Brazilian-Cuban relations were described as "excellent" in May 2008 following a meeting of their

foreign ministers A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

.Cuba-Brazil Relations Get New Impulse
at juventuderebelde.co.cu After the 1964 Brazilian coup, the military regime in Brazil severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, which were only restored after Brazil's redemocratization in 1986. During a January 2008

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

to Cuba by

Brazilian President The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

Lula da Silva, the Brazilian leader expressed desire for his country to be Cuba's "number one partner". After the election of

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

in the

2018 Brazilian general election General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff round was held ...

, relations between Cuba and Brazil worsened, exemplified by the cessation of the program agreed to by the governments of Dilma Rousseff and

Raúl Castro Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (; ; born 3 June 1931) is a retired Cuban politician and general who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, from 2011 to 2021, succeedi ...

for Cuban doctors to provide medical treatment to tens of millions of poor and

indigenous Brazilians Indigenous peoples in Brazil ( pt, povos indígenas no Brasil) or Indigenous Brazilians ( pt, indígenas brasileiros, links=no) once comprised an estimated 2000 tribes and nations inhabiting what is now the country of Brazil, before European con ...

. President Bolsonaro ended the ''Mais Medicos'' (More Doctors) programme, and thousands of Cuban doctors left Brazil. In addition, in November 2019, Brazil for the first time voted against an annual United Nations resolution condemning and calling for an end to the United States' economic embargo on Cuba.

References

Cuba Bilateral relations of Cuba {{Bilateralrelations-stub