DECLARATION OF THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH
The Ministry of Public Health
of the Republic of Cuba, committed to the solidarity and humanistic principles
that have guided Cuba’s medical cooperation for 55 years, has been
participating in the Program More Doctors for Brazil since its inception in
August 2013. This initiative launched by
Dilma Rousseff, who was at that moment the president of the Federal Republic of
Brazil, pursued the double purpose of guaranteeing medical assistance to the
majority of the Brazilian people, following the principle of universal health
coverage promoted by the World Health Organization.
The program had planned the
inclusion of Brazilian and foreign doctors who would go to work in poor and
remote areas of that country.
Cuba’s participation in this
program was arranged through the Pan-American Health Organization with one
distinctive feature, for it was intended to fill the vacancies left by doctors
from Brazil and other foreign nations.
During these five years of
work, around 20 000 Cuban cooperation workers have assisted 113 359 000
patients in more than 3 600 municipalities.
They managed to provide health coverage to a universe of up to 60
million Brazilians at the moment when they accounted for 80 per cent of all the
doctors who were taking part in the program. More than 700 municipalities were
able to count on a doctor for the first time ever.
The work of Cuban doctors in
areas of extreme poverty, in the favelas
of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador de Bahia and the 34 Special Indigenous
Districts, particularly in Amazonia, was largely recognized by the federal,
state and municipal governments of that country and its population, 95 per cent
of which expressed their acceptance, according to a survey carried out by the Federal
University of Minas Gerais at the request of the Ministry of Health of Brazil.
On September 27, 2016, the
Ministry of Public Health, in an official statement issued on a day close to
the expiration date of the agreement and amidst the events associated to the
legislative and judicial coup d’ etat against president Dilma Rousseff,
announced that Cuba “would continue to honor its agreement with the
Pan-American Health Organization for the implementation of the Program More
Doctors, provided that the guarantees offered by local authorities were
maintained”, something that has been so far respected.
Jair Bolsonaro, president
elect of Brazil, who has made direct, contemptuous and threatening comments against
the presence of our doctors, has declared and reiterated that he will modify the
terms and conditions of the Program More Doctors, in full disregard of the
Pan-American Health Organization and the agreement reached by this organization
with Cuba, since he has questioned the qualification of our doctors and has
conditioned their permanence in the program to a process of validation of their
titles and established that contracts will only be signed on an individual
basis.
The announced modifications
impose conditions that are unacceptable and fail to ensure the guarantees that
had been previously agreed upon since the beginning of the Program, which were
ratified in 2016 with the re-negotiation of the Terms of Cooperation between
The Pan-American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health of Brazil and
the Cooperation Agreement between the Pan-American Health Organization and the
Ministry of Public Health of Cuba. These
unacceptable conditions make it impossible to maintain the presence of Cuban
professionals in the Program.
Consequently, in the light of
this unfortunate reality, the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba has decided to
discontinue its participation in the Program More Doctors and has informed so
to the Director of the Pan-American Health Organization and the political
leaders of Brazil who founded and defended this initiative.
The decision to bring into
question the dignity, professionalism and altruism of Cuban cooperation workers
who, with the support of their families, are currently offering their services
in 67 countries is unacceptable. During the last 55 years, a total of 600 000
internationalist missions have been accomplished in 164 nations, with the
participation of 400 000 health workers who, in quite a few cases, have
fulfilled this honorable task more than once. Their feats in the struggle
against the Ebola virus in Africa, blindness in Latin America and the Caribbean
and cholera in Haiti as well as the participation of 26 brigades of the
International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and
Great Epidemics “Henry Reeve” in Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru,
Chile and Venezuela, among other countries, are worthy of praise.
In the overwhelming majority
of the missions that have been accomplished, all expenses have been covered by
the Cuban government.
Likewise, 35 613 health
professionals from 138 countries have been trained in Cuba at absolutely no
cost as an expression of our solidarity and internationalist vocation.
All Cuban cooperation workers
have preserved their posts and their full salary in Cuba, together with all due
labor and social benefits, just as the rest of the workers of the National
Health System.
The experience of the Program
More Doctors for Brazil and Cuba’s participation in it show that it is indeed
possible to structure a South-South Cooperation Program under the auspices of
the Pan-American Health Organization in order to promote the achievement of its
goals in our region. The United Nations
Development Program and the World Health Organization have described it as the
main example of good practices in triangular cooperation and the implementation
of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.
The peoples from Our America
and from all over the world know that they will always be able to count on the solidarity
and humanistic vocation of our professionals.
The Brazilian people, who
turned the Program More Doctors into a social achievement and, from the very
beginning, has trusted Cuban doctors, recognized their virtues and appreciated
the respect, sensitivity and professionalism with which they have assisted them,
will understand who are to be held responsible for our doctors’ not being able
to continue offering their fraternal contribution in that country.
Havana, November 14, 2018.
Escultura del artesano argentino Carlos baños sobre Ernesto Che Guevara. La bandera argentina es custodiada por el Che dentro de su museo en Caballito y a las 9.30 hs. todas las mañanas es izada por el director fundador en el mástil de la Plaza del Caballito (frente al museo) del cual Eladio González toto es Padrino.
