Above: Brasilia

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Cuba could send 6,000 doctors to Brazil under a proposal that is currently in negotiations between the two countries, Brazil’s government announced.

Brazil would reportedly hire the doctors to serve in some of the country’s rural regions.

The proposal was announced by Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota following a meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla.

The move immediately led to controversy in Brazil, with the country’s Federal Council of Medicine calling the proposal “irresponsible.” The organization said it “strongly condemned” the entry of foreign doctors who had obtained diplomas in courses abroad but had not had their respective revalidatoin.

Also Monday, Cuban leader Raul Castro with Fernando Pimentel, Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Pimentel is in Cuba on a working visit to the country, joined by a delegation from Brazil’s Workers’ Party.

Castro and Pimentel discussed bilateral relations and the “will to continue strengthening them,” according to a government statement.

Pimentel was joined at the meeting by Brazilian Ambassador to Cuba Jose Eduardo Martins Felicio and Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.