Cuba and Brazil
strengthen cooperation and solidarity
Juan Diego Nusa
Peñalver
A
new stage in the close relationship of solidarity
and sisterhood linking Cuba and Brazil is developing
with the arrival there of the first advance group of
Cuban doctors on August 24. They are part of a
contingent of 4,000 professionals, scheduled to
arrive in Brazil by the end of this year to
reinforce primary healthcare in small towns and
communities where their help is most needed by the
people.
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Cuban doctors
arriving Brazil. |
Press reports emphasize that
Brazilians gave the first group of 206 Cuban doctors
a warm and fraternal welcome. This group will be
working in municipalities in the country’s northern
and northeastern region.
"Cubans, our friends, Brazil is with
you," was the call from young people waiting to
greet the team at the international airport in
Brasilia, the capital. The health contingent arrived
wearing their white coats.
Dr. Rodolfo García, leader of the
advance group, stated, "We, 176 doctors specializing
in comprehensive general medicine, with more than 15
years of service and a number of missions abroad,
are here in Brasilia. He noted that the aircraft
made an initial stop in Recife, capital of
Pernambuco, where 30 health professionals remained
to work in municipalities in this region.
García noted that for the first
month the group will participate in courses on the
Brazilian health system and the Portuguese language,
before being transported to their destination.
"We are here to work within the
public health system in outlying areas of cities, to
help improve citizens’ health conditions," he
commented.
A second group of Cuban doctors
arrived in the cities of Fortaleza, Ceará state,
Salvador (Bahía), in addition to Recife.
They will join a contingent of
specialists from Brazil and other countries in
response to the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) program
being promoted by the federal government to provide
services in the peripheries of large cities and in
rural areas.
Cuban participation was secured
after the signing of a cooperation agreement between
the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and the Pan
American Health Organization to provide basic health
services in Brazil, within the framework of South-South
cooperation.
Under the terms of this agreement,
4,000 professionals will arrive in Brazil by the end
of 2013.
The Cuban doctors’ work in Brazil
will follow the international cooperation model the
country uses in various countries of the world.
Mais Médicos was launched in July to
cover a demand from cities in the interior and
suburban areas of major cities.
This initiative on the part of the
government of President Dilma Rousseff responds to
one of the more pressing demands of the surprise,
mass popular protests in June and July which shook
the country – one of continental dimensions – which
over the last 10 years has succeeded in moving into
the first rank of emerging nations, with a growing
influence internationally.
"The country is ripe for advancing
and has now made it clear that it doesn’t want to
remain where it is," the President observed in this
context, thus showing herself in solidarity with and
feeling demonstrators’ concerns. She made it clear
that the Planalto Palace is aware of the
shortcomings after the successful work undertaken by
the Workers Party (PT), which allowed for Rousseff’s
reelection, after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s two
terms in office.
CUBAN MEDICAL COOPERATION, A
PRINCIPLE AND AN ETHIC
The Cuban Revolution did not wait
for its own economic development and political
consolidation, almost immediately beginning to
provide aid in the field of health, even with the
mass exodus of doctors after 1959, stimulated by U.S.
imperialism as a weapon of aggression against the
country, when it had 6,285 professionals, 50% of
whom emigrated. Despite enemy actions to try and
destabilize the Revolution, an emergent medical
brigade and several tons of equipment and supplies
were sent to Chile, badly affected by a powerful
earthquake which left thousands dead.
However, the initiation of Cuban
international medical cooperation with long-term
brigades is considered to be May 23, 1963, with the
dispatch to Algeria of the first brigade of 55
doctors, who provided services for 12 months. This
clearly revealed the internationalist principle in
relation to the Cuban public health system and its
ethical foundation, not as medical diplomacy, nor as
the vehicle for disseminating a political doctrine
and not as an incentive for commercial relations or
the sale of services.
At the end of July this year, 39,918
Cuban health workers were providing cooperation in
58 countries. This total has now been increased by
the first contingent to Brazil, according to sources
of the Ministry of Public Health’s Central Unit for
Medical Cooperation.
This effort has been possible thanks
to the development and strengthening of the Cuban
national health system.
Suffice it to say that from 1961 to
2012, more than 124,700 Cuban doctors have been
trained in national universities, with strong
scientific rigor.
For teaching purposes, Cuba has 13
Universities of Medical Sciences and three
independent faculties in Artemisa, Mayabeque and the
Isle of Youth, plus the Latin American School of
Medicine (ELAM), with a total of approximately
37,500 professors. These institutions include a wide-ranging
network of teaching hospitals and polyclinics. They
are educating human capital which Cuba shares with
humanity.
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FOTOS:
The initial group of 400 health professionals is
in Brazil to provide services in northern and
northeastern municipalities of that country.
Cuban doctors arriving in Brazil.
Cuban doctors confirm their willingness to work
for the health of the Brazilian people.
"The country is ripe for advancing and has now
made it clear that it doesn’t want to remain where
it is," noted President Dilma Rousseff, referring to
the just demands of the mass popular protests in her
country.
