US to revoke visas and impose restrictions on officials, alleging ties to Cuban labor program
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday took steps to revoke or restrict visas for some African, Caribbean and Brazilian officials who Washington alleges have ties to a Cuban program that sends medical workers overseas.
The State Department revoked the visas of Brazilian Ministry of Health official Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and former Pan American Health Organization official Alberto Kleiman, Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio did not name the other officials who were affected but said they were from Africa, Cuba and Grenada.
The Cuban government has blasted U.S. efforts to stop the medical missions, calling them a cynical excuse to go after its foreign currency earnings.
Caribbean leaders have previously rejected U.S. accusations of Cuban labor exploitation.
"Cuba's medical cooperation will continue," Johana Tablada, Cuba's deputy director of U.S. affairs, said on social media platform X. "His (Rubio's) priorities speak volumes: financing Israel genocide on Palestine, torturing Cuba, going after health care services for those who need them most," Tablada wrote.
President Donald Trump's administration in February expanded visa restrictions to target officials believed to be tied to the Cuban program, which has sent medics to countries around the world since the Cuban revolution in 1959. The program provides hard cash to the island nation, which is enduring its latest economic crisis.
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Since taking office, Trump has imposed a hard-line U.S. policy toward communist-run Cuba and reversed measures put in place by former President Joe Biden.
Rubio described the Cuban program 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." He said it enriches Cuban officials while depriving Cuban people of essential medical care.
Washington "will take action as needed to bring an end to such forced labor," Rubio said, urging governments to pay doctors directly for their services and not the Cuban government.
In announcing restrictions on Brazil and former PAHO officials, Rubio accused the branch of the World Health Organization that covers the Caribbean, Central and South America of acting as an intermediary to implement the program without following Brazilian constitutional requirements, and dodging U.S. sanctions. REUTERS
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