Cuba accuses U.S. of ‘extorting’ Latin America in doctors row

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. (Hector Retamal/Pool Photo via AP)

HAVANA - Cuba’s foreign minister on Thursday accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries by pressuring them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors.

Bruno Rodriguez said the United States was trying to “strangle” the economy of the communist island, which earns billions from its foreign medical missions, after several countries stopped deploying Cuban doctors.

Washington says the program -- a major source of pride, and income, in Cuba since the 1960s -- amounts to forced labor.

The U.S. stance on the doctors’ program is part of a campaign of maximum pressure on the Cuban regime by President Donald Trump.

Trump has made threats about “taking” the island after ousting Venezuela’s leader and attacking Iran.

Countries seeking to maintain strong ties to Washington have started to yield to pressure to pull out of the medical partnerships.

Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Guyana have all terminated their agreements with Cuba, which is teetering on the edge of economic collapse, partly due to a U.S. energy blockade.

“The U.S. government is persecuting, pressuring, and extorting other governments to end the presence of Cuban Medical Brigades in various countries, under false pretenses,” Rodriguez said on X.

Economic lifeline

According to official figures, some 24,000 Cuban doctors and other healthcare professionals were deployed in 56 countries in 2025.

Most are sent to remote areas.

Half were deployed to Venezuela, Cuba’s top ally for a quarter of a century before the January ouster of socialist president Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces.

The program was projected to generate US$7 billion in earnings for the cash-strapped island last year.

On Tuesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights published a report denouncing serious human rights violations in the missions.

The report accused Cuba of withholding doctors’ wages, confiscating passports and threatening medics with up to eight years in prison if they defected from their jobs abroad.

In an interview with AFP, IACHR president Edgar Stuardo Ralon said some of the practices could be classified as “forced labor” and “human trafficking.”

According to official Cuban statistics cited in the report, the doctors receive only between 2.5 per cent and 25 per cent of what countries pay Cuba for their services.

Cuba has defended the program as a measure of “solidarity” with other countries, designed to bring health services to “hard-to-reach places.”