(EFE).- US congressmen of Cuban origin asked the federal government to investigate the alleged violations by Mexico of the North American Free Trade Agreement (T-MEC) due to the use of Cuban medical personnel.
Senator Marco Rubio and representatives María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez, all of them from Miami and of Cuban origin, sent a letter this Monday to the Office of Commerce and Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor to open an investigation about the “slavery” of Cuban doctors in Mexico.
“We know the horrors that the Cuban regime commits and its so-called ‘exchange missions for medical professionals’ are no exception,” Salazar said in a statement about the reasons that led them to send the request by letter to the federal government.
In the opinion of the Floridian congresswoman, Mexico’s acceptance of “exploited labor” and “human trafficking” undermines the integrity of the T-MEC, which in July 2020 replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
In the opinion of the Floridian congresswoman, Mexico’s acceptance of “exploited labor” and “human trafficking” undermines the integrity of the T-MEC
The use of Cuban doctors sent by the Government of Havana may violate the human rights provisions of the US trade agreement, according to María Elvira Salazar.
In April 2020, the Mexican Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, signed an agreement that authorized local governments to “hire professional health personnel with training abroad” while the coronavirus pandemic lasted.
This allowed the Ministry of Health of Mexico City (Sedesa) to hire hundreds of Cuban doctors in 2020 to support primary care during the pandemic.
But, according to the congressmen, these Cuban doctors are “forced” to work abroad, given that their families “are in danger” if they don’t, and also that the island’s government “steals” their salary.
The United States Government has officially recognized Cuba’s international medical missions as serious abuses against Human Rights and a form of modern slaverythe letter noted.
For this reason, the four signatories of the letter to the Department of Labor assure that this “trafficking scheme” of people must be examined to maintain the “integrity” of the T-MEC.
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