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TimesLIVE
5 days ago
- Health
- TimesLIVE
US to impose visa restrictions on officials, alleging ties to Cuban labour programme
US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday took steps to revoke or restrict visas for some African, Caribbean and Brazilian officials who Washington DC alleges have ties to a Cuban programme 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 Organisation (Paho) official Alberto Kleiman, Rubio said. Rubio did not name other officials affected, but said they were from Africa, Cuba and Grenada. The Cuban government has blasted US efforts to stop the medical missions, calling them a cynical excuse to go after its foreign currency earnings. Caribbean leaders have previously rejected US accusations of Cuban labour exploitation. 'Cuba's medical co-operation will continue,' Johana Tablada, Cuba's deputy director of US affairs, said on X. 'His [Rubio's] priorities speak volumes: financing Israel genocide on Palestine, torturing Cuba, going after healthcare services for those who need them most,' Tablada wrote.
India Today
6 days ago
- Health
- India Today
US revokes visas of Brazilians over Cuba forced labour allegations
The US State Department has revoked and restricted visas for multiple Brazilian government officials, former Pan American Health Organisation staff, and their family members over alleged involvement in forced labor linked to Cuba's Mais Medicos program, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said state department announced the visa revocations via a press those targeted are Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, whom the State Department accused of helping implement the program while serving in Brazil's Ministry of In a press statement released on Wednesday, the US department of state mentioned that it will "take the action needed to bring an end to such forced labour."Rubio did not name other officials who were affected but said they were from Africa, Cuba and Grenada. The Cuban government was not available for immediate comment, but has blasted the Trump administration's efforts to stop the medical missions as a cynical excuse to go after its foreign currency Trump 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 deep economic Julio Tabosa Sales oversaw the Mais Medicos program as Brazil's secretary of Labor Management and Health Education and now serves as secretary of Specialised Health Care at the Ministry of the program's operation, Alberto Kleiman was a special advisor to the Health Ministry and headed its international relations department. He later became director of external relations, partnerships, and resource mobilisation at the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and now holds a similar role at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, according to his LinkedIn is also a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Cuban doctors against PAHO.- EndsWith inputs from Reuters Tune InMust Watch
