00:00Now we go to Brazil. After overcoming a legal challenge from the far right,
00:04Brazil's first medical school course for agrarian reform settlement residents is underway.
00:10Our correspondent Brian Meir has more information.
00:13In 1997, Brazil's social movements pressured the federal government to create university courses
00:19for youth in agrarian reform settlements and quilombolas, which are villages of descendants
00:24of people who escaped slavery.
00:26Since then, 190,000 people have gotten bachelor's degrees through the Pronera program.
00:32Now it's starting its first medical school course at Pernambuco Federal University.
00:37We believe that Brazil's public universities, especially the Federal University of Pernambuco,
00:45need to address the structural problems in our society.
00:49When we look at rural areas, we understand that there are populations which still face barriers
00:56in accessing both university education and quality health care.
01:00After 21 years, Pronera was cancelled by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro,
01:06but it was reinstated when Lula da Silva took office in 2023.
01:10When the government announced the new medical school program, however,
01:14a legal challenge was mounted to attempt to stop it from happening.
01:17It's important to say that we never had any legal problems with our courses in areas like
01:24education and geography, but now this medical course bothers Brazil's elites.
01:28This is why legal challenges are on the way, mainly from the right and the far-right,
01:44who are attempting to cancel the medical school program.
01:47The first legal hurdle was overcome this month when a federal regional court ruled in favor of Pronera.
01:53The plaintiff still have a right to appeal to the Supreme Court,
01:57but the judges order that the program be allowed to start immediately.
02:01The law and medical schools have always been occupied by the children of the rich in Brazil.
02:07This is why this bothers them.
02:10They don't want their children to study in the same spaces as the children of poor people.
02:17Brazil's first medical program for agrarian reform settlement and Kilambola residents
02:21is scheduled to start by the end of the month.
02:24Brian Meir, Telesur, Caruaru, Pernambuco.
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