Cuba Accuses US of Pressuring Latin America to End Medical Missions
Cuba has accused the United States of "extorting" Latin American countries by pressuring them to terminate agreements with Havana for the deployment of Cuban doctors on medical missions abroad.
Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba's foreign minister, stated that the US is attempting to "strangle" the economy of the communist island, which generates billions of dollars from its foreign medical missions. This follows several countries ceasing the deployment of Cuban doctors.
The United States contends that the program, which has been a significant source of pride and revenue for Cuba since the 1960s, constitutes forced labor.
The US position on the Cuban doctors program is part of a broader campaign of sanctions and diplomatic pressure on the Cuban regime. Former President Donald Trump intensified this approach by threatening further actions after removing the Venezuelan leader and targeting Cuba.
Countries aiming to maintain strong relations with Washington have begun to yield to this pressure, withdrawing from medical partnerships with Cuba. Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Guyana have all ended their agreements with Cuba, which is currently facing economic collapse, partly due to a US energy blockade.
"The US government is persecuting, pressuring, and extorting other governments to end the presence of Cuban Medical Brigades in various countries, under false pretenses," Rodríguez said on X.
Official figures indicate that approximately 24,000 Cuban doctors and healthcare professionals were deployed in 56 countries in 2025. Half of these were stationed in Venezuela, Cuba's principal ally for 25 years before President Nicolás Maduro was abducted by US forces in January.
The program was projected to generate $7 billion in revenue for the financially strained island last year.
Human Rights Concerns and Official Responses
On Tuesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report highlighting serious human rights violations within the medical missions. The report accused Cuba of withholding doctors' wages, confiscating passports, and threatening medical personnel with up to eight years in prison if they defected while abroad.
In an interview with AFP, IACHR president Edgar Stuardo Ralón stated that some of these practices could be classified as "forced labor" and "human trafficking."
According to official Cuban statistics cited in the report, doctors receive only between 2.5% and 25% of the payments made by countries to Cuba for their services.
Cuba has defended the program as an act of "solidarity" with other nations, aimed at providing health services to "hard-to-reach places."
