Brazil fills over 90 percent of doctor vacancies as Cubans head home

Group of Cuban doctors arrived back in Havana on Friday: [Photo: Reuters]

RIO DE JANEIRO) - As Cuban doctors in Brazil begin to head home amid a diplomatic spat between Havana and the South American country’s far-right president-elect, Brazil’s health ministry said on Friday that it had filled nearly all of the resulting vacancies.

The first of thousands of Cuban doctors left Brazil on Thursday after criticism by incoming President Jair Bolsonaro prompted Cuba’s government to sever a cooperation agreement, leaving millions of Brazilians without medical care.