The island says the measure "demonstrates Washington's imposition as a new foreign policy."
Brazil denounces "unjustifiable attacks" and maintains that "health and sovereignty are non-negotiable."
MADRID, 14 (EUROPA PRESS)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this Wednesday that he is restricting visas for officials from African and American countries, including Brazil, for cooperating with Cuban government medical missions, which Washington considers to constitute "forced labor."
"The State Department has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on African, Cuban, and Grenadian government officials and their families for their complicity in the Cuban regime's medical mission scheme," reads a statement, which claims that professionals are "hired" at high rates and that "the majority of the income remains in Havana.
At the same time, it has decided to revoke visas and impose restrictions on several Brazilian government officials, former officials of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and their families "for their complicity in the Cuban regime's labor export scheme through the Mais Médicos program."
U.S. authorities have asserted that as part of the program, officials used PAHO "as an intermediary with the Cuban dictatorship to implement it without complying with Brazilian constitutional requirements, circumventing U.S. sanctions against Cuba, and knowingly paying the Cuban regime what was owed to medical personnel."
In this regard, he stated that he has revoked the visas of two officials—Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman—who worked in the Brazilian Ministry of Health during the Mais Médicos program and participated in its planning and implementation.
The diplomatic office asserted that "this plan enriches the corrupt Cuban regime while depriving the Cuban people of essential medical care." It promised further measures "to end this forced labor" and urged governments to "pay doctors directly for their services, not the regime's slavers."
Finally, Rubio called on "all countries that defend democracy and human rights to join in this effort to confront the Cuban regime's abuses and support" its population. "The United States aspires to support the Cuban people in their quest for freedom and dignity, and to promote accountability for those who perpetuate their exploitation," he said.
Cuba's response came from its Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, with a brief message on his account on the social network X in which he assured that the Latin American country "will continue providing services" in the face of a measure that he criticized because it "demonstrates the imposition and aggression with force as a new foreign policy doctrine of" the US Administration.
For his part, Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha declared on the same platform that "we will not bow down to those who persecute vaccines, researchers, science, and now two of the key people behind Mais Médicos," referring to officials Sales and Kleiman. He celebrated the fact that in two years, current Brazilian authorities have doubled the number of doctors in this "life-saving" program.
In this regard, he asserted that this program "will survive unjustifiable attacks," emphasizing that it "has the approval of those who matter most." "We will remain firm in our positions: health and sovereignty are non-negotiable. We will always stand by the Brazilian people," he added.
