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The tragic reality of Cuba’s medical brigades. The US must lead the charge against them.

31. January 2025 gutset (1)

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.

Trump to prepare facility at Guantanamo for migrants detention

29. January 2025 The Editor Cuban Exiles, Escaping from Cuba (0)

Trump says he will open migrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay

In his bill signing remarks, Trump said he was planning to sign an executive order opening a detention center at Guantánamo Bay that would hold up to 30,000 people in the US illegally.

Trump said the camp would be used “to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”. The U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already houses a migrant facility - separate from the high-security U.S. prison for foreign terrorism suspects - that has been used on occasion for decades, including to house Cubans picked up at sea.

“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”

Of the camp in Cuba, used to hold terrorism suspects, Trump said: “That’s a tough place to get out of.”

An internal government report said the camp was beset by rats and overflowing toilets and inmates were blindfolded while being moved around the facility.

Only 37 migrants were held at Gitmo—the name used as shorthand for the island by the U.S. military—between 2020 to 2023.

Cuban Dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel called the move “an act of brutality” in an X post and reiterated Havana’s position that the land upon which the base is located is “illegally occupied.” The island nation’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, added in a separate post that the decision “shows a lack of concern for the human condition and international law.”

Ira Kurzban, a prominent Miami immigration attorney who had sued numerous U.S. administrations including Trump’s, said the president’s words are all theater, but they still provoke anxiety throughout immigrant communities. “Disgraceful, unlawful, unworkable, and will cost U.S. taxpayers billions, not millions of dollars that are better spent on helping educate our children,” Kurzban said.

(Source: AP)

Cuba can trade with other countries?

27. January 2025 The Editor The Cuban Comunists, The Cuban Economy (1)

At a glance

While the nuances in the U.S. embargo can make it difficult for foreign companies to trade with Cuba, there is no evidence that they can’t. Experts and evidence shows that Cuba can and has traded with other countries. The UK and EU have blocking statutes which aim to protect legitimate trade with Cuba affected by the extraterritorial application of US law.
The US has imposed a comprehensive trade embargo on Cuba since 1962. Exports to Cuba and imports from Cuba are prohibited unless licensed.
The Real Cuba's position is that Cuba has enough avenues available to purchase whatever is needed for the population. The reason the suffering and deplorable conditions of the population continues is the failure of the Communist Government to enact an economic agenda for their benefit. Only the privileged Communist can have all the means and resources to have access to all resources.

Overview

UN Sanctions
There are no UN sanctions on Cuba. The UN General Assembly has frequently called for the US to end the Cuba embargo.

EU Sanctions

The EU does not impose sanctions on Cuba. The EU blocking statute aims to protect EU operators from engaging in lawful international trade from to the extraterritorial application of US law.

UK Sanctions
The UK does not impose sanctions on Cuba. The UK Protection of Trading Interests legislation aims to protect legitimate trade between UK persons and Cuba from the extraterritorial application of US law.

US Sanctions
The US has imposed a comprehensive trade embargo on Cuba since 1962. Exports to Cuba and imports from Cuba are prohibited unless licensed. The Cuba sanctions regime is the last regime authorized under the Trading with the Enemy Act, which means that sanctions also apply to entities outside of the US that are owned or controlled by US persons.

China & Russia
There are no Chinese nor Russian sanctions on Cuba.

Buses purchased from China's Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co., Ltd. the largest bus manufacturer in the world by sales volume for the use of Foreign Tourists transport.

Amid news surrounding protests in Cuba, a widely shared Facebook post asserts U.S. sanctions on Cuba restrict the country from trading with other countries, too.

"People are either unaware or being purposely obtuse about the U.S. blockade on Cuba," reads the post, a screenshot of a tweet. "Do you realize it doesn’t just mean they can’t trade with the U.S.? Cuba can’t trade with ANY country or ANY company whatsoever, threatening other people who may want to help."

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

Experts who spoke to PolitiFact said the claim is wrong, misinterpreting some of the nuances of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Cuba does trade with multiple countries, but the embargo can make it difficult for any foreign companies to do business in the country.

Protests flared in Cuba on July 11, when thousands of citizens went to the streets to call for action over shortages of food and medicine, protesting for freedom against the Cuban government. The Associated Press reported that the protests were the largest since Fidel Castro’s presidency. The number of people detained by the government is not clear, but Cubalex, an attorney group tracking arrests, estimated that as of July 19, 108 people were in detention, 78 people had been freed and 284 people’s whereabouts were in the process of being verified. President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the U.S. government’s sanctions for the country’s economic troubles.

Jose Gabilondo, associate dean for accreditation and reporting and professor of law at Florida International University, said that while critics of the U.S. embargo tend to use the word "blockade" to describe the program, the official term for the sanctions is "embargo," according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. That’s because the U.S. is not physically obstructing Cuba to prevent people or goods from leaving — which is what "blockade" means.

"There are many people who consider that the U.S.-Cuba sanctions program violates public international law, so they see it as an illegal program," Gabilondo said, "and they see it as illegal because the Cuba sanctions that are imposed by OFAC apply very broadly, not only to U.S. companies but also to foreign companies that are domiciled in other countries. So many people think that the sanctions amount to an illegal blockade."

The history of the U.S. embargo on Cuba

The U.S. initiated its embargo on trade with Cuba nearly 60 years ago, after Fidel Castro’s regime rose to power, and overthrew the country’s U.S.-backed government. Castro’s government increased foreign relations and trade with the Soviet Union, increased taxes on U.S. imports and nationalized American-owned properties. In response, President John F. Kennedy called for a complete economic embargo in 1962, prohibiting all trade of goods and services between the U.S. and Cuba and imposing strict travel restrictions.

Twenty years later, President Ronald Reagan designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terror following its support of Marxist movements during the Cold War. The Obama administration lifted the designation in 2015, along with relaxing some restrictions, including on American travel to the country. The change meant Americans could legally bring home Cuban cigars and rum. It also permitted Cuban pharmaceutical companies to do business in the U.S.

The Trump administration reimposed sanctions on Cuba and increased financial and banking restrictions on the country. On Jan. 11, 2021, days before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, the Trump administration put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terror.

Cuba is permitted to trade with many other countries

Augusto Maxwell, an attorney at Akerman LLP and chair of their Cuba practice, said the first part of the claim isn’t accurate. Cuba can trade with other countries of its choosing — if those countries are willing as well. Some of Cuba’s trading partners include China, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Venezuela was one of Cuba’s key trade partners until its ability diminished amid its own economic turmoil. Cuba’s main exports include rolled tobacco, raw sugar, nickel, liquor and zinc. Top imports include poultry meat, wheat, soybean meal, corn and concentrated milk.

It’s worth noting that the OEC also lists the U.S. as one of the countries that exports goods to Cuba. Poultry counts for 90% of American shipments to the country, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

"It’s really to favor U.S. farmers and agricultural interests. (Cuba) was a very important market for U.S. farmers," Gabilondo said. "So even though the sanctions generally prohibit trade, there are some exceptions."

Maxwell said, despite these trade relationships, the U.S. embargo does have an impact on what goods Cuba receives from other countries. For example, if any trading good contains 10% of U.S. created content, it must go through U.S. law in order to be exported into Cuba.

"When you think of complicated things like airplanes or oil drilling platforms or scientific or medical equipment, sometimes those things are caught up in that 10%," Maxwell said. "And so U.S. law does not allow that to be exported to Cuba even though 90% or 89% was produced in France or Canada, or something like that."

For further information on what Cuba imports from the USA on a regular basis please see: 2023USExportsToCuba.pdf (300.17 kb) and MonthlyMarch2024.pdf (556.14 kb)

JANUARY 2024 FOOD/AG EXPORTS TO CUBA INCREASE 39.4% - Exports of food products and agricultural commodities from the United States to the Republic of Cuba in January 2024 were US$45,168,873.00 compared to US$32,394,196.00 in January 2023 and US$21,783,159.00 in January 2022.

Chicken Leg Quarters (Frozen)- US$11,150,925.00
Chicken Meat (Frozen)- US$10,649,852.00
Chicken (Offal)- US$7,605,353.00
Chicken Legs (Frozen)- US$3,288,831.00
Soybeans- US$2,853,680.00
Meat of Swine (Frozen)- US$802,746.00
Bovine Meat (Offal)- US$608,106.00
Meat of Swine (Fresh)- US$481,107.00
Whole Yong Chickens (Frozen)- US$317,407.00
Coffee (Roasted)- US$302,612.00
Ten-Largest U.S. Exports To Cuba- US$38,060,619.00
10 Largest As % of Exports To Cuba- 84.3%

January 2024 exports included: Chicken Wings, Turkey, Bacon, Eggs, Onions, Olives, Apples, Rice, Sausages, Pasta, Potato Chips, Peanut Butter, Ice Cream, Water, Paints, Perfumes, Shampoos, Floor Coverings, Elevator, Excavator, New Vehicles (US$27,400.00), Used Vehicles (US$3,071,032.00), New Vehicles (electric) US$34,000.00, Trucks (US$52,592.00), Umbrellas (US$4,887.00).

Total TSREEA exports since first deliveries in December 2001 exceed US$7,291,502,266.00

The data contains information on exports from the United States to the Republic of Cuba- products within the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSREEA) of 2000, Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) of 1992, and regulations implemented (1992 to present) for other products by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury and Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the United States Department of Commerce.

The TSREEA re-authorized the direct commercial (on a cash basis) export of food products (including branded food products) and agricultural commodities from the United States to the Republic of Cuba, irrespective of purpose. The TSREEA does not include healthcare products, which remain authorized and regulated by the CDA.

The data represents the U.S. Dollar value of product exported from the United States to the Republic of Cuba under the TSREEA and CDA. The data does not include transportation charges, bank charges, or other costs associated with exports; the government of the Republic of Cuba reports unverifiable data that includes transportation charges, bank charges, and other costs.

(Sources: PolitiFact Global Sanctions)

A new luxury hotel towers over Havana as Cuba's economic troubles mount and tourism plummets

25. January 2025 The Editor Cuba Tourism, The Cuban Economy (0)

HAVANA (AP) — It’s impossible to miss. The huge rectangular mass of concrete and glass — the tallest building in Havana — dominates the city skyline, towering 150 meters (490 feet) above colonial homes with its 542 luxury rooms and majestic views of the city and the sea.

The Selection La Habana hotel, managed by Spanish chain Iberostar.

The Selection La Habana hotel, managed by Spanish chain Iberostar, has yet to be inaugurated but it is already the target of criticism — and not only for its unusual shape. Cubans are questioning the government’s allocation of millions of dollars towards luxury tourism while the island grapples with a severe economic crisis and tourism numbers plummet to historic lows.

“All that money could have been spent to build hospitals and schools,” lamented Susel Borges, a 26-year-old artisan, as she looked up to the towering edifice, known to locals as the “K and 23 building” because of its location.

Located near the legendary Habana Libre hotel and the iconic Coppelia ice cream parlor, the new hotel is part of a government plan to build a dozen luxury establishments — mainly in Havana — that did not stop even during the COVID-19 pandemic and while existing luxury hotels remained largely unoccupied.

For decades, tourism drove the Cuban economy, generating annual revenues of up to $3 billion. But in December, Cuban authorities said only 2.2 million tourists visited the island in 2024, a decrease of roughly 200,000 from 2023 and significantly lower than the 4.2 million tourists who visited in 2019.

The government attributes the decline in tourism to a “perfect storm” of factors including supply shortages, a severe energy crisis causing massive blackouts and a lack of personnel, due to emigration and low wages. Furthermore, the island is grappling with a surge in U.S. sanctions, including restrictions on travel by U.S. citizens, a ban on cruise ships and other measures specifically designed to stifle the growth of Cuba’s tourism industry.

“Tourism is gone,” said Julio García Campos, driver of a shiny red 1951 Pontiac with an original engine. “Tourists used to line up to get on one of these!” he said, recalling a bygone era when the island was bustling with American and European travelers following a removal of sanctions by then-President Barack Obama.

The new Selection La Habana, like all other hotels in Cuba, is state-owned and operates under GAESA, a conglomerate belonging to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces that has often been criticized because of the opacity of its businesses. As a military-run operation, it is exempt from audits by the Comptroller General’s Office and has not disclosed the amount it invested in the 40-story hotel.

Cuban economist Pedro Monreal notes the “incongruity” of investing capital in the tourism sector when very little is being allocated to strategic areas such as agriculture.

"With food insecurity a concern, it’s troubling that agricultural investment lags significantly behind tourism investment, remaining 11 times lower,” Monreal noted last year on social media.

Architects also expressed little enthusiasm for the new hotel, pointing at its disruptive appearance within the environment, its excessive height violating urban regulations and tall glass windows that are ill-suited for a tropical climate.

“This building serves as a perfect example in our classes of what should not be done in terms of bioclimatic design,” said Abel Tablada, an architect and university professor, adding it's "unforgivable" that the little money available to the Cuban state has been allocated to a building that does not add value to the city.

(Source: AP)

Family Reunification Beneficiaries Complain About Not Being Able to Fly to U.S.

24. January 2025 The Editor Cuban Exiles, Escaping from Cuba (0)

Immigrants with family reunification processes from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have had problems boarding their flights to the United States in recent days.

Hundreds of immigrants with family reunification processes from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have had problems boarding their flights to the United States after the arrival of the new administration of Donald Trump.

"When we went to board the plane they told us to go to the U.S. embassy and that they would give us more information there but they wouldn't let us travel," said Olga Lidia Hernández, a beneficiary of the Cuban Family Reunification Program (CFRP).

“They told me that they had denied me permission to fly and gave me no further explanation,” he said.

Bárbara León, mother of Olga Lidia Hernández, told Martí Noticias through tears that she is desperate after the cancellation of the flight of her daughter and two granddaughters. “I've been waiting for this moment for eight years. I traveled to Cuba and they turned us away from the airport. They treated us very badly. We did our immigration processes well. It's not fair," he commented.

Under the Joe Biden administration, family reunification programs were modernized and a routine similar to that of Humanitarian Parole was established that allowed a flight permit to be obtained after the immigrant's facial scan without waiting for an immigrant visa to become available. Previously, beneficiaries of family reunification programs had to undergo a consular interview.

CFRP and other similar programs targeting Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were put into effect or modernized under President Joe Biden's administration. These processes are available exclusively by invitation to certain petitioners whose Forms I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) have been approved.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicates that once invited to the program, immigrants must submit a form I-134A (Online Application to Become a Support Person and Declaration of Financial Support) and if the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services United States (USCIS) verifies that this is appropriate, the Department of Homeland Security conducts a security investigation of each beneficiary and evaluates their eligibility for advance travel authorization.

“In the event that advance travel authorization is granted, the beneficiary may travel to the United States on a commercial airline and request a discretionary permit (Parole) for temporary stay at a port of entry within a United States airport,” adds the DHS.

After reaching the White House, President Donald Trump eliminated similar programs that granted parole to migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti, as well as revoked the CBP One program that allowed migrants to schedule an appointment to request asylum in the United States.

Trump also revoked the travel of at least 10,000 refugees who were authorized to resettle in the United States, leaving numerous people stranded around the world. Among those affected, more than 1,600 Afghans are trapped in their attempt to escape the Taliban regime.

The Department of Homeland Security deferred to the State Department following a request for comment from Martí Noticias. The State Department returned a request for comment to its Homeland Security counterpart, who administers family reunification programs.

The Cuban Family Reunification Program was stopped for years after mysterious health incidents that left dozens of American diplomats affected at the US Embassy in Cuba.

A reliable source familiar with immigration processes who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal administration policies said that the new administration “is not happy” with many of the initiatives inherited from the Biden administration but that “there has been no made a final decision on family reunification programs.”

“Since January 20, when President Donald Trump took office, not a single beneficiary of these family reunification programs has arrived,” said another source with knowledge of the immigration processes.

Tito Alexander Martínez Guillén, a Salvadoran who had planned to travel to the United States yesterday with his wife and four children after selling his belongings and quitting his job, was stranded in his country.

“When we arrived, the airline told us that they had received a statement from Customs and Border Protection in the United States that they would not let anyone board who had processed their permits through the CBP One app, that they should go to the embassy, but there they told us that “They couldn’t do anything,” he said.

“Right now we have no way to go or anywhere to stay,” he added.

(Source: Marti)