Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Like clockwork, the issue of Cuban doctors appears and disappears from public conversation. Today, the issue resurfaced with the US government’s decision to revoke visas for Central American public officials who promote the hiring of Cuban doctors in their countries.
It was a strange decision, to say the least. In the Caribbean Basin region, which spans from Mexico across the Caribbean islands and Central America to the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela, Central American countries employ the fewest Cuban doctors. They are primarily found in Mexico, then in the Caribbean islands, and finally in Venezuela. So why does the United States decide to punish countries with the fewest Cuban doctors by revoking their visas?
The United States knows that it has no influence over the Venezuelan government. Many Venezuelan officials have had their visas revoked for years, albeit for other reasons. In the case of the Caribbean islands, they have made it clear that they will not stop receiving Cuban support, which is almost free for them, due to the lack of medical personnel in their countries.
That leaves the case of Mexico. Mexico is the country with the most Cuban doctors, and it is the country that gives the most money to the island’s dictatorship. It provides hundreds of millions of dollars to the Cuban government for the services of doctors, while giving away billions in oil and additives, as well as buying millions of COVID vaccines from Cuba that Mexican doctors say are useless because they do not protect us from anything. Additionally, Mexico provides textbooks to schools on the island. No one can accuse Mexico of being indifferent to the economic, humanitarian, social, and moral crisis afflicting the island.
So why doesn’t the United States focus its efforts on Mexico instead of Central America? It is preparing to turn its guns on Mexico, but it is first constructing a narrative. It is testing the waters, gauging reactions, and gathering information. Do not believe that the United States has forgotten us. Mexico is the jewel in the crown and the thorn in Trump’s Latin American policy.
The Cuban policy of exporting people to other countries to work hard for a high cost was modeled on the example of North Korea. The North Korean government does the same thing: it exports citizens from its country as slave labor to many countries in Asia to build railroads, dams, roads, and airports. The money is paid to the government, and the government forces people to work for almost nothing to survive. What makes the system work is that families (wives, parents, and children) live as hostages in their country of origin, threatened with death if the working relative decides to flee their concentration camp.
The Cuban system operates similarly to the North Korean one. Families serve as an anchor and a chain to prevent escape. And despite this, there have been numerous escapes by Cubans who were rented to foreign governments and companies. To prevent escapes, each contingent of Cubans (note how they always move in columns, never individually) is accompanied by secret surveillance agents sent by the government to control and monitor the public and private activities of the Cubans.
The United Nations and the European Union Parliament have studied the case of Cuban doctors, the conditions of their hiring (their passports and professional licenses are taken away), the payment methods (the individual receives 5-10% of what the contractor pays to the Cuban government), and the hostage status of the worker’s family on the island. Their studies reached one conclusion: they work under a system of forced labor or slavery.
Sheinbaum’s defense of the hiring of Cuban doctors follows the script of the Latin American left, which is afraid to admit its mistake in supporting a dictatorship in pursuit of a utopia that no longer exists.
The United States is preparing to raise this issue with Mexico, likely during Marco Rubio’s visit to Mexico. It is an additional item on the growing list of grievances that Washington will present to Mexico: complicity of Mexican officials with drug trafficking, migration, relations with China, tariffs, claims regarding the USMCA, and now Cuban doctors.
@rpascoep
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