The Caribbean countries claim that they “do not exploit” Cuban doctors
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 March 2025 — Numerous leaders of countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have criticized the restrictions announced by the United States against Cuba’s medical missions, fundamental for the subsistence of the region’s health systems. As an important part of the staff of its health centers, Caricom members are loyal to Havana’s views on the Washington embargo and strongly thank Cuba for its medical “support.”
In recent days, leaders of Caricom, an organization made up of 15 countries, have denied that hiring Cuban doctors is an exploitation of labor, as Washington claims, and have warned that their health systems would collapse without these doctors. The United States announced at the end of February that it is extending the current visa restriction imposed on those who benefit from the “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad to apply also to foreign government officials who are believed to be responsible for or who are involved in this program.
Mia Mottley, President of Caricom, said that she is prepared to lose her US visa
The last to speak was the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, president of Caricom, who said that she is prepared, like other leaders in the region, to lose her US visa if “a sensible agreement” is not reached on this matter, since “principles matter.” In the same vein, her counterparts from Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves; and Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley, promised to protect their own sovereignty.
“I have just returned from California and, if I never return there in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is respected by all,” Rowley said this week. All Caricom leaders also agreed in rejecting that benefiting from Cuba’s medical missions is a form of human trafficking. “We pay them the same as the Barbadians.* We repudiate and reject the idea, spread not only by this US government but by the previous one, that we were involved in human trafficking,” Mottley stressed.
“Suddenly they are calling us human traffickers, and we are accused of participating in a program in which people are exploited,” Rowley replied. In this regard, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, said on Wednesday that the laws and the Constitution of the country prohibit involvement in human trafficking and that his government “will never use forced labor. It goes against our laws, and we are a country of law. We don’t think we did it; we’re not doing it, but we’ll review our situation,” he added.
“Suddenly they are calling us human traffickers, and we are accused of participating in a program in which people are exploited”
The controversial medical missions have been operating for more than 60 years. According to official data, more than 605,000 professionals have been sent to 165 countries, mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America. The criticisms of the missions, which Havana defends as a legitimate initiative of “internationalist solidarity,” focus on the commission that the Cuban government keeps from the salaries paid to doctors in host countries, as well as on the withdrawal of their passports during the missions and the lack of freedom and transparency, among others.
“We depend heavily on the health care specialists we have obtained mainly from Cuba over the decades,” acknowledged the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Likewise, Browne said that the US should treat the Caribbean with respect: “If they take punitive measures due to the presence of Cuban medical personnel in our health systems, they would practically dismantle these systems throughout the region.”
For her part, Mottley indicated that Barbados does not currently have Cuban medical personnel, but the country “could not have overcome the pandemic” without the help of these doctors. “I look forward to joining my Caricom brothers to make sure we explain that what Cubans have done for us, far from resembling human trafficking, has been to save the lives of many Caribbean people,” she said.
Caricom, composed of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, decided at its last summit to request a dialogue with US President Donald Trump to discuss the issue.
*Translator’s note: The payment for Cuban doctors goes to the Cuban government, not to the individual doctors. They receive a stipend to cover living costs, and the rest of their salary is kept in a bank account for them, which they can access when they return from the mission.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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