As faithful practitioners of revolutionary solidarity, more than 400 members of Cuba’s medical brigade in Brazil were welcomed at Havana’s José Martí International Airport during the dawn hours Sunday, returning on the 27th and 28th flights bringing Cuban doctors home, following the end of Cuba’s participation in the South American country’s More Doctors program.

Dr. Oralys García González speaking for the group on the second flight emphasized that the Cuban school of medicine teaches not only science, but humanism and internationalism as well, distinguishing Cuba doctors around the world.

“We return as reinforcements, to join the immense effort of our small island to perfect socialism and continue defending our conquests. Those of us who were part of the More Doctors program received a huge dose of love and joy, because we learned to be more doctors, more human, more solidary, and more Cuban,” she said.

In her welcome, Deputy Minister of Public Health Dr. Regla Angulo Pardo commented, “You showed the Brazilian people and the world your contribution to universal health care, a strength of Cuban revolutionary medicine.”

With the arrival of this group, a total of 5,800 Cuban doctors have returned from Brazil, where they worked primarily in remote and impoverished areas where health services were not previously available.

Also on hand to welcome the returning doctors were Víctor Gaute, member of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee Secretariat; Jorge Delgado Bustillo, director of the Central Unit of Medical Collaboration; René Mesa Villafaña, minister of Construction; along with other leaders and authorities.