Affirming that the Government of Cuba’s foreign medical missions constitute human trafficking.

It is important that we have a text like this that provides relevant information about Cuban medical missions, the role of countries that collaborate with the Castro-communist dictatorship in the exploitation of Cuban doctors and human trafficking. It is also necessary, according to the promoters of the resolution, to reactivate the Program Cuban Medical Professionals Parole. At the end the information is completed with an article that is the "official" response of the communist Castro regime to this resolution.

DAV19034 S.L.C.

116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. RES. ll

Affirming that the Government of Cuba’s foreign medical missions constitute human trafficking.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

llllllllll Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. RUBIO) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on llllllllll

RESOLUTION Affirming that the Government of Cuba’s foreign medical missions constitute human trafficking.

Whereas, in 2015, the Government of Cuba maintained more than 50,000 Cuban doctors and medical personnel in foreign medical missions in 67 countries under conditions that represent forced labor;

 Whereas the Department of States’ 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report noted that Cuban authorities coerced some participants to remain in the foreign medical missions, including by—

(1) ‘‘withholding their passports [and] restricting their movement’’;

(2) ‘‘using ‘minders’ to monitor participants outside of work’’;

(3) ‘‘threatening to revoke their medical licenses’’;                               

 (4) ‘‘retaliat[ing] against their family members in Cuba if participants leave the program’’; or

 (5) ‘‘impos[ing] exile if participants didn’t return to Cuba as directed by government supervisors’’;

Whereas, between 2013 and 2018, more than 20,000 Cuban medical professionals served in Brazil and had their salaries garnished, movement restricted, and family visits limited by the Government of Cuba;

Whereas investigative reporting by the digital platform Diario de Cuba, through an access to information request, revealed that Brazilian diplomatic cables detailed the terms of the Government of Cuba’s medical missions to Brazil;

Whereas, in early 2012, the Government of Cuba proposed to the Government of Brazil the establishment of a program to send Cuban doctors to geographic regions of Brazil that had an insufficient number of medical personnel;

Whereas, during subsequent negotiations, the administration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff proposed an agreement between the two governments to be implemented through coordination with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in order to avoid oversight by the National Congress of Brazil;

Whereas the Government of Cuba stated that implementing the agreement through the United States headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization would present risks for potential violations of United States sanctions;

Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Cuba, acting through the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (Comercializadora de Servicios Medıcos Cubanos, Sociedad Anonima, or CMS, signed an agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to formalize a commercial arrangement for Cuban doctors to provide medical services in Brazil;

Whereas the agreement between the Government of Cuba and the Government of Brazil established—

(1) that the administration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff would pay the Pan American Health Organization a monthly fee, which would then pay the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS) for the medical services provided by each Cuban doctor serving in Brazil;

 (2) that the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS) would pay each Cuban doctor approximately 25 percent of the monthly payment received from the Pan American Health Organization;

(3) that the Government of Cuba, acting through the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS), would retain approximately 75 percent of the monthly payment received from the Pan American Health Organization; and

 (4) restrictions preventing participating Cuban doctors from seeking employment in Brazil outside of the formal structure of the program; Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Brazil announced the creation of the Mais Medıcos program, which included the participation of Cuban doctors and doctors of other nationalities;

 Whereas the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS) commenced contracting Cuban doctors for the Mais Medıcos program, and the first Cuban medical professionals arrived in Brazil in August 2013;

 Whereas Cuban doctors were the only medical professionals participating in the Mais Medıcos  program to have their salaries directly garnished by their government, and doctors of other nationalities serving in Brazil received the full amount of their salary;

 Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medıcos program faced severe limitations on their ability to travel inside Brazil and a prohibition on travel to neighboring countries;

Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos program were prohibited from having their families accompany them while stationed in Brazil;

Whereas the Cuban doctors frequently had their passports taken by Government of Cuba officials present in Brazil in order to limit their ability to travel;

Whereas the Department of State’s 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report documented how the Government of Cuba also confiscated Cuban doctors’ passports in other countries, and stated that ‘‘the Cuban government acknowledges that it withholds passports of overseas medical personnel in Venezuela’’;

Whereas the Pan American Health Organization’s external auditor, the Spanish Court of Audit—

(1) stated in its January 2018 report that 198 Cuban doctors have presented 159 legal challenges in the Brazilian court system since the start of the program in July 2013 demanding extra free time in their contracts and equal working conditions as doctors of other nationalities participating in the Mais Medıcos program; and

(2) stated in its April 2014 report, in recognition of the legal risks associated with the Mais Medıcos program, that it would be ‘‘prudent that PAHO set a contingency plan to face possible negative statements of [the] lawsuits’’;

Whereas the Government of Cuba has stated that Cuban doctors unwilling to return to the country after their participation in foreign medical missions will not be permitted to return to their homeland for eight years;

Whereas the Government of Cuba directly profits from exporting the services of Cuban professionals, having earned more than $8,000,000,000 from their work in 2016, of which foreign medical missions represent the majority of the income; and

Whereas the term ‘‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’’ is defined under section 103(9)(B) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(9)(B)) as ‘‘the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery’’: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—  

(1)    the Government of Cuba subjected Cuban doctors and medical professional participating in the  Mais Medıcos program to state-sponsored human  trafficking;

(2)   Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medıcos program should have been permitted to  work under the same conditions as all other foreign doctors participating in the program;

(3)   the Government of Cuba should compensate Cuban doctors that participated in the Mais Medıcos  programs for the full amount of wages that were  garnished by the Government of Cuba;

(4)   foreign governments that sign agreements with the Government of Cuba or the for profit  Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS) or other companies affiliated with the Government of Cuba to procure the services of Cuban professionals  directly assume risks related to participation in  forced labor arrangements;

(5)   the Pan American Health Organization must immediately provide greater transparency  about its participation in the Mais Medıcos program and its agreement with the Government of Cuba and the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS);

(6)   the United States Department of State must downgrade Cuba to Tier  in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, given new evidence on Cuba’s foreign medical missions and the Government of Cuba’s longstanding failure to criminalize  most forms of forced labor; and

(7)   the Department of State must reestablish the Cuban Medical Professionals Parole (CMPP)  program.

Informacion relacionada:

Bob Menéndez y Marco Rubio quieren restaurar programa de robo de cerebros contra médicos cubanos

Medical solidarity pays well.

By Augusto Cesar San Martin.*  

For the Cuban government, medical solidarity is a windfall. Monopolize its sale, a priority

For The government, medical solidarity is a windfall. To increase profits, monopolize the sale of health services is a priority of the Ministry of Public Health (Public Health Ministry).

Prevent earnings from escaping toward those who produce, it is the first purpose of the authorities. During the last year the Ministry of Public Health paved the way to bring slavery to immigration doctors opening on the island.

Special status for doctors

Working on issues of pressing irons, the government issued Decree Law No. 302 on migration states:

¨ ... With regard to the final departure from the country, the worker must apply to remove the head of the entity, and report their intention to travel abroad definitive way.

The violation of the decree, supported by the labor code, involves professional disqualification. Also provides for the suspension of benefits as health workers, Infomed, Internet, media houses as basic access to literature and other registration stamp within a period of 30 days.

A source at the Department of Immigration and Aliens (DIE) who asked not to be named for fear of job reprisals, told CubaNet.

The decree contradicts the new immigration regulations ... For us the category of final departure there since 2012.

No money, no solidarity

Another visible step to grab the medical solidarity income amounting to 8.7 million per year is the creation of a monopoly to sell medical services.

On July 1 the Distributor of Medical Services (SMC) created with Cuban capital in 2009, absorbed legally SERVIMED, who sold limited health services.

The purpose of joining a company of 25 years of creation to the SMC is to expand the marketing of seven service lines. Pharmaceutical, optical, welfare and quality of life, health borders, attention to foreign patients, academic events and technology.

The creation of the new consortium was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Ministry). The ambassadors of the 66 countries where there are about 50,000 Cuban doctors, discussed and with foreign government des stimulation individual contracts of Cuban doctors.

Describes a report submitted by an official Cubanet MINSAP, which increased medical Angola stopped, waiting for concrete by the Angolan party discourage hiring private individual clinical measures and institutions.

It added. Reviewing individual contracts and negotiate with the partner commitments not to individual contracts and that their procurement is through the SMC.

Promote agreements with private clinics through the SMC as a way to counter the individual contracts, or what best means to monopolize the business.

The report MINSAP direction, directs, review individual agreements and the SMC to negotiate with the other party and not allow individual contracts in public or private institutions. At least those provide high profits demanded by the government.

In cases of technical and contracted health professionals, the report makes clear that even abroad, are under the terms of the Cuban Labor Code.

Legalization of hegemony

The exploitation of health workers is described in the bad and restrictive living conditions of physicians in the countries where they are serving missions. Also in the appropriation by the Cuban government for more than 70% of the salary paid by the beneficiary government, every doctor.

To cite one example, the Cuban government gets 3000 to 4000 dollars per month you pay the Cuban doctors Brazil.

Within the island, the best picture of the depreciation of the health sector is the wage, high in the past year to $ 64 monthly. What becomes a privilege fulfill mission to Brazil in bad and restrictive conditions, at a salary of $ 400 and 600 deposited in Cuba to encourage the return.

But the return of health workers who slavery escalates. With a better view of their service, the Cuban doctors do not return with the same ideas. As the government realized, he implements what he does best, suppress ideas.

By order of the Ministry of Public Health, is withheld passport to reviewers when they return to the island, either on holiday or for the purpose of their mission.

The measure has the aim of avoiding individual contracts and violation of Decree-Law No 302, on permits to leave the country.

Despite the intimidations, the Ministry of Public Health recorded 109 Comprehensive General Medicine specialists left the hospital without respecting the decree. The number of rebels doctors down to 48 in non-specialized physicians, 29 pediatricians, 28 internal medicine, 18 anesthetists, 15 and 14 gynecological surgeons.

In this sense, the Calixto Garcia Hospital is among the most disobedient with a total of 35 doctors who left the facility without notice or requested temporary permit, and did not return.

They continue in Havana, the Enrique Cabrera hospital with 29, Manuel Fajardo 17, William Soler and Juan Manuel Marquez 14 13.

After the entry into force of the decree, until now, they were disqualified 211 health professionals. Promote disqualification records it is part of the policy of the Ministry of Public Health, according to the cited official report which blames its implementation to the provincial directors, human resources, rectors and deans.

Without the right to strike, not even express, health professionals reported double revenue to the government, money and an image of solidarity usurped Cuban doctors.

* Augusto Cesar San Martin. He was born on April 20, 1967 in Havana. It was captured by the Interior Ministry and studied Criminal Sciences Institute at the Hermanos Martinez, where he graduated. By discrepancies with the military, called permanent downward of the agency, a request that was denied for a year. At that time he established contact with the peaceful opposition and was jailed in 1994. He declared a prisoner of conscience in 1996, and his release from prison collaborated with the Cuba Press agency from 1997 to 1999. In 2006 he founded the Center for Information Jose Lezama Lima.