Since 2013, Brazil has been pushing for the Programa Mais Médicos (More Doctors Program) to contract doctors from Cuba to work in Brazil. This program has resulted in Brazil sending millions of dollars over to Cuba, and in return Cuba sends thousands of doctors to live and work in Brazil for a few years. Sounds like an “everybody wins” sort of scenario, right? Not exactly.
Unfortunately, the Cuban doctors seem to have “drawn the short straw.” What I mean by saying this is the fact that these doctors are being compared to slave labor. They make very little compared to the amount that Brazil is paying Cuba for their services. According to one Dr. Álvarez and her husband, they were made to leave behind their children in the care of relatives, while earning an income of 2900 Brazilian reais a month (roughly $908 by current U.S. standards), which seems quite comparable to the $30 a month that Cuban doctors receive back home. By their standards, this may seem like a very profitable outcome.
However, according to the agreement between Brazil and Cuba, Brazil pays Cuba $3620 a month per doctor, nearly four times the amount the doctors themselves are getting paid. Despite the U.N.’s endorsement of this project for improving healthcare in Brazil, many doctors see it as an injustice. In fact, a federal judge in Brazil has claimed these contracts to be a form of slave labor. Unfortunately, there are many repercussions that these doctors are being faced with, as Cuban supervisors are sending any doctors who file for a law suit and ultimatum that is they must either return to Cuba within 24 hours, or face exile for up to eight years.
Cuba doctor Álvarez working in Brazil to provide healthcare to impoverished regions of the country
The article portrays the Latin American nations involves as two entities that are working together to improve the livelihood of Brazilian citizens, with little regard to how the Cuban doctors feel they are being treated. There is a small overtone of resentment towards Cuba in this article based on the violation of human rights, and Brazil is seen secondarily to blame for contracting these atrocities. However, it is also portrayed as a delicate issue that cannot be simply answered with whether or not these doctors’ human rights are being attended to, since these doctors are being contracted to provide healthcare to parts of the country that do not have access to it.
In relation to the themes we’ve discussed in class, this event portrays three main points. First, it shows ongoing interactions between different parts of Latin America, and I would challenge the idea of grouping them together as one entity. Second, it touches on the problem of healthcare in Latin America, an issue that has been ongoing ever since first contact. I anticipate this issue being further discussed as we move further into colonization, as providing healthcare to a mass of people in a new environment can be a challenge to the colonists. And third, this article brings into question government corruption and human rights, which has been a part of class discussion almost every day in this class. In this case however, it is about human rights being realized for those who are impoverished, while using virtually slave labor to provide for those rights.