A report details that in the last seven years, 288,073 tourist, humanitarian and temporary residence visas have been granted to people from the Island.
14ymedio, Mexico City, October 27, 2025 — In the last seven years the Mexican government has granted temporary visas to 3,650 Cuban healthcare workers. The figure provided by the Foreign Ministry to the newspaper El Sol de México reveals that during Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which began in October 2024, another 549 specialists have arrived, but no date or location has been set for their integration into the country.
During Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration (2018-2024), an agreement was reached with Cuba to provide 3,101 health workers to provide medical care in remote, high-risk areas of the country. The pact was successful despite numerous complaints, such as one made by the Prisoners Defenders association, which stated that Mexico “is allowing slavery” and “financing” the Cuban regime.
Between July 2022 and 2023, the Health Services Department of the Mexican Social Security Institute for Welfare signed three agreements with Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos SA de CV, a Cuban company internationally accused of human trafficking. The program received 1,177,300 euros monthly, totaling 23,227,156 euros for 610 specialists.
During the term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), an agreement was reached with Cuba for the arrival of 3,101 health workers to provide medical care in remote areas of the country.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the hiring of physicians. Last June, she emphasized that “it is not forced labor” and the relationship with the island is “legal and open.” But the president did not report on a new agreement. However, 14ymedio confirmed that 20 family medicine specialists from the municipalities of Guane, Mantua, and Sandino were at the Ernesto Guevara polyclinic in the municipality of Sandino, Pinar del Río, last September, awaiting their trip to Mexico.
The Foreign Ministry’s information also indicates that during López Obrador’s term and during Sheinbaum’s administration, 288,073 tourist, humanitarian, and temporary residence visas have been granted to Cubans. The number of permits doubled compared to the 122,713 registered during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration (2012-2018).
During López Obrador’s term and during Sheinbaum’s term, 288,073 tourist, humanitarian, and temporary residence visas have been granted to Cubans.
“The number of visas granted to the island even exceeds that issued to other countries in the region such as Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina,” reported El Sol de México .
Among the beneficiaries of temporary visas are 100 Cuban professors from various medical sciences educational centers on the island who arrived in 2023 to teach at 50 municipal schools of the Benito Juárez Universities for Well-being, located in the state of Michoacán.
Regarding humanitarian visas, in the first half of this year, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) has issued a total of 3,342 cards. Attorney José Luis Pérez asserts that the figures correspond to the number of applications processed, but in reality, there are more than 20,000 Cubans seeking to regularize their status in order to settle in the country.
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