EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, July 23, 2023 — On Saturday, Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel defended before the (unicameral) Parliament the missions of Cuban doctors abroad, despite the “dirty campaign” of the United States.
“Cuba’s international cooperation continues to develop as a legitimate and altruistic activity that we maintain despite the dirty campaign of the United States,” said the president when closing the parliamentary session.
In his speech, he did not offer more details about the criticism of the work of Cuban health personnel, but insisted that the critics’ purpose is to “deprive thousands of people in the world of quality medical services” offered by the islanders.
Previously, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, spoke out against a call from the US government that “allocates millions in funds to promote a campaign against medical collaboration.”
“Without arguments, (the United States) once again resorts to slander to discredit the noble humanitarian and solidarity work of Cuba in support of the health of other peoples,” the foreign minister said on Twitter.
Rodríguez added on that social network that the neighboring country thus tries to “continue depriving Cuba of sources of economic income and encourages the theft of medical personnel trained by our country, with clearly subversive purposes.”
He considers the medical collaboration programs that the Island maintains in several countries “totally legitimate,” while he stressed that Washington “commits a crime by trying to deny or hinder it for political reasons.”
Official data put the number of Cubans in the health sector currently working in 56 nations at 23,792.
The US Department of State considers that Cuban medical missions abroad are “an indisputable case of forced labor.”
That is why on June 15 it announced that it was keeping Cuba on its “blacklist” of countries that do not meet the minimum standards in the fight against human trafficking.
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