Madrid/The US Government denied the visa to the members of the Cuban delegation that were going to attend the Board of Directors 62 of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is held between Monday, September 29 and Friday, October 3, as denounced by the island’s authorities in Official Media this Monday.
Although the State Department has not ruled, some Cuban -American communicators affirm that the measure has been taken by visa restrictions to officials involved in the export of medical services, which Washington considers trafficking in persons.
“This action constitutes discriminatory treatment against Cuba, a country that is a full and active member within the PAHO,” said the First Public Health Vice Minister Margarita Cruz in statements to the Latin press.
The official, who is also a doctor in Medical Sciences, is considered directly harmed because, denounces, Washington “took advantage of the need for a transfer permit” to prevent her participation as head of the delegation. However, it is not the only one affected, since it has been rejected to give visa to another member of the delegation whose name is unknown.
“Far from fulfilling its obligations as a host country, the United States takes advantage of that condition to try to silence the voice of Cuba, aware that it has no legitimate arguments to disagree with our positions”
“Far from fulfilling its obligations as a host country, the United States takes advantage of that condition to try to silence the voice of Cuba, aware that it has no legitimate arguments to disagree with our positions,” he said, while claiming the role of the island within the organization.
“It is the nation that has contributed the most in the hemisphere in the guarantee of health coverage at the regional level,” he said. Among the reasons cited, he alleged the sending of doctors to different countries of the continent to provide services, including remote areas for which it is difficult to find native personnel, as well as the training taught on the island to doctors, graduates and health technicians of Latin American countries and the US itself.
These services have been over the years one of the main sources of income for Cuba, reaching 5,382 million dollars in 2019, the last year in which it offered figures for the export of medical services.
Tania Margarita Cruz rejected in her statements on Monday that the OPS of the “presence and direct participation of Cuba in her deliberations, when she has so much to contribute in technical issues, strategies and health policies has been deprived. Cuba has had public health policies, strategies and programs, with extensive accumulated experience, which have been endorsed and praised by the WHO (World Organization of Health) and the OPS itself.
The State Department has not officially spoken, although the communicator Mario Vallejo attributed in his social networks the decision to which the high official is “accused of traffic with Cuban doctors, sanction, invalidate titles and repress those who do not submit to the Communist Party of Cuba. The Cuban delegation can send other representatives or participate virtually,” he added.
This Monday, precisely, the State Department, whose front is the Cuban American Marco Rubio, made public his Report corresponding to 2025 on trafficking in personsin which Cuba goes wrong again, precisely because of the medical services with which he trades.
In the report, the island appears in Group 3, where countries that not only do not effectively fight trafficking are included, but they participate and benefit from it. In this case, Cuba fits the definition of trafficking in persons for forced labor, understanding as such the practice of forcing, coercing or defrauding the victim to exploit their employment or the services it provides.
“The coercive plans of the traffickers can include threats of strength, debt manipulation, salary retention, confiscation of identity documents, psychological coercion, damage to the reputation, manipulation of the use of addictive substances, threats to other people or other forms of coercion”, a description that coincides with that related by numerous doctors and professionals, especially toilets, in the “international missions.”
Among the penalty that entails being at level 3, are the restrictions on foreign, humanitarian or commercial assistance from the US government
Among the penalizations that entail being at level 3, are the restrictions on foreign, humanitarian or commercial assistance of the US government. Washington could also “retain financing for the participation of government officials or employees in educational and cultural exchange programs” and “order the US executive directors of each multilateral development bank and the international monetary fund that vote against them Deny any loan or other use of institutions. ”
The text expressly indicates that Cuba “has long used a policy or pattern of trafficking in persons sponsored by the State in its medical missions, even through coercive practices of contracting and employment and abuse of legal processes.” According to his data, in 2022, the regime obtained 4,900 million dollars for this concept.
