[November 20, 2008] Uruguay pulls work permit from defecting Cuban doc Tweet Montevideo, Nov 20, 2008 (EFE via COMTEX) -- The Uruguayan government revoked the temporary work permit it had given to a Cuban ophthalmologist who walked away from a Havana-run program here and expressed his desire to settle in Montevideo, authorities said Thursday. Dr. Vladimir Villamil Martinez, the former vice president of the national department of ocular plastic surgery at Cuba's Ramon Pando Ferrer Institute of Ophthalmology, had been - until last month - part of the group of Cuban eye doctors who are participating in Operation Miracle. That program, which was established with the signing of an agreement between the Cuban and Uruguayan governments, is being carried out by the Cuban doctors who in recent months have operated on hundreds of Uruguayans. The Cuban doctor stopped participating in the program and announced his desire to settle in Uruguay to practice his profession. The Public Health Ministry then resolved that Villamil's temporary license to practice medicine here was to be revoked because the authorization "referred exclusively to the (specific) program." "Therefore, he will not be able to engage in private practice or (in) any other type of paid activity," the resolution stated. EFE jf/bp [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]