Cuba Remembers Fidel Castro's Conception of Medical Cooperation

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Monday evoked the conception of international cooperation by Cuban health professionals expressed by the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro.

The dignified response from our doctors reminds us how #Fidel Castro conceived Cuban cooperation in health: 'We show that human beings can and should be better... We demonstrate the value of conscience and ethics. We offer lives' #SomosCuba', the president wrote on his Twitter account @DiazCanelB.

With that message, Diaz-Canel highlighted the support from Cuban doctors to the Ministry of Health's decision not to continue participating in Brazil's More Doctors Program.

The initiative created in 2013 during the administration of then Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff aims to guarantee the presence of national and foreign doctors in poor and remote areas of Brazil.

Last Wednesday, the Cuban Ministry of Health announced the decision not to continue participating in Brazil's More Doctors Program after the conditions and threats from president-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

According to official statistics, over the past five years, 20,000 Cuban doctors treated 113 million patients and nearly 700 municipalities had a doctor for the first time.