So far, Washington has not made public the names of sanctioned officials.
Miami, United States. – The United States Department of State announced this Wednesday New visa restrictions to Cuban officials – so African and Granada officials – already their relatives for their “complicity” in the medical missions scheme of the Havana regime.
So far, Washington has not made public the names of sanctioned officials.
According to The official statementthat scheme “enriches the corrupt Cuban regime” and “deprives the Cuban people of essential medical care.”
In the text, Washington describes the mechanism as one in which health professionals are “rented” to other countries “at high prices” and “most of the income is retained by the Cuban authorities.”
“Today, the State Department took measures to impose visa restrictions on African government, Cuban and Granada officials, and their relatives, for their complicity in the medical missions scheme of the Cuban regime, in which health professionals are ‘rented’ by other countries at high prices and most of the income is retained by the Cuban authorities. This scheme enrichs the corrupt cuban Cuban of essential medical care, ”says the text.
The US government frames the decision in an effort to “end” what qualifies as “forced labor.” “The United States continues to collaborate with governments and take measures as necessary to end that forced labor. We urge governments to pay doctors directly for their services, not to the slave masters of the regime,” says the statement.
Likewise, Washington affirms that its policy seeks to support the population of the island and promote responsibilities for the exploitation denounced: “The United States aspires to support the Cuban people in their search for freedom and dignity and to promote the accountability of those who perpetuate their exploitation. We call on all nations that support democracy and human rights to join this effort to face the abuse of the Cuban regime of the Cuban people ”.
The announcement includes that restrictions also reach officials from African and Granada countries (in addition to their relatives), for their alleged participation in the same export scheme of health personnel described by Washington.
In this context, the findings on the Cuban medical missions in Angola, the second strategic market of the “professional services” of the island. the investigation of Eltoquethis country has generated for Cuba an annual average of 270 million dollars during the last decades, through professional services – mostly doctors – managed by the state -owned state, subordinate to Gaesa.
Although Angola pays about 5,000 USD per month for each professional, after passing through Cuban intermediation the collaborator receives barely between 9 and 24% of that amount. The rest is held by the State, which also includes clauses to extract money from workers’ accounts as “disciplinary measures.” These practices have been indicated as part of a systematic scheme of labor trafficking.
Other cases in Africa confirm this expropriative pattern. The bodies of at least four Cuban doctors who were in Equatorial Guinea and died between 2020 and 2021 were not repatriated until almost two years later. In addition, the Cuban authorities dilated for months the vacations of their medical collaborators in that African country claiming that there were no available flights.
In South Africa, it was uncovered that the Gauteng Health Department had paid more than 3.9 million RANDS (about 225,000 USD) in salaries to seven doctors who had already returned to Cuba, a situation that resulted in a process of partial recovery of funds.
These are just three examples that show how Cuban medical missions in Africa – officially presented as solidarity cooperation – actually work as a gear of control and appropriation of wages within the export of professional services. It was in Africa where this type of program was released, specifically in Algeria, in 1963.
