14ymedio, Havana, 26 August 2024 — The US Congress assumes that the Havana regime uses illegal immigration “as a weapon to saturate the US border, benefit from international smuggling, export dissent, infiltrate spies and strengthen a black market economy.”
The statement is part of Resolution 1358, whose text was presented on July 11 by Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who demanded that the Cuban Government “account” for the “serious human rights violations” it systematically commits.
With the text in hand, the US House of Representatives called on Joe Biden’s government to “use all diplomatic tools to persuade foreign governments and international organizations to join forces and coordinate activities to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba.”
The members of Congress point to the Island as a level 3 country, on a scale that defines “total non-compliance with minimum standards against human trafficking,” in addition to being a sponsor of this practice. Among these violations, they emphasize, is the sending of Cuban doctors to Mexico and other countries.
The Regime “pays the doctors between 10% and 25% of what the host country pays Cuba for their service and denies them their fundamental rights,” the document emphasizes. Against this background, it requested analyzing the issue within the framework of the Trade Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), an instrument that will be reviewed next year.
Five days after resolution 1358 was made public, the Government of Mexico announced the hiring of another 2,700 Cuban doctors to serve rural areas of the country. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has shown his support for Miguel Díaz-Canel by hiring 5,000 health workers. In addition, he has sent oil to Cuba, financed research and offered paid scholarships to medical students.
In February 2023, a specialist said Cuban health workers in Mexico receive only “a stipend for their needs;” that is, their “salary is in Cuba.” Of the amount paid by the López Obrador Administration, the Government of the Island keeps most of the salary. Organizations such as Prisoners Defenders have questioned the Government of Mexico for the hiring of Cuban professionals in “conditions of slavery.”
In December 2022, Prisoners Defenders launched a harsh criticism of the Governments of Mexico, Italy and Qatar for hiring Cuban professionals in “conditions of slavery.” The temporary migration program of health workers with “friendly countries” is no more than the main input of foreign exchange for the island’s regime.
The US Congress specified that “Cuba continues to be a source of regional instability” and referred to an independent investigation by the United Nations in 2002, which “found that the Island’s personnel were advising and instructing Venezuelan intelligence agencies that committed crimes against humanity.” This support “encourages the narco-terrorist dictator Nicolás Maduro to continue resisting free and fair elections,” and promotes illegal migration to the United States.
Congress referred to the June 2023 publication in which The Wall Street Journal denounced the Island for backing China’s plan to establish an electronic surveillance facility, which “would allow Chinese intelligence services to collect electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States, where many military bases are located, and to monitor American ship movements.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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