U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday moved to revoke or restrict visas for certain African, Caribbean, and Brazilian officials accused of ties to Cuba’s overseas medical worker program.
Visas were revoked for Brazilian health official Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and former Pan American Health Organization official Alberto Kleiman. Rubio said other affected officials were from Africa, Cuba, and Grenada. Cuba condemned U.S. efforts to halt its medical missions as a bid to cut its foreign income, while Caribbean leaders have dismissed U.S. claims of Cuban labor exploitation.
“Cuba’s medical cooperation will continue,” Johana Tablada, Cuba’s deputy director of U.S. affairs, said on 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.”
Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha vowed not to yield to what he called “unreasonable attacks” on Brazil’s Mais Médicos program, created in 2013 and ended with Cuba in 2018.
In February, President Trump expanded visa restrictions on officials tied to Cuba’s decades-old medical mission program, a key source of revenue for the island amid its economic crisis, reversing policies of former President Joe Biden.
Rubio criticized Cuba’s medical mission program as a scheme where professionals are “rented” to other countries at high prices, with most revenue kept by Cuban authorities, enriching officials and limiting care for Cubans. He vowed to end such “forced labor” and urged governments to pay doctors directly. Rubio also accused the Pan American Health Organization of helping implement the program in Brazil without meeting constitutional requirements and evading U.S. sanctions.
