'Castrocare' Divides Doctors In Cuba, Brazil
Call it "Castrocare." Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro sent doctors abroad for decades to work throughout Latin America and as far away as Africa.
In some cases, like Haiti, the medical missions were seen as purely humanitarian. In other places, like Venezuela, it was a form of barter that provided Cuba with subsidized oil imports.
Cuba has long boasted of its program, which has generally been well-received. So now Cuba is sending thousands of doctors to Brazil, which badly needs the physicians in poor, rural areas and has the money to pay for them. However, the program is meeting resistance in Brazil — not from patients but from the medical establishment.
In the town of Pedreira, about 85 miles outside Sao Paulo, Luis Fernades dos Santos is getting a broken tooth cared for at his local public health clinic.
After the procedure, he says he's heard about the Cuban doctor who is to be working here soon and thinks it's a good thing.
"Here in the city, you see people sleeping — sleeping — for a day, two days waiting in line to see a doctor. And when it's their turn, there is no doctor to see them," he says. "So that's why I think bringing people in to help will make things better."
Over the summer, massive protests broke out in Brazil, decrying, among other things, the state of the public health system. The problems include aging equipment and a lack of medical facilities, things that take time to fix. But the government moved quickly to address the lack of doctors by bringing in Cuban physicians.
Opposition From The Medical Establishment
The patients may be in favor, but most of the Brazilian medical community is not.
When Cuban physicians arrived in the city of Fortaleza in August, Brazilian doctors shouted at them, "Slaves, slaves!"
"We are not slaves," says Tania Aguiar Sosa, one of the Cuban medical workers with decades of experience. "We are health workers. We are professionals that provide help to whatever country needs it."
She's worked in Venezuela and Haiti previously and was headed to Angola before being rerouted to Brazil.
Brazilian medical unions are trying to mount a court challenge to the use of Cuban doctors here.
Jose Roberto Murisset, the human rights secretary of the National Doctors Federation, says that the Cuban government takes most of the money that is paid for the doctors. The Brazilian government has also decreed that the Cuban doctors have no right to ask for asylum in Brazil.
"Brazil has strong labor rights, but these Cuban doctors don't have their rights guaranteed," he says.
The main bone of contention is that foreign doctors arriving under the new program don't have to take the Brazilian medical exam to practice. Murisset says that many of the doctors coming from abroad would fail the test and are underqualified.
"Maybe the government thinks that these regions don't need a full doctor. Maybe they think they need only a half doctor," he says.
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