Mais Medicos (from Cuba to Brazil)

I can see in Brazil the left are up in arms that the newly elected president Bolsonaro has denounce the agreement brokered by the previous administration 5 years ago (by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff of the PT party who was since impeached) for which Cuba sends doctors to Brazil and Brazil pay Cuba directly for these Doctors who only receive 30% of this money whilst the remaining 70% goes directly to Cuba’s dictatorship. Let’s just have a wee closer look at this before anyone falls for the shit about Bolsonaro carrying out “ultra-right” policies (admittedly I am a gringo writing about Brazilian politics so my views are up for debate)

 Firstly Bolsonaro (who is scheduled to take office on the first on January) never simply just bucketed the “Mais Medicos program, he gave Cuba conditions for it to continue in Brazil, he asked Cuba to accepted three conditions: that Cuban physicians receive their full wages; their medical degrees be validated by Brazil; and they be allowed to bring their families as at the moment Cuba does not allow its doctors to take their families with them. Families remain in Cuba as de facto hostages, to reduce the risk of mass defections Bolsonaro also said Brazil would offer asylum to Cuban doctors who wished to stay in Brazil. He actually said "This is slave labour," he said. "I couldn't be an accomplice of that." Now really what can lefties and progressives (many who are supporters of Lula’s PT party and aggressively against Bolsonaro winning the election last month) have against this?

 The terms of the deal with Cuba were a blatant violation of the doctors’ basic human rights, can anyone really say any different? Now I have been to Cuba (and Brazil multiple times) and have seen with my own eyes what is happening there. For example, if you get a Taxi from the airport the chances are it will be driven by an ex-Doctor or ex-Engineer the reason being that why would they want to continue working in their trained profession getting paid about £15 a month by the Cuban government when they can make the same some from the profits of a few hours driving taxis picking up visiting tourists from the airport.

 Cuba is still very much under a Communist regime, make no mistake about that and its very visible the poverty and suffering across there. Five years ago the leftist President Dilma Roussef agreed to import Cuban doctors via the Mais Medicos program but under the conditions the Cuban government place of their exported doctors it is, rightly as Bolsonaro claims “slave labour” and if lefties and progressives cant side with Bolsonaro on this one then they really need to get their moral compasses recalibrated!!!! Cuba’s health ministry rejected Bolsonaro’s comments as “contemptuous and threatening to the presence of our doctors” in a statement announcing its withdrawal from the program.

 Now remember that this is the same “health ministry” which until recently use to lock away people with Aids for life in so called “quarantine” centres!!! I am not for one second questioning the professionalism and altruism of Cubans Doctors but in this day and age what Cuba is doing by holding the Doctors families in Cuba basically as hostages is a disgrace and also if the Doctors were to defect then Cuba would not allow then to return to see their families for at least 8 years!!! Makes you wonder why Lefty Dilma Roussef agreed with such a program in the first place with a country so notorious for its human rights violations