{"id":281766,"date":"2025-04-14T15:55:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/trump-cracks-down-on-cuba-and-its-medical-missions-around-the-world\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T15:55:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:55:05","slug":"trump-cracks-down-on-cuba-and-its-medical-missions-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/trump-cracks-down-on-cuba-and-its-medical-missions-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Cracks Down on Cuba and Its Medical Missions Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/10\/multimedia\/00int-cuba-us-hardline-jlkv\/00int-cuba-us-hardline-jlkv-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Trump Cracks Down on Cuba and Its Medical Missions Around the World\" title=\"Trump Cracks Down on Cuba and Its Medical Missions Around the World\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As a newly minted U.S. citizen, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/29\/world\/americas\/cuban-doctors-lawsuit-brazil.html\" title=\"\">Ramona Matos<\/a>, once a doctor in Cuba, did not hesitate when deciding whom to vote for last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She chose Donald J. Trump, the candidate who promised to be tough on Cuba\u2019s communist government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She hoped he would help free the Cuban people and, in particular, put an end to a tool the government in Havana has used to soften its image around the world \u2014 one that Ms. Matos found particularly repugnant for personal reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For decades, the Cuban government has sent thousands of health professionals to work in remote villages and cities in dozens of countries, where they get just a fraction of what the countries pay Cuba for their services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThose doctors are slaves to the Cuban dictatorship,\u201d said Ms. Matos, 63, who, after posts at Cuban medical missions in Bolivia and Brazil, is a factory worker in South Florida.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Beginning on his first day in office, Mr. Trump has started tightening the screws on Cuba, including on its global medical program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With a Cuban American secretary of state and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/23\/us\/politics\/trump-latin-america-envoy.html\" title=\"\">an envoy to Latin America<\/a> known as a longtime hawk on Cuba policy, the Trump administration quickly imposed tougher measures. It was the latest twist in the back-and-forth approach toward Cuba, which shifts from aggression to softening, depending on who occupies the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Trump administration reversed moves made by the Biden administration, returning Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which limits its ability to do business around the world, and restoring the right of Americans to sue over property confiscated on the island decades ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cuban officials have had their visas yanked and the administration has prohibited business transactions with companies <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/sm1217#:~:text=Grupo%20de%20Administraci%C3%B3n%20Empresarial%20S.A.%20(GAESA)%20is%20a%20Cuban%20military,to%20bypass%20CACR%2Drelated%20restrictions.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">controlled by Cuba\u2019s military, intelligence and security services<\/a>, which manage vital interests such as tourism and imports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Republican administrations have tried to target Cuba\u2019s medical missions before, but Mr. Trump is taking a harder line: In February, for the first time, the U.S. government said it would withdraw the travel visas of officials in countries that host the medical brigades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The measure threatens one of Cuba\u2019s main sources of currency, just as the nation grapples with a huge wave of migration, widespread power outages and food shortages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s difficult to figure out exactly how much the medical program generates for Cuba \u2014 experts note that the government\u2019s figures are often unclear, because it frequently changes the descriptions of the payments and lumps together different kinds of services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Overall, Cuba earns more than $4 billion a year by exporting health care employees, construction workers, educators and other types of skilled workers, according to a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/cubaarchive.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2025-TIP-Info.-Submission-FINAL-Cuba-Archive.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/cubaarchive.org\/about-us\/who-we-are\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Cuba Archive<\/a>, a Miami-based human rights organization, which produced the findings for the State Department\u2019s annual <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/trafficking-in-persons-and-cubas-labor-export-program\/#:~:text=Trafficking%20Indicators,in%20the%20labor%20export%20program.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Trafficking in Persons<\/a> report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Four government officials, two from Venezuela and two from Cuba, have lost their travel visas to the United States over the new medical brigade policy, the U.S. State Department said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t agree with everything Trump does, but on the subject of Cuba, I find it wonderful,\u201d Ms. Matos said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cuba\u2019s medical brigades work in dozens of countries from Africa to South America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Though they are often depicted as humanitarian missions for nations in need of health care, the countries pay Cuba for doctors, nurses, technicians and other service providers, helping the Cuban government fund its own health care system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cuban officials say the country currently has 24,000 people posted in 56 countries. The program peaked in 2014 but has declined over the past decade because of disputes with Brazil and cutbacks in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The health workers, who study medicine for free in Cuba, generally participate in the program willingly because they earn far more than they would at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But they only receive a portion \u2014 human rights activists say 2 to 15 percent \u2014 of what governments pay Cuba for their services. Half of the workers\u2019 pay is held in a devalued local currency account in Cuba, from which they can withdraw only after returning home from their assignments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Doctors who served overseas say their passports were taken from them, they were not allowed to socialize with locals and, in some communities, had to keep a 6 p.m. curfew. They also could not bring their families. Under the administration of President George W. Bush, doctors who fled the program were offered fast-track entry into the United States, and many deserted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One doctor who fled in 2019 said the monthly salary she received in Venezuela\u2019s local currency during a period of hyperinflation was enough to buy just a loaf of bread and a can of soda. She worked 48-hour shifts, often without electricity, and bunked with three other Cuban doctors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s a Cuban government business, literally,\u201d said the doctor, who asked that she only be identified by her first name, Leydy, because the government sometimes harasses her family at home. \u201cThe truth is, it\u2019s exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Leydy is now studying to be a nurse practitioner in Florida. Because she never returned to Havana, the Cuban government kept the $10,000 she earned in Venezuela over 15 months, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Maria Werlau, the executive director of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/cubaarchive.org\/about-us\/who-we-are\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Cuba Archive<\/a>, the Miami-based human rights group, described the program as \u201ca scheme for forced labor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The amount governments have paid Cuba per doctor varies, ranging from $900 in Guatemala to $5,000 in Kenya. In Equatorial Guinea, doctors received $1,000 of the $10,000 the government paid for them, Cuba Archive\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Werlau noted that U.S. federal law calls for sanctions against countries that participate in trafficking. While the State Department has accused Cuba of labor trafficking for years, Ms. Werlau believes the United States should also penalize governments that participate in the program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Cuban government insists that the medical program does not meet the international legal definition of labor trafficking because employees are not tricked and know where they are going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The employees receive a salary, pension and a \u201cdecent\u201d stipend in the destination country, where their lodging, transportation and often food expenses are covered, Cuba\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Carlos F. de Coss\u00edo, said in an emailed response to questions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Cuban professionals who participate do so voluntarily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. de Coss\u00edo said they have \u201ccomplete freedom of movement,\u201d an assertion human rights activists say hundreds of doctors who have left the program have disputed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No countries have withdrawn from the program because of the new policy, Mr. de Coss\u00edo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s policy to cancel visas from officials of countries that participate in the program \u201cis aimed at strangling the Cuban economy by means of threats and coercion on governments and entities of third countries, thus reinforcing the siege they have imposed for decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPredictably,\u2019\u2019 Mr. de Coss\u00edo added, \u201cit has affected our people\u2019s standard of living, restricting income, damaging essential services such as electricity, water, transportation and health care.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Leaders of several Caribbean countries have balked at the new visa rule and said they\u2019d happily forfeit trips to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jamaica has up to 400 Cubans, mostly nurses, who have filled important gaps in the nation\u2019s medical care, said Christopher Tufton, Jamaica\u2019s minister of health and wellness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have any evidence that there is trafficking taking place,\u201d Mr. Tufton said in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Trinidad and Tobago, where 87 nurses and nine doctors from Cuba work, the authorities have ensured that the program meets labor standards, Prime Minister Stuart Young said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe remain grateful to Cuban health care providers who provide service in key areas to people of Trinidad and Tobago in conditions that they and we can be proud of,\u201d said Amery Brown, a medical doctor who serves as minister of foreign affairs. \u201cThe conditions are actually excellent.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But a Cuban doctor who had been posted in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, and who spoke on the condition her name not be published because she fears reprisals, said so much of her $3,500 monthly payment was kept in a Cuban account that it was difficult to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mauricio Claver Carone, Mr. Trump\u2019s envoy for Latin America and a longtime advocate for tough sanctions on Cuba, said more countries needed to use a model like the one in Barbados, where the government hires doctors directly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe want to basically have a united voice against indentured servitude, against human trafficking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2018, Ms. Matos sued the PanAmerican Health Organization, a U.N. agency that had a role in managing the program in Brazil. She considers it \u201cmodern slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIsn\u2019t that a slave, that you restrict a person from going wherever they want, talking to whoever they want?\u201d she said. \u201cNot to mention the salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-13\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Prior Beharry<!-- --> contributed reporting from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/world\/americas\/trump-cuba-medical-missions-doctors.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a newly minted U.S. citizen, Ramona Matos, once a doctor in Cuba, did not hesitate when deciding whom to vote for last year. She chose Donald J. Trump, the candidate who promised to be tough on Cuba\u2019s communist government. She hoped he would help free the Cuban people and, in particular, put an end [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/10\/multimedia\/00int-cuba-us-hardline-jlkv\/00int-cuba-us-hardline-jlkv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5502,61399,9995,163575,163203,165820,165768,218304,1267,163507,29679,171080,218305,52,128437,1052],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281768,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281766\/revisions\/281768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}