The US Consulate in Sao Paulo announced on Friday (15) to his wife and ten-year-old daughter of the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, that they had their American visas revoked.
The information was conveyed by the G1 and Folha de S.Paulo, who reported that the message sent by email by the consulate only mentions that Padilha’s wife and daughter are no longer eligible for visas. According to the portal, both are in Brazil. Padilha told the G1 that he has not had his visa canceled because his has been overcome since 2024.
This week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Trump management revoked visas from civil servants from Cuba and other countries, including former member of the Ministry of Health of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), due to the sending of Cuban doctors to work in other nations.
In a statement, the State Department reported that among the sanctioned are Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who participated in the implementation of Mais Médicos. Padilha was also the Minister of Health at the time.
“The department revoked the visas of Mozart Júlio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who worked at the Brazilian Ministry of Health during the Mais Médicos program and played a role in planning and implementing the program. Our action sends an unambiguous message that the United States promote the responsibility of those that allow the forced work export scheme of the Cuban regime,” the state department said.
Sales is secretary of specialized health care of the Ministry of Health and in the Dilma government was chief of staff and national secretary of the Secretariat of Labor Management and Health Education.
Already Kleiman was director of the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of Health in Dilma Management and today is General Coordinator of the Lula government for COP30.
Padilha has not yet commented on the revocation of his daughter and his wife’s visas. When Sales and Kleiman had their visas revoked, the minister released a message on X.
“More doctors, like Pix, will survive the unjustifiable attacks of anyone. The saving program and is approved by those who matters most: the Brazilian population,” wrote the minister.
“We will not bend to those who pursue vaccines, researchers, science and now two of the fundamental people for more doctors in my first management as Minister of Health, Mozart Sales and Alberto Kleiman,” Padilha said.
