Close to 200 Guyanese set face against US threats over Cuban doctors

Mar 26, 2025 News

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—tell CARICOM leaders to reject idea medical mission part of human trafficking scheme

Kaieteur News- Close to 200 individuals and their organisations have written to CARICOM calling on leaders to  collectively reject and repudiate the United States Government’s idea that the governments of the region are involved in human trafficking through the Cuban medical mission.

The individuals and organisation in Guyana, Caribbean and Canada also called on CARICOM leaders to defend the inalienable right of the peoples of the Caribbean to access public health care delivered through the excellent work of the Cuban medical team and to firmly defend the self-evident right of member states to determine for themselves which forms of regional cooperation can best meet the needs of the people of the region. The letter was delivered to Secretary General of CARICOM, Dr. Carla Barnett at her Georgetown office.

The targeting of Cuban medical missions is not new for US President Donald Trump’s administration. During his first term as president of the US from 2017 to 2021, his administration imposed visa sanctions on Cuba’s global medical programme. His government claimed these missions amounted to “human trafficking” because, it said, Cuban doctors are reportedly underpaid.

This time around, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced restrictions on visas for government officials in Cuba and anyone else, globally, that the US deems to be “complicit” with Cuba’s foreign medical programmes. The State Department said the restrictions would extend to “current and former officials” as well as the “immediate family of such persons”.

Rubio called the Cuban medical programme a form of “forced labour” and the government has warned that Caribbean nations participating in these programmes could face visa restrictions as well as potential trade repercussions. However, no concrete evidence has been provided to support these claims. The US alleges that Cuba’s government exploits its medical professionals by keeping a large portion of their wages and restricting their freedoms. While some Cuban doctors have defected and criticised the conditions of the programme, many others say they willingly participate.

Meanwhile, in the letter, the group recalled that on February 25, 2025, the United States Department of State through Rubio, announced the expansion of an existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy applying to current or former Cuban government officials, including foreign government officials and their immediate family, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labour export programme, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions.

These missions have been described as ‘labour export programmes’ that enrich the Cuban government and countries involved are described as complicit in the exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking of Cuban workers, the letter noted. “We endorse the responses to the US Department of State announcement by current Caribbean leaders including Keith Rowley, former Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago; Prime Ministers: Ralph Gonsalves, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados; who have deemed the US visa restriction policy as a threat to the sovereignty of Caribbean states. “The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines stated that ending such programmes would jeopardise the lives of 60 nationals who are currently part of a Cuban-run hemodialysis programme to treat kidney failure. Several Caribbean leaders have repudiated accusations that Caribbean countries are complicit in human trafficking,” the group said in their letter.

Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, has described the arrangement with the Government of Cuba as a “legitimate partnership”; Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, has defended the Cuban doctors and nurses as “core’ to the country’s delivery of health services; Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, has confirmed that the Government ensures that Cuban workers’ contracts and terms of employment align with international labour laws and standards.

Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith is on record as indicating that the presence of Cuban health professionals is important to the Jamaican healthcare system, pointing to 400 doctors, nurses and medical technicians currently working in the country. In a social media post, Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell pointed out that his government “follows all international best practices in the recruitment of labour.”

“This is not the first time that Caribbean leaders have had to defend the work of Cuban Medical Brigades in the face of US criticism. In June 2020 the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) issued a statement expressing “its deep appreciation to the Republic of Cuba for the medical support provided to six (6) member countries of the OECS to assist with efforts to combat the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the OECS and wider Caribbean region.” The OECS was responding to a recent Bill introduced by a US Republican Senator which classified this assistance from Cuba as “human trafficking” and sought to “extend punitive measures against countries accepting this assistance.”

The group said historical and current ties between CARICOM countries and Cuba have been long and cordial, noting that in 1972, diplomatic relations were established between Cuba and Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. In 2002, commercial and economic agreements were signed between Cuba and CARICOM countries and by 2017 preferential access to a range of products between the countries of the Caribbean and Cuba were agreed.  “Over this period areas of cooperation between CARICOM countries of the Caribbean have remained strong in trade, investments, health and agriculture. CARICOM has also been in the forefront in consistently expressing solidarity with Cuba and calling for an end to the US embargo on Cuba and the lifting of crippling US sanctions,” the group said. “We categorically reject these accusations and misrepresentations of Cuban labour exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking in the Caribbean in relation to Cuban medical personnel and medical services. We stand in solidarity with our sister nation Cuba and its selfless and heroic medical professionals who have saved lives, enhanced medical services and delivered expert medical care to countless Caribbean peoples,” the individuals said in the letter.

(Close to 200 Guyanese set face against US threats over Cuban doctors)

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