BBC Latin America is reporting thousands of Cuban doctors who were pulled out of Brazil after inflammatory remarks made by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, have now been replaced. The author writes:
“Brazil’s health ministry says it has filled almost all of the vacancies left by thousands of Cuban doctors who returned to their home country. Cuba pulled the doctors out of Brazil after what it called “contemptuous” remarks by president-elect Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right leader had questioned the doctors’ qualifications. He accused Cuba’s communist government of keeping 75% of their pay, and of not allowing their families to join them. The first group of Cuban doctors to leave was greeted in Havana by the country’s deputy health minister on Friday. The health ministry said in a statement that it had managed to fill 92% of the resulting vacancies with Brazilian doctors. The statement said more than 17,500 doctors had already been signed up, while almost 8,000 had been allocated to specific areas. But a large proportion of the Cuban doctors worked in poor, rural parts of Brazil, where it was harder to recruit Brazilian doctors, and it is not clear how many of the new recruits will be prepared to go to those areas.”
Read more at BBC Latin America.
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