U.S. President Donald Trump indicators govt orders within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
The Trump administration on Wednesday, Aug. 13, imposed visa restrictions on African, Cuban and Grenadian authorities officers, and their members of the family, for his or her alleged “complicity” within the Cuban authorities’s medical mission program.
The State Division stated medical professionals are allegedly “rented” by different international locations at excessive costs and that “many of the income is saved by the Cuban authorities.”
“This scheme enriches the corrupt Cuban regime whereas depriving the Cuban individuals of important medical care,” the State Division claimed.
“The US continues to interact governments, and can take motion as wanted, to convey an finish to such pressured labor,” it added, urging governments to “pay the medical doctors straight for his or her providers, not the regime slave masters.
“The US goals to help the Cuban individuals of their pursuit of freedom and dignity and promote accountability for many who perpetuate their exploitation,” continued the State Division, calling on “all nations that help democracy and human rights to hitch us on this effort to confront the Cuban regime’s abuses and stand with the Cuban individuals.”
When the Trump administration first raised the Cuban medical brigade challenge earlier this 12 months, a number of Caribbean governments registered robust objections.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves stated that a minimum of 60 nationals are on a Cuban-run hemodialysis program that’s used to deal with kidney failure.
“If the Cubans aren’t there, we could not be capable to run the service,” he stated, stating Cuban medical personnel are paid the identical as native practitioners.
“I’ll favor to lose my visa than to have 60 poor and dealing individuals die,” Gonsalves stated.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley additionally stated she was prepared to have her US visa revoked over the difficulty.
“This matter, with the Cubans and the nurses, ought to inform us all the pieces that we have to know,” she advised the Barbados Parliament.
“Barbados doesn’t at the moment have Cuban medical workers or Cuban nurses, however I would be the first to go to the road and to inform you that we (Caribbean international locations) couldn’t get by way of the (COVID-19) pandemic with out the Cuban nurses and the Cuban medical doctors,” she added.
Jamaican International Minister Kamina Johnson Smith stated that Cuban medical personnel are vital to Jamaica’s healthcare system,” stating that 400 Cuban medical doctors, nurses and medical technicians are at the moment engaged on the island.
