HAVANA/ PANAMA/ CASTRIES/ GEORGETOWN (EFE).— The pressure from Washington on Havana is not limited to oil: a dozen countries, mainly Caribbean and Central American, have closed or reduced their contracts with Cuba in the last year to receive doctors for the insistence of the United States that they not collaborate in practices that it calls “forced labor.”
The pressure has drastic economic consequencesbecause the export of professional services has been for years one of the three main sources of foreign currency income for the island, with tourism and remittancesall of them affected by the United States.
Las medical brigades —which started more than six decades ago and has led to 600,000 professionals in 165 countriesaccording to official data—are a mechanism that combines advantages for the parties involved, but with questioned methods.
On the one hand, host countries agree to qualified healthcare personnel and can quickly and efficiently improve their health systems. In addition, the brigade members obtain a salary in dollars better than that of their country and the Cuban government generates foreign currency for its own health system.
US accusations about Cuba
But organizations like Prisoners Defenders they accuse that Cuba keeps an average of 85% of the paymentretains the doctors’ passports, and penalizes those who leave the mission.
That’s why, United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubiodescribed this system as “forced labor schemes”, con “abusive and coercive labor practices”; something that the Cuban government firmly denies.
Rubio announced that he would revoke the visas of Cuban and foreign officials involved in hiring Cuban personnel.
The 2024 report on human trafficking State Department places Cuba’s income from the export of professional services between 6,000 and 8,000 million dollars.
According to the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba, These exports represented more than 40% of its total sales abroad between 2018 and 2020.
Las new US sanctions against the medical brigades have been received with concern and rejection in Latin America and, especially, the Caribbean.
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Granada, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, They initially defended these programs, vital for their health systems, but they had to readjust their ties with Cuba and make changes in hiring. Some of the islands suspended the program, while others filed complaints with the United States.
Bahamas announced last June the suspension of the hiring of Cuban medical personnel and the cancellation of its current agreements with Havana.
Granada reported that it would equate the conditions of Cuban doctors to those of its nationals, and Antigua and Barbuda announced that it recruited 120 nurses from Ghana, although without finalizing its agreement with Cuba. Guyana quietly ended the system, and Trinidad and Tobago, He noted that his priority will be to recruit local doctors.
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