U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced measures to revoke or restrict visas for certain African, Caribbean, and Brazilian officials alleged by Washington to have links to a Cuban programme that sends medical workers overseas.
In a statement, Rubio said the U.S. State Department had revoked the visas of Brazilian Ministry of Health official Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and former Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) official Alberto Kleiman.
He did not name other officials affected but said they included individuals from Africa, Cuba, and Grenada.
The Cuban government has condemned U.S. efforts to halt its medical missions, describing them as a cynical attempt to undermine its foreign currency earnings. Caribbean leaders have previously rejected U.S. claims that the missions exploit Cuban labour.
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“Cuba’s medical cooperation will continue,” Johana Tablada, Cuba’s deputy director of U.S. affairs, wrote on X. “His [Rubio’s] priorities speak volumes: financing Israel’s genocide in Palestine, torturing Cuba, and targeting health care services for those who need them most.”
Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said his government would not yield to what he called “unreasonable attacks” on Brazil’s Mais Médicos (“More Doctors”) programme, which Rubio referenced. The programme, created in 2013, saw its contract with Cuba terminated in 2018.
In February, the Trump administration expanded visa restrictions to target officials believed to be linked to the Cuban programme, which has been sending medical professionals abroad since the Cuban revolution in 1959. The initiative provides vital hard currency to the island nation, which is facing a severe economic crisis.
Rubio characterised the Cuban scheme as one in which “medical professionals are ‘rented’ by other countries at high prices and most of the revenue is kept by the Cuban authorities,” claiming it enriches Cuban officials and deprives Cuban citizens of essential health care.
Washington, he said, would act “to bring an end to such forced labour” and urged governments to pay doctors directly for their services.
Announcing the restrictions on Brazilian and former PAHO officials, Rubio accused the PAHO branch covering the Caribbean, Central, and South America of acting as an intermediary to facilitate the programme without adhering to Brazilian constitutional requirements, and of circumventing U.S. sanctions.
