BRASILIA - Brazilian far-right
president-elect Jair Bolsonaro said there was no point
maintaining diplomatic relations with Cuba because it trampled
on human rights and there was no business to be done with the
communist-run island.
In an interview published on Friday by Correio Braziliense
newspaper, Bolsonaro criticised the Mais Medicos (More Doctors)
program under which 11,420 Cuban doctors work in poor or remote
parts of Brazil.
He said that 75% of the doctors' salaries was paid to
Cuba's government and their children were not allowed to join
them in Brazil, citing the case of a doctor whose three young
children had to stay in Cuba.
"That is just torture for a mother," Bolsonaro said. "Can we
maintain diplomatic relations with a country that treats its
people that way?"
Bolsonaro said the programme, begun by leftist former
president Dilma Rousseff to provide medical attention in areas
where Brazilian doctors did not want to serve, could continue,
but Cuban doctors would have to get their full pay and have
their children with them.
Bolsonaro, who was elected last week, takes office on Jan. 1
and promises the biggest shift in Brazilian foreign policy in
decades.
He will seek closer relations with the United States and
confirmed on Thursday that he plans to follow U.S. President
Donald Trump's lead and move Brazil's embassy in Israel to
Jerusalem.