Quito, November 12 (RHC)-- Ecuadorian professionals will replace some 400 Cuban doctors after the Ecuadorian government's decision not to renew the existing agreement with the Cuban government on health issues, the Minister of Government of Ecuador, María Paula Romo, announced Tuesday.

The agreements between Ecuador and Cuba on this field date back to 2013.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez recently stated at the UN General Assembly that Cuba´s collaborative medical programs were suffering attacks sponsored by the current U.S. Government.

The minister noted that those programs are "aimed at the most needy communities, based on a sense of solidarity and the freely voluntary disposition of hundreds of thousands of Cuban professionals, which are implemented on the basis of cooperation agreements signed with the Governments of those countries and have enjoyed, for many years, the recognition of the international community, of the UN itself and of the World Health Organization as an exemplary example of South-South cooperation".

The Ecuadorean Minister of Government attributed the decision to the events of violence that occurred in Ecuador after the decree imposing new diesel and gasoline prices.

In a press conference from the Carondelet Palace, Romo ímplied that the events might be associated with admission into the country in the days before the crisis of October of some 250 people of Cuban nationality who entered with official passports.

According to the minister, Ecuadorean authorities checked with the Cuban embassy and in most cases, the official passport carriers were Cuban doctors who are in the country as part of the health agreements.