Exporting Doctors

Sandokan · Jan 26, 2015

Irregularities in ‘More Doctors’ as Cuban Defects
Allegations of Irregularities in Brazil's 'More Doctors' Continue as Cuban Doctor Defects | The Rio Times | Brazil News

Groups that represent doctors are accusing President Rousseff's program of violating "human and labor" rights.

By Maria Lopez Conde

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Groups that represent Brazilian doctors published an open letter criticizing the harsh conditions imposed by the Programa Mais Médicos (More Doctors Program) on its participants. The Federal Council of Medicine, the National Federation of Doctors and the Brazilian Medical Association described the program enacted by President Dilma Rousseff as an “attack on human, individual and labor rights.”

Dr. Ramona Rodriguez from Cuba shows her asylum request at a press conference last week in Brasília, photo by Marcelo Camargo.

In their statement, the organizations embrace a “full repudiation of the attacks on human, individual and labor rights to which foreign and Brazilian doctors have been subjected” through the More Doctors program. Announced following nationwide protests over the poor quality of public services, including healthcare, in Brazil last July, the controversial initiative has been bringing mostly foreign doctors to underserved areas across Brazil since September 2013.

The groups also expressed their “outrage over the irresponsibility of the Ministry of Health for the omissions that have resulted in impaired working conditions, financial losses and moral damage” among others. They called on the Federal Prosecutor, the Ministry of Labor and Supreme Court to investigate all “evidence of irregularities” in the recruitment of foreign health professionals for the program.

The statement comes just four days after Ramona Matos Rodriguez, a Cuban doctor and participant in More Doctors, defected from the program and sought asylum in Brazil over what she claimed was an unfair paycheck for her work in the Pará town of Pacajá in the Amazon.

“I think I was fooled by Cuba. They did not tell me that Brazil would be paying R$10,000 for the service of foreign doctors. They said that I would be receiving US$400 here and US$600 [in Cuba] when the contract finished,” Rodriguez said from the headquarters of the Democratas (DEM), a center-right political party, in Brasília. The DEM has opposed the More Doctors Program since its implementation last September.

“Other doctors receive R$10,000 to do the same thing I am doing. Brazil gives Cuba R$10,000 for each doctor. The question is where is the other part of that money going?” Rodriguez asked the press during a conference with the DEM leadership in Brasília.

Caiado presented the contract Rodriguez signed with the Mercantile Society of Commercialization of Cuban Services for her work in Brazil in Congress last week. According to Brazil’s federal government, Rodriguez and all other Cuban doctors were hired through an agreement with the Pan-American Health Organization. Caiado accused the Federal Police of tapping Rodriguez’s phone calls and of hiring “slave work.”

The Workers’ Party (PT) leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Arlindo Chinaglia, shot back at the criticism, arguing that Caiado was “lying.” “The contract was analyzed by the Chamber and the Senate, and I have a copy. If the Pan-American Health Organization feels good or bad in that role, if Cuba feels good about it, it is not Brazil’s place to judge,” Chinaglia said to the Chamber.

The Ministry of Labor met with Rodriguez last Monday to discuss the conditions to which she was subjected as a Mais Médicos participant. Rodriguez alleged that she was told by Cuba that she was not to travel outside her city of residence without prior authorization or befriend Brazilians. The Ministry of Labor concluded that there had, in fact, been “irregularities” with the hiring of Cuban doctors under international labor laws.

On its part, the Brazilian Medical Association, which has been in fervent opposition to the law since its inception last year, hired Rodriguez for an administrative role this week. According to the organization’s president, Florentino Cardoso, Rodriguez is currently forbidden from practicing medicine in Brazil, but will be paid R$3,000 per month to fulfill administrative duties at the organization.

The Castroit newspaper Granma reported that the Cuban doctors got their salaries raise to $64 from $25 a month. Health professional are the regime top source of hard currency export earnings.

The regime health workers and other professional working abroad bring in $8.2 billion a year in export earnings. By contrast the value of the regimen exports brought by tourism, nickel and remittances together total only $5.6 billion a year.

Sandokan · Feb 4, 2015

Cuban doctors working oversees earn far more that the ones working at home, but still between 80 to 85 % of their salaries goes to the regimen for their work.

Cuban doctors in Brazil were pay only $1,000 of their $4,000 salary, with the balance going to the Castroit regime. After the incident their salary was raised to $1,245, but 60% of the salary is send back to Cuba and only paid to them if they return to the island. Otherwise they forfeit it.

Obviously this is an “attack on human, individual and labor rights.” The slave labor deal so far is on. Slavery by any other name is still slavery.

Sandokan · Feb 14, 2015

Cuban doctors working oversees earn far more that the ones working at home, but still between 80 to 90 % of their salaries goes to the regimen for their work.

Cuban doctors in Brazil were pay only $1,000 of their $4,000 salary, with the balance going to the Castroit regime. After the incident their salary was raised to $1,245, but 60% of the salary is send back to Cuba and only paid to them if they return to the island. Otherwise they forfeit it.

Obviously this is an “attack on human, individual and labor rights.” The slave labor deal so far is on. Slavery by any other name is still slavery.

Sandokan · Feb 20, 2015

Second Cuban doctor abandons Brazil program
Second Cuban doctor abandons Brazil program

BRASLIA, Brazil (AP) — A second Cuban physician has abandoned Brazil's program to get foreign and Brazilian doctors to work in impoverished and underserved areas.

Dr. Ortelio Jaime Guerra says on his Facebook page that he left his assigned post the city of Pariquera-Acu in Sao Paulo state and is now in the United States.

The Health Ministry confirmed the Cuban doctor had left the "More Doctors" program.

Last week, Dr. Ramona Matos Rodriguez left her post in the state of Para complaining the Cuban government was keeping most of her monthly wage of $4.165. She has applied for entry to the U.S.

Nearly 10,000 doctors, mostly Cuban, have signed up for the More Doctors program. Hundreds of Cuban doctors working in other countries also have left their posts to go to the U.S.

In the last two years over 3,100 Cuban doctors have defected to foreign countries despite the risks. They pay a heavy price by doing that, since their families are not allow to leave the island for at least 5 years. The regime retain their passports, medical degree and qualifications making very difficult for them the re-validation process and work in their profession in other countries.

Sandokan · Mar 5, 2015

Pay raise for Cuban doctors recruited by Brazil
Pay raise for Cuban doctors recruited by Brazil | Fox News Latino

Published February 28, 2014 / EFE

The Brazilian government announced Friday that it will raise the wages of close to 7,400 Cuban doctors it recruited for its healthcare program in poor areas following the defections that occurred at the beginning of the month.

The wages Cuban doctors receive will be raised from the current $400 a month to $1,125 beginning in March, Health Minister Arthur Chioro told a press conference.

The raise required negotiations with Cuban authorities, to whom Brazil pays 10,000 reais ($4,255) a month for each professional in line with a cooperation accord mediated by the Pan American Health Organization.

Brazil will not be spending more, while Cuba will boost the amount it sends to each doctor, according to Chioro.

"The increase in salaries does not raise the amount Brazil pays for their services. We reached an agreement with PAHO and we depend on the good faith of the Cuban government to increase the amount the doctors receive," the minister said.

Each doctor originally received $400 for living in Brazil, while Cuba deposited another $600 in a bank account in Havana that the health professionals could only withdraw at the end of the contract.

Following the new accord, Cuba will pay $1,000 directly to each of their doctors in Brazil and will raise its monthly contribution by $245.
The negotiation came after at least two Cuban doctors defected in Brazil and complained of the little money their received from Havana to work in a country with a higher cost of living than that of other nations where they have served.

Brazilian authorities admit they have no idea of the whereabouts of three other Cuban doctors, who apparently also defected.

For the program "Mas Medicos" (More Doctors), aimed at improving healthcare in isolated rural areas and urban slums, the Brazilian government has contracted some 9,420 foreign doctors to date, of whom close to 70 percent are from Cuba. EFE

The Castroit regime collect more than $6 billion a year from the pay of its health workers. See table 1 for service exports up to 2010.

Sandokan · Mar 13, 2015

14 CUBAN DOCTORS have abandoned the Brazilian Program “Mais Doctors”
– REPORT: 14 CUBAN DOCTORS have abandoned the Brazilian Program “Mais Doctors”. (Photos) * * SON 14 LOS DOCTORES CUBANOS que han abandonado el Programa Brazileño “Maís Médicos”.(Fotos) | The History, Culture and Legacy o

The Cuban History, Hollywood.
Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Fourteen Cuban professionals have abandoned More Doctors, the program launched by the government of Dilma Rousseff, said at a session of the Chamber of Deputies Brazilian Health Minister Arthur Chioro, reports the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

Some have applied for visas to emigrate to the United States, he added.

Chioro said, however, the number of over 11,000 doctors sent by Havana is the one that has the lowest dropout rate, 0.1 percent, compared with the Brazilians (8.4%) and the overall among foreigners (0.8%).

Tens of Cubans have returned to the island for health or personal reasons and have been replaced by other doctors.

To Chioro, the problem of dropouts is not relevant to their portfolio. “If they are going to have shelter, validation (your diploma) is not a problem of the Ministry of Health,” he said.

In response to criticism about the conditions under which Cubans made by Rep. Ronaldo Caiado, work Chioro said: “Ask the prefects of any party, including his own, if they want to return to More Medical doctors (…) No no problem, if there is any problem of conscience on the part of any authority that says ‘do not want to participate more.’ ”

A number of Cubans who have left more Doctors have complained about the wage gap between professionals from other countries.

Brazil pays to Havana, through the Pan American Health Organization, $ 4,250 per month per physician.
Professionals receive $ 1,245, the rest goes to the government of Raul Castro.

DDC / Agencies / InternetPhotos / The History, Culture and Legacy of the People of Cuba | TheCubanHistory.com

The Castroit regime has for many years been treating the health care personnel as “exportable commodities.” It is a modern day version of trafficking in human beings, a multibillion dollars form of international crime, a violation of human rights. In 2013 the regime earned $10.4 billion exporting professional services, especially in the health sector, to other countries, the same amount brought by total exports, tourism and remittances all together in 2013.

Sandokan · Mar 23, 2015

Financially, "doctor diplomacy" is an outstanding source of income for Castroit regime economy since MINSAP pays doctors and other personnel only a small fraction of the millions of dollars that are received by the regime.

Sandokan · Apr 2, 2015

Brazil extends contracts for 11,500 Cuban doctors
Brazil extends contracts for 11,500 Cuban doctors

Event

Since August 2013, Cuba has collected over US$700m from the Brazilian government in exchange for the services of 11,456 Cuban medical professionals working in over 2,700 towns and cities across the country. The Brazilian government recently announced that the programme will CONTINUE next year, with total payments amounting to US$511m.

Analysis

The Cuban doctors participate in Brazil's Mais Médicos (More Doctors) programme, which aims to bring medical services to remote or underserved parts of the country by employing overseas doctors, mainly from Cuba. It was created in response to the mass protests that rocked Brazil in June 2013 over the poor quality of public services, including healthcare. The programme pays each participant a salary of around US$4,500 a month. However, the participation of Cuban doctors is organised through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The Brazilian government disburses the payments to the PAHO, which then transfers the monies to the Cuban government after taking a 5% administrative commission. The Cuban government pays the medical professionals working in Brazil a monthly salary of US$1,245, and pockets the rest.

With 440,000 health professionals in a country of 11m people, Cuba has one of the best doctor-to-patient ratios in the world. As the government has sought to cut costs and "UPDATE " the economy since 2008 under President Raúl Castro, it has cut the number of doctors operating on the island and offered to sell their services abroad.

Currently, the sale of services abroad is Cuba's largest source of hard currency: in 2014, the government estimates that it will collect US$8.2bn from these deals. Around 50,000 Cuban health professionals work in 66 countries worldwide, although around half of those work in Venezuela, with an additional 11,456 in Brazil. The agreements with other foreign countries are similar to the Brazilian setup, with Cuban doctors paid less than the salary of local medical staff, and the remainder of their pay being transferred to the Cuban government.

Impact on the forecast

THE ECONOMIST Intelligence Unit is not changing its macroeconomic forecasts in light of the renewal of the programme, but it will come as a relief to the Cuban government and will help to mitigate the scaling-back of the sale of professional services to Venezuela.

According to the Castroit regime estimate it will collect $8.2 billion in 2014 from the pay of its health workers, making it the largest source of hard currency.

This deal between the Brazilian Government and the Castroit regime, has been denounced in Brazil, an others countries, as forced labor, since under the terms of this contract the Cuban doctors have no power of decision about salary and working conditions. At the same time their passports are retained by the regime and their relative in the island kept as hostages to avoid their defection.

Sandokan · Apr 11, 2015

ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doctors

The Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “the contracts of the Cuban doctors have the characteristics of slave labor and only serve to finance the Cuban government.” The contract between the Brazilian Government and the Castroit regime is clearly in violation of the UN “Trafficking in Persons Protocol”, and the International Labor Organization “Protection of Wages Convention” of 1949.

Sandokan · Apr 26, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

There are a total of 70,000 Cuban doctors. According to MINSAP 30,000 Cuban doctor’s work overseas and another 13,000 have left Cuba. The actual numbers of doctors in Cuba reach 27,000. Of those 10% quit their profession to work in more lucrative jobs, leaving only 24,300 working in their profession. The regime has acknowledged that there is a shortage of doctors and nurses in Cuba. On December 2007 the vice minister of public health, Joaquín García Salaberría, took the highly unusual step of admitting on Cuban television that there were shortages of doctors and nurses. The real per capita of doctors in Cuba is one doctor per 469 people, not one doctor per 160 people as the regime boast.

Sandokan · May 8, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The Mais Médicos Controversy
https://noticiassobrecuba.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/the-mais-medicos-controversy/

Posted onFebruary 2, 2015 by pols104project

The Mais Médicos PROGRAM run by the Brazilian government seeks to relieve the shortage of doctors and medical treatment in the country. According to the World Health Organization, Brazil has one of the lowest doctors to resident ratios at 1.9 doctors per 1000 residents. Cuban physicians have been involved in efforts to increase access to healthcare in Brazil. Out of the 14,462 doctors working for the PROGRAM , 11,429 are Cubans. These doctors are working in Brazil under contract with the União (the Brazilian Federal Government) for a three year increments. On January 15th, ACN (a Cuban news source) announced the Brazilian government’s intent to expand the Mas Médicos program.

The doctors practicing in Brazil were notified on January 29th, 2015 that if their family member abroad did not return before February 1st, they would face expulsion from Mais Médicos by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. Brazil issued valid 36 month visas to the family members of the doctors. The Ministry of Health has decreed that family members cannot legally remain in Brazil.

Initially, it was reported that Dr. Marina de la Torre, the Director for International Cooperation in the Ministry of who organized members of the Cuban medical community for participation stated that they were looking for couples who both practiced medicine, but if a partner was not a doctor there would be no contest with their departure as long as they funded their trip to Brazil.

This information was disseminated to various websites through a letter written by the doctors in Brazil. In the letter, the doctors asked for journalists to publish their stories and raise international and domestic awareness about their hope to remain with their family members in Brazil. The letter mentioned the importance of Cuban doctors to the Cuban economy as a result of this medical partnership and that their commitment to the Cuba should be respected. Since August 2013, the Cuban government received $992 million for participation in the PROGRAM . Additionally, Brazilian exports to Cuba have been increasing following participation in Mais Médicos.

On state supported websites such as the Ministry of Health’s page and Granma there are no mentions of the Mais Médicos PROGRAM or the Ministry of Health’s demands that spouses return. As Cuba prepares for a change in relations with the United States, international media attention on Cuban affairs has increased significantly. Public information about Cuban involvement in the Mais Médicos program save for the blog posts that released and referenced the letters from the doctors was limited or from 2014.

The Castroit “doctor diplomacy” involves utilizing Cuban physicians to serve in areas where the Cuban regime has entered into contractual relationships with the expressed intention of providing health care aid and establishing or nourishing diplomatic relations with the host community. The physicians serving in these units are essentially under surveillance all the time and any change in their plans not consistent with the orders given from Havana invariably lead to the involvement of police or paramilitary security forces. It is no wonder that many physicians in such missions defect to freedom.

Sandokan · Jun 1, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Many of the Cuban doctors that accept to work overseas do so as a way to escape from the miserable life in the island. But in many of those countries the doctors find out they are imprisoned in their new assignments. They are send to work in remote communities and restricted means of transportation, and under surveillance all the time. If there are changes in their plans not consistent with the regime guidelines would normally lead to involvement of the police. Because they live their lives in servitude to work in those countries, many doctors in such medical missions defect to freedom. About 10,000 health workers, many of them physicians, have left Cuba in the last 12 years.

Sandokan · Jun 12, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Cuba Urges Staff on Brazil's More Doctors Scheme to Send Relatives Back
Folha de S.Paulo - Internacional - En - Brazil - Cuba Urges Staff on Brazil's More Doctors Scheme to Send Relatives Back - 13/03/2015

03/13/2015 ¬ 09H07 CLÁUDIA COLLUCCI FROM SÃO PAULO The Cuban government is pressurizing Cuban citizens working in the Brazilian government's PROGRAM More Doctors (Mais Médicos), kick started by President Dilma Rousseff, to send their families (spouses and children) back to Cuba immediately.

If they do not comply, the Cuban government has threatened to replace them with doctors who have already been selected and are waiting for vacancies to open.

Until December last year, out of 14,462 professionals working in the scheme, 11,429 ¬ almost 80%¬ were Cubans. There is no estimate of how many have brought their families to Brazil.

The Deputy Health Minister of Cuba, Cristina Estela Morales, has seen to the matter personally in addition to her interlocutors, who have been meeting with Cuban doctors in several Brazilian cities. Her involvement was confirmed to Folha by eight Cuban doctors and two More Doctors supervisors.

Cuba's main argument, according to what the research found, is that the contract between Cuba and the doctors states that they can receive visits from relatives, but not bring them to live with them.

But in the contract there is no set time limit for visits. The Brazilian GOVERNMENT GRANTS the families of Cuban doctors a residence permit of 36 months, the same time given to doctors.

The Ministry of Health says that from a legal point of view, there is nothing to prevent these families from staying in Brazil. Article 18 of the More Doctors law predicts the arrival of dependents.

The Cuban government has gradually relaxed its travel restriction for citizens since January 2013, and now they no longer need prior authorization.

On Saturday (7), the Cuban Health Deputy Minister was in the city of Jandira (SP). Between 1pm and 4pm he talked to doctors and said there are 530 professionals on the island waiting to be put on the PROGRAM ".

The message was clear. If the family does not go back, we will be replaced," said a doctor who spoke anonymously. There are cases where husband and wife are doctors on the PROGRAM and have young children. "We have two couples of friends who have children of three and six years old and are being pressured to send the children back, alone, to Cuba," another person said.

"They want my husband back. He has been employed for four months, with a formal contract. It's not fair. We are here legally," said a Cuban doctor who works in the Greater São Paulo.

Another doctor fears a separation from her husband and seven year old son. "My husband works in a packaging factory and my son attends a bilingual school (Portuguese and Spanish). If they are forced to return, I will go with them."

The national coordinator of the More Doctors program, Felipe Proenço said that he has learned, albeit unofficially, about complaints by Cuban doctors on Wednesday (11), but the resolution is beyond the scope of the Ministry of Health.

According to him, the ministry oversees the activities of the Cuban doctors in the workplace, but has no power to interfere with their contractual relationship with Cuba and PAHO ¬ a ramification of the World Health Organization who brokered the coming of Cuban professionals to Brasil.

I really don't understand how some people can support such a system or blame those who try to escape it unless they see their rejection of a tyrannical regime as a threat to their own political ideology.

Freedom and liberty are the highest human yearning. Without personal liberty you have nothing. Security at the cost of personal liberty isn’t worth it. Castros’ tyranny has always been a despotic monarchy. Only useful idiots believe otherwise.

Sandokan · Jun 24, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The Castroit tyrannical regime has for many years been treating the health care personnel as “exportable commodities.” It is a modern day version of trafficking in human beings, a multibillion dollar form of slavery, a violation of human and labor rights.

Sandokan · Jul 4, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The international community should not be cowed into respecting the rights of a regime that does not respect the rights of its people.

State capitalism seems alive and well in the Castroit regime with money to be made selling the services of its doctors at the expense of its own country's medical needs.

Sandokan · Jul 11, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The left defines and produces economic justice wherever they are in power. It is that system of universal poverty, except for the elites, that leads people to leave their families and their homeland in order to seek something better.

Sandokan · Jul 21, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Brazil’s “More Doctors” Program a Trojan Horse for Handouts to Havana
Brazil's "More Doctors" Program a Trojan Horse for Handouts to Havana

PEDRO GARCÍA OTERO MARCH 19, 2015

Brazil’s Mais Médicos (More DOCTORS ) PROGRAM has had a hidden agenda that goes beyond recruiting Cuban DOCTORS to provide medical care in underdeveloped regions of the nation.

ACCORDING to Jornal Da Band, which obtained access to a recording of a meeting in Brasilia’s presidential palace in June 2013, after huge demonstrations broke out across the country against the government of President Dilma Rousseff. The audio suggests that her government hid the true objectives of the medical PROGRAM

The meeting was between six ministerial advisors and María Alice Barbosa, director of the More Doctors initiative under the aegis of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Barbosa is heard to voice her concern for the Rousseff administration’s preference for Cuban doctors, and decides to deploy medical staff from Mercosur member states. She admits that only 0.13 percent of the first year’s budget will go towards non-Cuban personnel.

“I can put aside R$2 million (US$620,000) to pay for [DOCTORS from] Mercosur and Unasur … this, in relation to R$1.6 billion (US$498 million) … will this create problems for us with the judiciary?” Barbosa is heard to ask.

Another point of discussion was the form of payment for the Cuban DOCTORS, as well as the role to be played by 50 Cuban “political commissars” that were to prevent potential desertions by the Cubans medics from their posts in Brazil.

“I’m not going to put 9,000 DOCTORS and 50 advisors in my deal, I’m going to put 9,050 doctors, because the advisors aren’t part of the PROGRAM , and it’s the program I want to defend,” Barbosa said at one point in the meeting.

The issue of salary was resolved by Marco Aurelio García, an advisor to Rousseff who has also taken the lead in talks between the governing Workers’ Party (PT) and Venezuela. García finally decided that 60 percent of the payment should go to the Cuban government, while the other 40 percent should end up in the pockets of the individual doctors.

The decision was questioned by the Brazilian Court of Audit, which after studying the program DOCUMENTS stipulated that paying foreign personnel more than Brazilian doctors violated World Health Organization (WHO) recruitment codes. It also noted that both PAHO and the WHO have raised concerns about the failure of the Brazilian government to provide documents about the presence of Cuban doctors in the South American country.

There are approximately 11,000 Cuban DOCTORS in Brazil, with local media REPORTS suggesting this week that Havana is pressuring many to return their families to the island.

ACCORDING to national daily Folha de Sao Paulo, the government of Raúl Castro fears that having their families in Brazil may encourage DOCTORS to go off the radar and not to return to Cuba.

More Doctors is ostensibly designed to send medics to regions of the 8.5 million square kilometer country that are less attractive to Brazilian doctors.

However, political columnist Felipe Voura took to Veja.com to argue that the PT’s true objectives were “to FINANCE the Cuban dictatorship, giving the greater part of the doctors’ salaries to the dictatorship of the Castro brothers.”

The Venezuelan Experience

Havana’s preoccupation over the reliability of its HEALTH workers in Brazil follows a similar experience in Venezuela. After 11 years of the Barrio Adentro program, over 1,400 DOCTORS have fled to the United States in the last four years alone, with the figure rising to over 8,000 since 2004.

Barrio Adentro involves the greater part of the 44,000 Cubans present in official capacities in Venezuela. The exact NUMBER of medics is unknown, as is the exact number of those who have escaped to US territory via Colombia.

The program’s capacity no longer reaches even 30 percent of its initial reach. Of the $1,500 that Cuba receives for each DOCTOR (costing Venezuela $13.5 billion over 11 years), the medic himself EARNS less than $100 a month. The remaining quantity has effectively constituted a subsidy by the government of former President Hugo Chávez, and his successor Nicolás Maduro, to the Caribbean island’s regime.

Recent news stories have highlighted the growing trend for Cuban doctors to defect to foreign countries. The more doctors program pays about $4,255 per month salary to each doctor in the three year program. From this $4,255 Cuban doctors receive $1,125 per month. The Castroit regime retain the remaining $3,130, a 74% of the total salary.

Since 2003 service exports have been the primary source of foreign currency in Cuba. See table below.

Sandokan · Jul 28, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Cuban doctors in in the island earn little more than $25 a month. These doctors, to make ends meet, supplement their income by having side jobs in the informal economy. Cuban doctors generate billions in tax revenue by working for the regime while overseas.

Since 2008, the regime has cut the number of doctors operating on the island and sold their services abroad. From August 2013 to June 2015, the Castroit regime has collected over $1.4 billion from the Brazilian government in exchange for the services of 11,456 Cuban medical professionals. The Castroit regime estimate it will collect $9 billion in 2015 from the pay of its health workers, making it the largest source of hard currency.

Sandokan · Aug 6, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Cuban Medic Defects from Brazil’s “More Doctors” Program
Cuban Medic Defects from Brazil's "More Doctors" Program

NEWS BRIEF
APRIL 2, 2015

A Cuban DOCTOR working in Brazil as part of that country’s Más Médicos (More Doctors) program has abandoned her post and fled to the United States with her husband and son, Brazilian press reported on Wednesday.

The Cuban DOCTOR abandoned Brazil together with her family. (Noticias Martí)

According to local daily Folha de Sao Paulo, Dianelys San Román Parrado, who was working in the Jandira municipality in San Paulo’s metropolitan REGION , left for Miami, Florida with her spouse and five-year-old son.

Parrado’s decision was REPORTEDLY prompted by “pressure” exerted by the Cuban government, which ruled in March that the families of those working in Brazil as part of a cooperation agreement signed by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had to return to Cuba if they had been present in the South American country for over three months.

Parrado signed up to the More DOCTORS PROGRAM soon after its creation in 2013. Her absconding to the United States is reportedly the first time that a Cuban doctor in Brazil has deserted their post due to pressure from Havana.

Earlier in March, opposition Senator Cassio Cunha of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party proposed to the Public Ministry that Cuban DOCTORS working in Brazil receive their salaries directly, as is the case with visiting medical personnel from other countries, and not via the Cuban government.

Cunha added that of the 10,400 reales (US$3,200) dollars assigned by the Brazilian government, the Cuban medics themselves only received 3,120 reales ($965).

The Cuban government has previously threatened to replace those professionals whose relatives refused to return to Cuba. Havana fears that its DOCTORS in Brazil might follow the example of many of their counterparts in a similar program in Venezuela and abandon their posts.

Brazil’s Health Ministry meanwhile claimed that it couldn’t interfere in labor relations between the DOCTORS and their country of origin.

The More DOCTORS PROGRAM currently reaches around 50 million people, the majority in poor areas on the periphery of Brazil’s sprawling cities or in remote locations in the country’s interior.

The measure is designed to make up the reticence of local DOCTORS to take POSITIONS in far-flung or poor areas in Brazil. The vast majority of the 11,000 doctors employed are from Cuba, who were contracted under a cooperation agreement with the Pan American Health Organization.

According to the Venezuela newspaper El Universal, over 300 Cubans doctors defected from Venezuela in 2013 and 700 in 2014. During the same years approximately another 1,290 Cuban doctors from other foreign missions, including Brazil, had defected too, for a gran total of 2,290 defections in two years.

Sandokan · Aug 14, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Since 2007 close to 5,500 Cuban doctors have defected to the United States while serving on aid missions abroad. The labor of Cuban doctors abroad can be depicted as “state sponsored marketplace in human trafficking” carried out by the Castroist regime. (EEUU revisa programa para mÃ©dicos desertores â€” Telemundo 51)

Sandokan · Aug 22, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Brazil set up a “remedial course” for Cuba trained doctors. Other countries have also required them to take additional exams. Beyond the problems with the course load countries noted that Cuba trained doctors lacked knowledge of modern techniques and treatments.

Medical education in Cuba has been deteriorating. Costa Rican officials reviewed the Cuban medical school curriculum and found that 25-30% of courses required for medical students in Costa Rica were not given. The failure rate in certification exams just proves the point.

The reason that Cuban doctors lack new technology is not the embargo. For over 15 years Cuba has been able to freely import medicines and medical equipment from the US.

Sandokan · Sep 1, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The regime has chosen not to import medicines and medical equipment from other countries, including the U.S., for the hospitals reserved for the Cuban people, creating a medical apartheid system in the island. The hospitals for the elite and medical tourists are well stocked with everything from medicines to new technology. One has to be extremely naive to believe that the “embargo” is the reason the Cuban hospitals reserved for the people lack everything from medicines, bed sheets, equipment, etc., while in the hospitals for the medical tourist all of the above is available.

Sandokan · Sep 19, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

Cuba Increases Control over Its Doctors
Cuba Increases Control over Its Doctors / Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones | Translating Cuba

By Roberto Jesus Quinones
April 25, 2015

The government is trying, among other measures, to curb hiring of its professionals by foreign clinics

Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, Guantanamo, 20 April 2015 — The exodus of Cuban health professional does not stop, and the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) apparently has decided to act to counter a phenomenon that is damaging domestic medical services but much more the country’s income.

A document attributed to the senior management of MINSAP, adopted in a meeting held in mid-March of this year, has been making the rounds in the e-mail of health professionals in which the sector’s new policy is expressed. This event was confirmed to CubaNet by an official from the Provincial Management of Public Health in Guantanamo, whose identity we do not reveal for obvious reasons.

The document has 18 instructions. The first three are focused on the re-organization of services and the re-location of professionals as a result of the staff review carried out last year.

The other 15 are directed to curbing the exodus of health professionals through private contracts or other avenues and steering the application of the measures in each case.

The document

One of the most controversial, instruction number 4, establishes that Cuban doctors in Angola must be relieved, but without increasing the collaboration with that country, until its authorities stop handing down measures that discourage the hiring of Cuban professional in private clinics or institutions.

Another measure, number 5, directs the withdrawal of the passport, in the airport itself, of professionals who later return from the completion of a mission.

Measures 6, 7 and 8 aim to get the private clinics of other countries to hire Cuban doctors through MINSAP, an agency that claims the right to review the professional’s individual contract, obviously so that the doctors pay the corresponding tax to the Cuban government and in no way receive all the money that is due them from the agreed upon wage.

Measure number 10 requires concluding the process of cancelling the diplomas of the 211 professionals who left service without authorization, and number 11 directs MINSAP’s vice-minister of International Relations to carry out a study of the existing rules in the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), as it relates to the migration of the sector’s professionals.
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Yet President Obama keeps close ties with the Castroit regime. Repression remains unpunished and severe violation of human rights keep occurring in the case of health professionals. How come that the Castroit regime is not sanctioned for keeping alive at all costs this despicable method of slavery. On the contrary, it is supported by other regimes signers of the declaration of human rights of the UN. Until when will have the Cuban health professionals to withstand this slavery?

Sandokan · Oct 11, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

It is obvious the exploitation has been carried out for years, which the doctors accept because “of the wolf a hair”, since it is worse to stay in Cuba being destitute and without hope of improving their status. There are currently very few professors of renown in the hospitals, there are now "teachers" that formerly had not been able to qualify as such.

Sandokan · Oct 21, 2015

Re: ReThe Brazilian “National Federation of Physicians”, has said, “th: Exporting Doc

The Castroit regime is characterized since its inception by exceedingly criticizing any form of capitalist society, is not more than the worst of the worst exploiters and enemies of the working class, since it is a one-party system with strict control of all the media that does not allow freedom of speech and expression of the people and their right to a dignified life with the fruit of their labor.

Exporting Doctors

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