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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/27/destroying-cubas-international-medical-missions-marco-rubios-new-goal/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Destroying Cuba's international medical missions: Marco Rubio's new goal</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Pablo Meriguet</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 27, 2025</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>Cuban doctors who participated in internationalist medical missions. Photo: MINSAP Cuba </p><div>
<p>When Marco Rubio was announced as Trump’s pick for Secretary of
State, many expected that during his tenure he would launch attacks
against the Cuban government in an attempt to undermine it and (if he
got his way) overthrow it. The almost immediate reinstatement of Cuba to
the shameful US list of state sponsors of terrorism (from which Biden
had removed the Caribbean country at the end of his term) was an initial
and forceful attack on a small glimmer of hope for the normalization of
relations between the two countries.</p>
<p>On February 25, Marco Rubio announced that he was stepping up his
anti-communist offensive against the Cuban people by trying to
discourage countries from hiring Cuban doctors. This is not the first
time Rubio has tried to destroy this program.<a href="https://elpais.com/us/migracion/2025-02-26/marco-rubio-anuncia-una-politica-de-restriccion-de-visas-a-quienes-explotan-a-trabajadores-cubanos.html"> Several years ago, Rubio</a>
already introduced a “Bill to Combat the Trafficking of Cuban Doctors”
claiming that the Cuban program is a disguised form of forced labor.</p>
<p>Under the<a href="https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1894484088913887598?s=46&t=j_pVUWwiW0mV4bkiIE7wVA"> argument</a>
that Cuban doctors and other professionals are “exploited labor”, Rubio
announced that anyone involved in exporting professional workers to
other countries would suffer sanctions, such as visa restrictions and
other measures. Rubio’s “move” aims to sanction diplomats, officials,
and others involved, including their family members. This would apply to
Cubans and non-Cubans.</p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/08/25/why-cuban-doctors-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize/">Why Cuban doctors deserve the Nobel Peace Prize</a></strong></em></h3>
<p>This decision, which adds to a series of attacks by the Trump
administration to destroy the Cuban Revolution, has been repudiated by
the Cuban government.<a href="https://x.com/BrunoRguezP/status/1894479102821765195"> Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s Secretary of State, wrote</a>,
“Once again, Marco Rubio puts his personal agenda before the US
interests. The suspension of visas associated to Cuba’s international
medical cooperation is the seventh unjustified aggressive measure
against our population within a month.”</p>
<p>For his part,<a href="https://x.com/DiazCanelB?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor"> Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on X</a>
“The US State Department should explain to the Americans and the
international community to what extent the attack against Cuban medical
services on which the health of millions of people in dozens of
countries depends, is a credit to their country.”</p>
<h3><b>What does the program of Cuban doctors outside Cuba consist of?</b></h3>
<p>In 1963, Cuba sent its <a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/especiales/2019/05/23/23-de-mayo-de-1963-primera-mision-medica-internacionalista-cubana/">first internationalist medical mission to Algeria</a>
just after the nation won its independence from France in an arduous
war which cost the life of some 1 million Algerians and saw the mass
exodus of French people, including French professionals which staffed
the majority of health centers. After meeting with the young nation’s
head of state Ahmed Ben Bella, Fidel gave a speech at the inauguration
of a new Medical School in Havana in 1962 and called on the Cuban people
to support the mission:</p>
<p>“Most of the doctors in Algeria were French and many have left the
country. There are four million more Algerians than Cubans and
colonialism has left them with many diseases, but they have only a third
— and even less — of the doctors we have…That’s why I told the students
that we needed 50 doctors to volunteer to go to Algeria.</p>
<p>I’m sure there will be no shortage of volunteers…Today we can only
send 50, but in 8 or 10 years’ time, who knows how many, and we will be
helping our brothers…because the Revolution has the right to reap the
rewards it has sown.”</p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/09/23/medical-workers-of-conviction-speaking-to-cuban-doctors-who-heal-the-world/">Medical workers of conviction: Speaking to Cuban doctors who heal the world</a></strong></em></h3>
<p>Thus, Cuba inaugurated a program which today has seen some 400,000
medical professionals travel to over 160 countries across the world,
supporting countries that do not have sufficient internal medical
professionals to respond to the demands for general or specialized
medical care for their population. In many cases, the Cuban doctors fill
gaps in historically marginalized and underserved communities, be it in
the <a href="https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2021/08/09/mil-dias-da-expulsao-dos-cubanos-desmonte-do-mais-medicos-fez-do-brasil-alvo-facil-na-pandemia/">rural Indigenous communities of Brazil</a>,
or poor neighborhoods in cities across the Global South. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of brigades of Cuban health professionals,
called the Henry Reeve Brigade, were sent to countries across the world,
including Italy. Millions of people across the world have received high
quality and free medical treatment thanks to the Cuban doctors.</p>
<p>The majority of the international medical missions are coordinated as
standing state-to-state partnerships wherein governments pay the Cuban
government for medical services.</p>
<h3><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/05/26/60-years-of-cuban-international-medical-solidarity/">60 years of Cuban international medical solidarity</a></strong></em></h3>
<p>Thanks to the advanced state of medical professionalization in the
Caribbean, this has been one of the few strategies the country has had
to obtain some income in the face of the unjust economic and commercial
blockade that the United States imposes on Cuba with impunity. Likewise,
Cuba also offers assistance, counseling, and other professional
services in fields other than medicine.</p>
<p>Cuba currently offers this type of service to almost 60 countries
around the world and since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, it has
sent 600,000 professionals to more than 160 countries during its
implementation. As of today, this is one of<a href="https://elpais.com/us/migracion/2025-02-26/marco-rubio-anuncia-una-politica-de-restriccion-de-visas-a-quienes-explotan-a-trabajadores-cubanos.html"> Cuba’s main sources of income</a>
(between 2011 and 2025 it is reported that revenue for this reason
exceeded 11 billion dollars), so the decrease in income from
professional services could mean a tremendous blow to the Caribbean
island that is currently struggling against the historic sanctions
unilaterally imposed by the US government.</p>
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