Havana - Cuba''s Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) announced on Wednesday that it will not continue in Brazil''s More Doctors Program, given the conditions set forth by the president-elect of the South American country, Jair Bolsonaro, for the island''s professionals.

In a statement, the Cuban institution explains that this decision was communicated to the Director of the Pan American Health Organization and to the Brazilian political leaders who founded and defended this initiative that provided health services to the poor population of Brazil.

The Cuban Ministry adds that Bolsonaro, with direct, derogatory and threatening references to the presence of Cuban doctors, has declared and reiterated that he will modify the terms and conditions of the More Doctors Program, disrespecting the Pan American Health Organization and its agreements with Cuba.

Cuba rejects that the current Brazilian president, Michel Temer, also questioned the training of professionals of the Caribbean nation and conditioned their permanence in the program to the renewal of the university degree and individual hiring as the only way.

The announced modifications impose unacceptable conditions and fail to comply with the guarantees agreed upon since the beginning of the Program, which were ratified in 2016 with the renegotiation of the Term of Cooperation between the Pan American Health Organization and the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the Cooperation Agreement between the Pan American Health Organization and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health,' expresses the Minsap.

These conditions make impossible to maintain the presence of Cuban professionals in the Program, says.

The Minsap reiterated Cuba's commitment to the solidarity and humanist principles that have guided Cuban medical cooperation for 55 years.