MIAMI, United States. – Some 128 Cuban doctors will leave Honduras after the President’s Government Nasry Asfura decided not to renew the health cooperation agreement that had kept them in the country for two years, according to official sources cited by the agencies. EFE and AFP.
The decision, according to the Honduran Executive itself, responds to a definition of foreign policy. The Vice Minister of Health, Eduardo Midence, stated that the brigade will be replaced by local personnel or by “Honduran or foreign doctors duly accredited by the Medical College,” according to news reports.
The contract signed with the previous government of Xiomara Castro expires this Wednesday, February 25. Meanwhile, the coordination of the return foresees a charter flight at the beginning of March, according to Gonzalo Valerio, a member of the private Honduras-Cuba Friendship Association, cited by AFP. “Unfortunately, the Cuban medical brigades are withdrawing due to lack of will to continue with services,” declared Valerio.
One of the axes of the agreement was ophthalmological care associated with the Miracle Mission. EFE reported that, as of October 2025, the program had carried out around 44,000 consultations and nearly 7,000 surgeries, and that Midence assured that the clinics will not close. In parallel, in October 2025, the Cuban Foreign Ministry released different figures for “Operation Miracle” in Honduras (almost 54,000 consultations and some 6,500 surgeries since December 2024), which highlights a recurring problem in these agreements: opacity and the lack of fully consistent data series between governments.
With the measure, the Asfura administration aligns itself with United States plans to reduce the entry of foreign currency to the Cuban regime through its medical missions, which have been described as “a form of modern slavery” even by the United Nations.
Washington has in recent years intensified diplomatic pressure on countries that hire Cuban brigades, arguing that the scheme facilitates labor exploitation or “forced labor.”
The Honduran case is not isolated. In Guatemala, the government communicated that it will not renew the agreement in force since 1998 and that the retirement of Cuban doctors will be carried out progressively, with replacement by local personnel. In Antigua and Barbuda, the Government of Prime Minister Gaston Browne medical cooperation with Cuba ended last December.
Other countries have opted for a redesign of the payment mechanism instead of a total cut. Bahamas advertisement that it would cancel contracts with the Cuban Government and move to direct employment agreements with Cuban professionals present in the country, after conversations with Washington. In Guyana, the Minister of Health, Frank Anthony, confirmed that the bilateral agreement was stopped and that Cuban doctors receive direct payment in accordance with local labor legislation.
The Havana regime imposes severe restrictions on professionals on mission, including the retention of passports, political surveillance, prohibitions on establishing personal relationships with nationals of the host country, and confidentiality clauses that prevent them from discussing the conditions under which they are hired. Furthermore, in countries like Angola and Qatar The Cuban State keeps up to 94% of the salary that recipient governments pay for medical services.
In April 2025, CubaNet published a report where five Cuban health workers revealed an expropriation pattern and extreme control in the regime’s medical brigades in the Caribbean basin. Among the countries mentioned, Jamaica, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Belize, Bahamas, Venezuela and Brazil stand out, where the interviewees declared they were victims of “labor exploitation.”
