The Hill
https://thehill.com/opinion/5112205-cuba-exploiting-doctors/
by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and Eric Patterson, opinion contributors - 01/29/25
With Marco Rubio’s unanimous confirmation as secretary of State,
now is the time to stand up to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Rubio
has a history of standing up to the Cuban regime while in the Senate,
there is no reason he won’t continue to do so in his new position. In
fact, the Trump administration has already reinstated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
January marks National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and it’s important to remember that modern slavery comes in different forms. In 2008, Ramona Matos Rodriguez,
a family medicine physician from Cuba, was sent to work in San Agustin,
Bolivia, a small town in the Amazons. Her passport was seized by a
Cuban security agent at the airport. She was not allowed to possess any
other identifying documents, and she and her fellow doctors were forced
to fill out paperwork with false statistics about made-up patients or
else face retribution from the Cuban regime.
Matos was one of thousands of medical personnel trafficked abroad into forced labor — all for the profit of the Cuban regime.
Cuba has a long history of sending its armed forces and medical personnel to foreign countries under the guise of “aid.” Fidel Castro sought
to export his brand of revolutionary violence across Latin America — as
in the failed “invasion” of Bolivia by Castro’s associate, Che Guevara.
Cuba’s communist regime also has a long history of sending military
advisors and troops to prop up dictators, advance authoritarian parties,
and attack democratically elected governments in Angola, Mozambique,
Panama, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Yemen, Algeria, Syria and
elsewhere.
The other tragic but less-known human capital export of Cuba is its
so-called “Medical Brigades.” Havana has sent tens of thousands of
medical workers around the world since the 1960s, from poverty-stricken
African nations to Portugal and Italy. Undoubtedly, in most cases, these
medical professionals do provide needed health care in often difficult
environments. But the regime’s reason for sending them is not really
about spreading the “good news” of communist brotherhood. Rather, it is
financial: the Cuban regime makes a major profit from these programs.
Cuban medical professionals are lured with promises of travel,
independence and excellent pay, but these promises often turn out to be a
façade. As reported by the BBC,
many of these medical workers are asked to spy on their associates and
are exploited while receiving just a fraction of their wages. Numerous
workers have reported unsafe conditions, violence and regime officials
taking their passports, forcing them to comply if they want to return to
Cuba. Combined with meager pay and often explicit threats against them
and their families back home, they are isolated and vulnerable.
While the Cuban regime may want the world to see its medical brigades
as a noble humanitarian effort like the Peace Corps or an organization
like Doctors Without Borders, we know that this program is far closer to
indentured servitude. That’s because while many of these medical
professionals may have volunteered, their employers wield an immense
amount of power over them during their tenure.
Because their pay, passports and medical licenses are often held by
the Cuban embassy, they aren’t able to travel and are forced to continue
working in unsafe conditions. Additionally, these doctors and their
families are, in a very real sense, held hostage. Once abroad, they are
cowed into silence and bullied by implicit or explicit threats to
themselves or their family members back home.
This is not humanitarian work or even public diplomacy. These Cuban
citizens thought they were going to use their skills to help people and
instead, they are surveilled, asked to spy, deprived of their right to
travel, and restricted from privately communicating with family.
All of this to bring profits and positive publicity to the communist
elite back in Cuba. The first duty of any government is to protect its
citizens, but Cuba’s communist regime violates this obligation every
day. Those doctors and nurses have taken an oath to “do no harm,” and
they should not have to fear harm at the hands of their own leaders.
A bipartisan resolution introduced in the House last Congress
denounces the Cuban regime for profiteering by forcibly sending its
medical personnel abroad. This resolution also condemns the Pan American
Health Organization and other government officials for their role in
facilitating and perpetuating human trafficking and calls on the
executive branch to utilize existing visa revocation authorities on the
responsible parties. Foreign officials who violate international
agreements and traffic human beings must be held accountable for their
actions.
It is time for nations around the world to tell Cuba that its medical
professionals should not be exploited, abused or threatened — and the
U.S. should lead the charge.
Mark Green represents Tennessee’s 7th District. Eric Patterson, Ph.D., is president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.