Candidate to head PAHO is the wife of a Cuban accused of slavery

Doctor Nadine Gasman Zylbermann, Mexico's candidate to head the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), is the wife of Joaquín Felipe Molina Leza, a Cuban on trial in U.S. courts for his involvement in the “Mais Médicos” program, claimed Prisoners Defenders (PD) on April 4.

According to PD, “Mais Médicos” is plan set in motion by Raul Castro and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to allegedly gain total control of PAHO and obstruct justice over allegations of slavery by the so-called medical missions.

Molina Leza, the island's representative for the organization, was prosecuted in the U.S. for his involvement in the “Mais Médicos” program along with Heidi V. Jiménez of PAHO's Legal Counsel, and Carissa Etienne, the organization's current director.

PAHO was sued in U.S. Courts in November 2018 by four Cuban doctors supported by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), over economic and moral damages suffered by members of the “Mais Médicos de Brasil” program. Cuba, PAHO, and the PT Government of Brazil allegedly created the program to give PAHO and Cuba money at the expense of the salaries of 20 thousand doctors.

More than 100 countries have received the Cuban missions, which have caused many to accuse the Cuban regime of enslavement and enrichment through forced labor.

The lawsuit filed by the FHRC in U.S. courts against the results of the management of Joaquín Molina, Heidi V. Jiménez, and Carissa Etienne at PAHO was admitted for processing.

Although the Cuban official personally appealed against the plaintiffs to avoid the trial, he lost the appeal by a unanimous decision of the three judges.

"The initiative of AMLO and Raúl Castro to propose Nadine Gasman as director of PAHO, the wife of one of the accused, is yet another episode in the shameful scandal of both leaders to cover up the longest and widest human slavery scheme of the 20th and 21st centuries. One million Cuban professionals have been enslaved, in more than 100 countries, for 59 years", claimed PD.

Gasman has been part of López Obrador's government. In 2019 she was appointed director of the National Institute of Women (Inmujeres). She is a doctor, with a master's degree in Public Health from Harvard University and a doctorate in Health Management and Policy from Johns Hopkins University, according to Mexican news outlets. She is also a representative of the UN Women Office in Brazil.

Gasman was director of UNA-SE, a United Nations campaign for the elimination of violence against women for Latin America and the Caribbean. She joined the UN as a representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Guatemala in 2005. She was also director of IPAS Mexico, a non-governmental organization dedicated to sexual and reproductive rights, where she supported the government in the development of the Centralized Inclusive Models of Care for Victims/Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Postabortion Care.