Congressional leaders ask Pan American Health Organization to punish Cuba for doctors' forced labor

U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, Mark Green and Carlos Giménez sent a letter to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) to hold them accountable for their role in the so-called "Cuban medical missions" in Brazil, carried out between 2013 and 2018.

"The evil regime of Castro/Díaz-Canel regularly benefits from the efforts of thousands of Cuban doctors each year and international organizations should focus on stopping this abuse, not encouraging it," wrote Salazar in a letter obtained by ADN Cuba.

The Cuban-American congresswoman warned that "the American people should not allow repressive communist regimes to carry out these types of actions through international organizations that receive money from taxpayers."

In addition, the letter explains that PAHO has not yet fully disclosed the nature of its conduct in the "Mais Médicos" program in Brazil and refuses to agree on a court date.

After three years, neither the PAHO nor the representatives of its law firm in Washington have released any report to the State Department, to members of Congress or to the lawyers representing Cuban doctors, denounced the congressmen.

PAHO has informed both the State Department and members of Congress that it does not plan to release the report while the litigation is pending.

For years the U.S. State Department has classified the so-called Cuban medical missions as "forced labor" and a form of modern slavery.

Background

In 2018, a group of Cuban doctors sued PAHO because the organization allegedly helped establish a program in which they were made to work in Brazil against their will.

However, it was not until March 2022 that three US Court of Appeals judges ruled that PAHO's status as an international organization does not make it immune from lawsuit because doctors accused it of financial misconduct within the United States.

The case, initiated by four doctors in 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, was transferred in 2020 to a U.S. District Court in Washington State, and focuses on the so-called "Mais Médicos" program.

According to the lawsuit, Cuba and Brazil would have used PAHO as an intermediary to avoid a direct agreement between the two countries that would have to be approved by the Brazilian parliament.

The text details that the Cuban regime received 85% of the money paid by Brazil, with only 10% to pay doctors and 5% retained by PAHO as a fee. The funds would have passed through PAHO's U.S. bank account.