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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Withdraws-from-More-Doctors-Program-in-Brazil--20181114-0024.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Withdraws-from-More-Doctors-Program-in-Brazil--20181114-0024.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Cuba Withdraws from More Doctors
Program in Brazil</h1>
Published 14 November 2018 </div>
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<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>RELATED: <br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-Bolsonaro-Threatens-to-Cut-Ties-With-Cuba-20181102-0014.html">Brazil:
Bolsonaro Threatens to Cut Ties With Cuba</a></em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Can we maintain diplomatic relations with a country
that treats its people that way?" Bolsonaro said in
early November.</p>
<p>"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 <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuban-Doctors-Spur-Amazing-Improvement-in-Brazil-Healthcare-20150804-0022.html">More
Doctors Program</a>, with disrespect to the Pan
American Health Organization and to the agreement with
Cuba," the statement reads. </p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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." </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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