The United States Government confirmed Wednesday that for “National Security” reasons denied the visa to several officials of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) of Cuba who had to go to a meeting of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington.
A state department spokesman said in writing to a question of EFE that “travel restrictions imposed on representatives of the Cuban dictatorship protect the national security interests of the United States.”
However, the State Department also specified that “no restriction prevented the representatives of the illegitimate Cuban regime who work at their embassy (in the United States) to attend the PAHO meeting.”
Previously, the Cuban government denounced that Washington had denied the visa to a group of MINSAP officials who requested it in Havana to participate in a PAHO meeting and the transfer permit to those who were already in New York, on the occasion of the UN General Assembly.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez published statements from the First Vice Minister of Minsap, Tania Margarita Cruz, who said Washington “took advantage of the need for a transfer permit to prevent” that she participated “as head of the Cuban delegation” in the OPS meeting.
“It also prevented the participation of the other members of the delegation who did not receive their visa in Havana,” Cruz said from New York.
The US government prevented our participation in the 62nd meeting of the Board of Directors of @opSomsbut
It will not silence the voice of Cuba or the work of our health professionals who for more than 60 years have saved lives and taken hope to the peoples of the world. pic.twitter.com/bu0ylbfymg– Dra.tania Margarita Cruz Hernández (@taniamcruzhdez) SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
Cruz said that “thousands of Cuban doctors and professionals have provided and provide medical care services in most countries in the area; in addition, thousands of doctors, graduates and health technicians from Latin American and Caribbean nations have trained in Cuba, as well as from the United States.”
The current US administration considers that the missions of Cuban doctors abroad are “an undisputed case of forced labor.” That is why he keeps Cuba in his “blacklist” of countries that do not meet the minimum standards to fight against human trafficking.
He has also imposed a visa restriction on those involved in “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad, a category in which he included medical missions.
