Abstract
Abstract Starting in 2013, the Mais Médicos program brought over 11,400 Cuban doctors to work in Brazil. The program aimed to reduce inequality in access to medical care; but it was met with heavy resistance from Brazilian medical professionals. This article employs Foucault, Butler, and other post-modern thinkers to analyze Mais Médicos. Specifically, we argue that Mais Médicos did not lead to a politicization of Brazilian health care, but rather that pre-existing discourses were called upon to support or counter the arrival of Cuban doc-tors. This discursive struggle resulted in a dispute over biopower within Brazilian society. We base our claims on fieldwork and interviews conducted with Cuban doctors, Brazilian doc-tors, and Brazilian politicians.
Highlights
In July of 2013, what would amount to over 11,400 Cuban doctors began arriving in Brazil to work within the Mais Médicos (“More Doctors”) program
Dialoguing with Foucauldian and post-modern perspectives, we argue that the arrival of Cuban doctors did not lead to a politicization of Brazilian health care or the creation of new discourses surrounding health care, because Brazilian health care was already intrinsically politicized
What resulted was a polemic dispute over biopower, who has the right to yield it within Brazilian civil society, and for what biopolitical ends
Summary
In July of 2013, what would amount to over 11,400 Cuban doctors began arriving in Brazil to work within the Mais Médicos (“More Doctors”) program. The doctors arrived as part of President Dilma Rousseff’s, from the center-left Worker’s Party (PT), plan to reduce public health disparities and access to medical care in Brazil’s most underserved and remote areas. These Cuban doctors were not greeted as fellow thirdworldist colleagues coming to expand medical care for the underprivileged. We will problematize and nuance the controversy surrounding Cuban doctors within the Mais Médicos program to expand our understanding of these international medical missions and South-South cooperation programs, more broadly. Our discussions should work to further our understanding of these processes at the international level and how they affect world politics
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