US accused of pressuring Latin America to cut ties with Cuban doctors program | Cuba
Cuba’s foreign minister accused the United States of “extortion” by pressuring Latin American countries to cancel decades-old agreements with Havana to supply doctors.
Bruno Rodríguez said the United States was trying to “strangle” the economy of the communist island, which earns billions of dollars from foreign medical missions, after many countries stopped appointing Cuban doctors.
Washington says the program, which has been a source of pride and income in Cuba since the 1960s, amounts to forced labor.
The US stance on the doctor program is part of Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against the Cuban regime.
Trump threatened to “take” the island after overthrowing the Venezuelan leader and attacking Iran.
Countries that want to maintain strong ties with Washington have begun to bow to pressure to withdraw from medical partnerships.
Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica and Guyana have terminated agreements with Cuba, which is on the verge of economic collapse due in part to a U.S. energy blockade.
“The US government is persecuting, pressuring and blackmailing other governments under false pretenses to end the presence of the Cuban Medical Brigades in various countries,” Rodríguez told X.
According to official figures, approximately 24,000 Cuban doctors and other healthcare workers will be deployed in 56 countries in 2025.
Most are sent to remote areas.
Half were deployed to Venezuela, which was Cuba’s biggest ally for a quarter-century before President Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped by US forces in January.
The program was expected to generate $7 billion in revenue on the cash-strapped island last year.
On Tuesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report condemning serious human rights violations in the missions.
The report accused Cuba of garnishing doctors’ salaries, confiscating passports and threatening medics with up to eight years in prison if they left their jobs abroad.
Some practices can be classified as “forced labor” and “human trafficking”, IACHR president Edgar Stuardo Ralón told AFP in an interview.
According to official Cuban statistics cited in the report, doctors receive only 2.5% to 25% of what countries pay Cuba for their services.
Cuba has defended the program, designed to bring healthcare to “hard-to-reach places,” as a measure of “solidarity” with other countries.
