The foreign minister calls the document on forced labor in medical missions “unilateral and mendacious,” but does not refute the figures or the mechanisms of control described in the report.
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, October 11, 2026 / On Saturday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the new U.S. State Department report on human trafficking as “sick persecution” by the United States. The report identifies the Cuban regime’s medical missions abroad as involving “forced labor,” but Rodríguez offered no data to refute the figures or the mechanisms of control described in the document.
“With another unilateral and mendacious report on Human Trafficking, the U.S. State Department seeks to continue justifying that government’s aggressive policy against Cuba and its sick persecution of Cuban medical cooperation,” the Cuban foreign minister wrote on his social media accounts.
The annual Trafficking in Persons Report published by the State Department keeps the Island at the lowest tier and identifies Cuba’s labor export program, including its medical missions abroad, as a “government policy or pattern of forced labor.”
The report states that Cuban officials have recruited professionals “through deception and threats of retaliation.” According to the report’s estimates, at the beginning of 2026 there were approximately 18,000 workers serving in government missions abroad, most of them healthcare professionals, in 52 countries, compared with 26,000 the previous year. The report attributes this decline to “increased diplomatic engagement” by the U.S. administration, which has “dramatically” reduced the number of workers associated with the regime.
The State Department keeps the Island at the lowest tier and identifies Cuba’s labor export program as a “government policy and pattern of forced labor.”
Rodríguez wrote about this on X: “The explicit acknowledgment of the harsh pressure and blackmail exerted against governments that receive cooperation from our country is cynical,” he said, insisting that these U.S. actions take place “regardless of the consequences for the populations that have benefited from the presence of Cuban medical personnel.”
“The U.S. government persists in its lies in an attempt to manipulate international public opinion,” the foreign minister wrote.
According to Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), exports of professional services accounted for more than 40% of the Island’s total external sales between 2018 and 2020.
The U.S. report states that the regime also sells the services of teachers, coaches and athletes, artists, engineers, forestry technicians, construction workers, and sailors. Doctors, the report notes, are “a vital source of income for the regime, generating billions of dollars in hard currency,” with the government appropriating “between 50% and 95% of their salaries” in exchange for “meager compensation, lower than that received by other professionals performing similar work.”
The report denounces the hardships imposed on these specialists, including passport controls, curfews, and surveillance, which undermine their right to freedom of movement. It also points to “laws and regulations that, if challenged or violated, carry arbitrary punishments, such as exile.”
The report denounces the hardships imposed on these specialists, including passport controls, curfews, and surveillance, which undermine their right to freedom of movement
Rodríguez made no reference to these allegations in his heated response on X.
Cuban medical brigades, which were established more than six decades ago and have sent more than 600,000 professionals to 165 countries over the years, according to official figures, have become a target of the Cuba policy pursued by the Trump administration during his second term.
To date, Honduras, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have terminated their agreements with Havana, while other countries have opted to reform them to hire specialists directly. These include the Italian region of Calabria, Uruguay, and, as became known last week, Jamaica.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.