The Brazilian Ministry of Health granted special professional licenses to four Cuban doctors reinstated in the Mais Médicos program, through a resolution published on October 20 that recognizes various days in September and October 2026 as the start dates for their activities.
The decision is included in the Portaria SGTES/MS No. 396, dated October 16, 2026, published on Tuesday, October 20, in the Diário Oficial da União. The regulation grants special licenses to practice medicine to four Cuban professionals, based on legal and administrative procedures related to their reinstatement in the program.
The resolution, signed by Felipe Proenço de Oliveira, Secretary of Labor Management and Health Education, identifies the beneficiaries and the municipalities where they have been assigned:
Yasmaris Tercilla García, reintegrated in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, state of Pernambuco, with activities starting on September 15, 2026.
Mariasne Hechavarría Martínez, assigned to Cascavel, Paraná, since September 21.
Daylin Valverde Castilla, assigned to Candelária, in Rio Grande do Sul, with a start date of October 1.
Ileanne Torres Hardy, reintegrated in Mauá, São Paulo state, since September 24.
The names and dates appear in the annex of the provision, the full text of which is also available at Atlas Público.
The authorizations allow the four doctors to practice exclusively within Mais Médicos, through a unique professional registration (RMS). They do not equate to a general recognition of their university degrees for working freely in any Brazilian health institution.
A story that began before the rupture of 2018
The reintegration originates from Cuba's withdrawal from the Mais Médicos program in November 2018, when Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government announced the end of health cooperation with Brazil amid disagreements with then-elect president Jair Bolsonaro.
Among the demands presented by Bolsonaro were the full payment of salaries to doctors, the possibility of meeting with their families in Brazil, and the accreditation of their professional degrees. Havana deemed these conditions unacceptable and unilaterally announced the end of its participation.
The withdrawal left thousands of Cuban professionals faced with the decision of returning to the island or trying to remain in Brazilian territory, where many had established family and personal ties.
In December 2019, during Bolsonaro's government, Brazil approved Law 13.958, which introduced an exceptional mechanism to reintegrate the Cuban doctors affected by the break.
The regulation established three essential conditions: having worked in Mais Médicos on November 13, 2018, having lost the affiliation as a consequence of the Cuban withdrawal, and having remained in Brazil until August 1, 2019, as a naturalized citizen, resident, or asylum seeker.
The mechanism includes an exceptional reinstatement for two years, although its implementation has led to controversies and subsequent court decisions.
The new resolution does not signify a return of official Cuban medical missions to Brazil nor does it announce a cooperation agreement between the two governments. It involves individual authorizations under Brazilian legislation.
Three of the doctors had already requested to join in 2023
A review of official documents indicates that at least three of the four professionals had previously participated in new selection procedures.
In the list of validated registrations by the Brazilian Ministry of Health in 2023, Yasmaris Tercilla García, Mariasne Hechavarría Martínez, and Ileanne Torres Hardy appear.
Yasmaris obtained validated registrations in cycles 31 and 32, while Mariasne and Ileanne appear in cycles 31, 32, 33, and 34.
These records indicate that the three had begun efforts to secure medical positions in Brazil in 2023, five years after the agreement was terminated.
However, the validation of the registrations does not, on its own, prove that they obtained contracts in those calls.
There are also professional records prior to 2018. A Brazilian resolution from December 2016 places Yasmaris Tercilla García in the municipality of Abreu e Lima, Pernambuco, while another official document from September of that year records Ileanne Torres Hardy in Embu das Artes, São Paulo.
The resolution of October 2026 does not detail the migratory circumstances of each professional nor specify which individual judicial decisions, if any, supported their reinstatements.
The Brazilian judiciary has paved the way for the return of Cuban doctors
In January 2023, a decision by the Brazilian federal court ordered the reactivation of contracts for Cuban doctors that had been reinstated during Bolsonaro's administration for an initial period of two years.
The controversy arose because those contracts did not include the same extension possibilities as those granted to professionals from other calls.
Subsequently, in October 2023, the Superior Court of Justice established an important precedent by considering that a temporary return to Cuba after the breakup did not necessarily prevent access to the reintegration mechanism.
The court understood that the particular circumstances of those who had returned to Brazil shortly after, with the intention of establishing their residence in the country, should be taken into account.
More recently, in February 2026, the Federal Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of the requirements established for the reinstatement of Cuban professionals affected by the termination of the agreement.
According to the court itself, as explained in a statement published on March 11, the legal differentiation was based on objective and legitimate criteria related to the consequences of Cuba's withdrawal.
By August 2025, official data released by the Ministry of Health of Brazil indicated that 2,659 Cuban professionals were participating in the program, equivalent to 10% of the 26,414 active doctors.
Unlike the mechanism used until 2018, when the Cuban government received payments through the Pan American Health Organization and withheld part of the salaries, Brazilian authorities asserted in 2025 that the professionals were hired directly and received their compensation without intermediaries from Havana.
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