USA visa programs for non-foreign Cuban doctors

In a statement, the department led by Secretary Marco Rubio divided the sanctions into three blocks. The first punishes three organizations for operating or having worked in Cuba’s energy sector: Ceinpet, the research and development arm of Unión Cuba-Petróleo (already designated previously); and the importers of natural gas, liquefied gas and lubricants Enersa and Einarbo.

The second block concerns entities that would be used by the Gaesa conglomerate, controlled by the Cuban military, to “try to protect its assets and revenue streams” from US sanctions: the Container Terminal at the port of Mariel and the companies Coral Marítima, Ceiba and Orbit SA

The third block included those sanctioned for involvement in Cuban doctors’ missions abroad, considered by Washington to be forms of forced labor and human trafficking.

“Cuban authorities exploit inherently coercive laws and economic conditions to manipulate or compel workers to join and remain in labor export programs, while confiscating between 50% and 95% of wages paid by receiving countries,” the State Department said in a statement.

“Tens of thousands of health professionals in more than 50 countries are subjected to this exploitation, which has historically made medical missions one of Cuba’s largest sources of foreign currency,” he added.

The state-owned Comercializadora de Serviços Médicos Cubanos SA (CSMC) were sanctioned; José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health of Cuba; the Central Medical Cooperation Unit (UCCM), a body within the Cuban Health department; and Gretza Sánchez Padrón, director of UCCM.

The measures include blocking all assets of those targeted that are in the United States or in the possession or control of Americans; blocking of companies or other organizations that have a stake of 50% or more of those mentioned; and prohibition of people in the United States or transiting through American territory from carrying out financial and commercial transactions with those sanctioned, except in the case of a specific license.

Cuban medical missions are targets of American pressure

The United States had already been putting pressure on Latin American countries to break partnerships with Cuban medical missions, which led Guatemala, Jamaica, Guyana and other nations to cancel these agreements.

In August last year, Rubio announced that the Trump administration revoked visas of public officials from Cuba and other countries, including former members of the Ministry of Health of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), due to the sending of Cuban doctors to work in other nations.

A few days later, the United States Consulate in São Paulo informed the wife and daughter of the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, that they had their American visas revoked. The reason would be Padilha’s participation in Mais Médicos, implemented when he held the same portfolio during Dilma’s administration.

The minister himself did not have his visa canceled, because his document had expired since 2024. To participate in the UN General Assembly in New York, in September, he received a visa with movement restrictions.

Since 2018, a lawsuit against the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), filed by four Cuban doctors who worked in Brazil at Mais Médicos, has been pending in the United States federal court.

“The doctors had no choice but to go to Brazil; their documents were confiscated and their circulation was limited in Brazil; they were forced to indoctrinate the local population; their family members were held hostage in Cuba; they were monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Cuban intelligence agents employed by PAHO; and Cuba and PAHO confiscated 80% to 90% of the amount paid by Brazil for their services,” the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba said in a statement.

According to the NGO, between 2013 and 2018, Brazil paid PAHO US$2.58 billion for the work of more than 10,000 Cuban professionals within Mais Médicos.

At the time of the visa cancellation, Agência Brasil cited data from the Ministry of Health that indicated that Cubans, who until 2018 represented the majority of doctors in the program, made up just 10% of the approximately 26 thousand professionals who work at Mais Médicos.