First Group of Cuban Doctors Arrive in Havana from Brasil (+photos)

The health professionals were received by President Diaz-Canel early Friday in Havana’s José Martí International Airport

You are more than doctors because you have returned to your homeland with such a revolutionary experience that has
magnified you, said Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, when he received this morning the first group of Cuban doctors from Brazil after the decision of the Ministry of Public Health to cease participation in the More Doctors program.

You knew how to arrive with disinterest, altruism, full dedication to places where no one wanted to go, you were able to cure the sick and also to animate the souls of millions of Brazilians, you gave the affection they had not received, you also took a different perspective of life and you have demonstrated that a better world is possible, said the Cuban leader.

Díaz-Canel went this morning to José Martí International Airport in Havana to receive the first 211 health professionals who began to arrive in Cuba out of the more than 8,300 who are providing their services in the South American giant.

The Cuban President pointed out that the response given by the Cuban government is courageous and exalts the principles of the Revolution because it was impossible for a government with an enormous neoliberal arrogance to understand that people like you go to a country to offer a health service, to be doctors of the soul as well, for the sake of duty.

There are many tasks that await you; Cuba will never abandon Brazil or other peoples in its humanist vocation, in its duty to bring universal health anywhere in the world, he added.

The welcoming ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, who pointed out that the doctors of the Island took Cuba with them to the most remote corners of Brazil and they return enriched with the affection and admiration of the Brazilian people, to whom they knew how to win over with their humanism, humbleness and professionalism.

The Minister explained that Jair Bolsonaro’s threatening and provocative pronouncements ratified the day after his election confirmed that he was willing to affect the health care of more than 30 million Brazilians.

Never before had the Cuban health school and our professionals been so offended in such a short period of time, with the purpose of constructing a great operation to break the program and discredit, in this way, one of the greatest conquests of our Revolution.

Portal added that Cuba understands that the decision not to continue in the program has an impact on the Cuban people and on the personal projects of Cuban doctors, but it was necessary to assume the decision to guarantee support for their dignity and integrity based on the probable scenario of hostilities, criminal proceedings, harassment and offensive measures that could be faced with Bolsonaro’s inauguration.

He added that this return is not an end but a new beginning, either by returning to their jobs or in a new mission abroad, where their presence and commitment are required.

The reception was also attended by Roberto Morales Ojeda, vice-president of the Councils of State and Ministers, Victor Gaute, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez, minister of Foreign Affairs and Irma Martinez Castrillon, minister-president of the Central Bank of Cuba.