The Cuban government said Wednesday that its Medical Missions abroad they will continue, despite the new sanctions announced by the United States against officials involved in that program.
In this regard, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said that the island “will continue to provide services”, shortly after the State Secretariat took a new step against these missions, one of the main sources of currency of Cuba and that Washington describes as “forced labor.”
In Rodríguez’s opinion, the measure demonstrates that the “imposition” and “aggression” are the “new doctrine of foreign policy” of the United States under the republican administration of President Donald Trump.
The Cuban Foreign Minister reiterated Havana’s position on this subject and described the missions as “legitimate cooperation programs.”
Secretary State #USA threatens visas restrictions vs governments that have legitimate medical cooperation programs with #Cuba. It demonstrates imposition and aggression with force as a new foreign policy doctrine of that government.
Cuba will continue to provide services. pic.twitter.com/oxyldlqshm
– Bruno Rodríguez P (@brunorguezp) August 13, 2025
Shortly before, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced visa restrictions on Cuban officials as well as several African countries – without specifying which ones – from Brazil and the Caribbean island of Granada, accusing them of “complicity” with in an “illegal activity.”
Rubio insisted that the Cuba government “rent” its doctors at “high prices” and then keep most of these income. “This plan enriches the corrupt Cuban regime while depriving the Cuban people of essential medical care,” he argued.
The US secretary added that his country “will take the necessary measures to end this forced labor”, while urging countries to “pay doctors directly for their services, not to the slaves of the regime.”
Brazil also responds
For his part, Brazil’s Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, also condemned on Wednesday the new sanctions of the United States government, particularly against two Brazilians linked to the MAIS Doctors, a health program established in 2013 in collaboration with Cuba.
The sanctioned are the current secretary of the Ministry of Health, Mozart Sales, and the former official of the Brazilian government Alberto Kleiman, According to a report of the agency EFE.
Padilha described the measure as an “unjustifiable attack” to an initiative that “saves lives”, while defending the trajectory of the program that for years had thousands of Cuban doctors to attend remote, jungle and impoverished communities, where Brazilian professionals usually avoid working.
“We will not curve before those who pursue vaccines, science and now two fundamental people in the first stage of the MAIS doctors,” said the minister.
Or MAIS Doctors, Assim as O PX, will survive with unjustifying attacks of Quem Quer that is. O Program saves lives and and and and so is it matters: to População Brasileira.
We will not curve to be empty, you investigators, ciência e, agora, duas das …
– Alexandre Padilha (@padilhando) August 13, 2025
From the beginning of the current government of Lula da Silva, Brazil doubled the number of doctors participating in the program. “We have a lot of pride of this legacy that takes medical attention to millions of Brazilians who previously did not have access to health,” said Padilha.
Mais Doctors, who for years had as its main support Cuban doctors, was created in 2013 by President Dilma Rousseff. However, the island officially withdrew about 8 thousand collaborators who participated in the program after the statements against this collaboration by the then elected president Jair Bolsonaro.
Sanctions in crescendo
The Trump administration had already announced sanctions, in February and June, against Cuban officials and other countries related to Cuban medical missions.
This week, in the first Human Rights report from Trump’s return to power, Washington pointed out what he considers “forced labor sponsored by the State (Cuban)” among the violations recorded for 2024, he says EFE.
USA withdraws visas to international officials for hiring Cuban medical missions
The island’s government categorically rejects Washington’s accusations and denounces what he considers as “a campaign of discredit” against its cooperation program, which ensures is based on bilateral agreements between countries and signed freely.
According to various independent analysts, cited by the Spanish agency, professional services are the first Cuban export – where doctors are a majority, although there are also other workers – and one of the three main sources of currencies, together with tourism and remittances.
The first wave of sanctions against Cuban medical missions generated a Backup campaign to Cuba On the part of the countries that receive collaborators, since the island’s professionals many times play a fundamental role within their health systems.
EFE / ONCUBA
