, who made the More Doctors Program a social 
conquest... will be able to understand who is responsible for this," the 
statement concluded.

Cuba's health mission has led the fight against Ebola in Africa, 
blindness in Latin America and the Caribbean, and cholera in Haiti. It 
is also internationally recognized for its 26 "Henry Reeve" brigades of 
physicians specialized in disasters and large epidemic that have 
assisted countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, 
Chile, and Venezuela.

-- 
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