WASHINGTON, DC – THE United States has confirmed it is imposing visa restrictions — including revocations — on Brazilian government officials and a former Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) official over their involvement in a controversial Cuban medical programme.
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. State Department said the sanctions also extend to the officials’ family members. Washington is urging governments worldwide to end partnerships with Cuban medical professionals, who often provide care in underserved and impoverished communities.
The State Department accused the sanctioned individuals of being complicit in “the Cuban regime’s labor export scheme” under Brazil’s Mais Médicos program.
“These officials were responsible for or involved in abetting the Cuban regime’s coercive labor export scheme, which exploits Cuban medical workers through forced labor. This scheme enriches the corrupt Cuban regime and deprives the Cuban people of essential medical care,” the statement read.
According to U.S. authorities, under Mais Médicos, the officials used PAHO as an intermediary to work with Cuba’s government “without following Brazilian constitutional requirements, dodging U.S. sanctions on Cuba, and knowingly paying the Cuban regime what was owed to Cuban medical workers.” Dozens of Cuban doctors have alleged exploitation under the program.
The U.S. specifically named Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman, who both served in Brazil’s Ministry of Health during the program, as playing key roles in planning and implementation.
Tuesday’s action follows similar sanctions recently imposed on officials from Grenada, several African nations, and Cuba itself.
“Today, the Department of State took steps to impose visa restrictions on African, Cuban, and Grenadan government officials, and their family members, for their complicity in the Cuban regime’s medical mission scheme in which medical professionals are ‘rented’ by other countries at high prices and most of the revenue is kept by the Cuban authorities,” the statement added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the move on X (formerly Twitter), saying the goal is to “support the Cuban people in their pursuit of freedom and dignity and promote accountability for those who perpetuate their exploitation.”
The policy has faced criticism from some regional leaders. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley recently said she would “give up” her U.S. visa if it meant standing on principle with countries that partner with Cuban doctors.
During a recent tour of the Caribbean, Rubio outlined the U.S. position:
“In many other parts of the world, the doctors are not paid. You pay the Cuban government; the Cuban government decides how much, if anything, to give them; they take away their passports; they basically operate as forced labor in many places,” he said.
In St. Kitts and Nevis, however, officials have stressed that Cuban doctors working there are paid directly and at the same rate as local counterparts.
“Their salaries are similar to the salaries that we would pay our own local doctors,” Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas said at a press conference earlier this year.
Washington maintains that Tuesday’s sanctions “send an unmistakable message” about U.S. commitment to holding accountable those who enable Cuba’s “forced labor export scheme.”
