Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) wrote to President Donald Trump, urging action against the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) due to its role in trafficking Cuban doctors.
As Rep. Gimenez explained, PAHO is enabling the travel of Cuban medical professionals under the island dictatorship's Mais Medicos program to foreign countries such as Brazil, in conditions that the United States would classify as human trafficking and forced labor.
"These doctors were stripped of the vast majority of their wages, had their travel documents confiscated, and were placed under constant surveillance by Cuban intelligence operatives," Rep. Gimenez described, adding, "PAHO, acting as a financial intermediary, transferred over $2.3 billion from Brazil to the Cuban regime, while retaining at least $129 million for itself."
More egregiously, PAHO is U.S.-based and taxpayer-funded, yet continues to cite its immunity under the International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA) to defy accountability, even in the face of court orders and demands for transparency.
Thus, the Florida Congressman demanded that President Trump issue "a targeted executive order revoking immunity solely for PAHO's activities related to the Mais Medicos program."
"This action would not disrupt legitimate public health operations but would ensure that trafficked Cuban doctors may seek redress in American courts, and that U.S. law is not undermined by foreign entities operating within our jurisdiction," Gimenez concluded.
Gimenez's colleague and fellow child of Cuban exiles, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), has been another voice against PAHO's enablement of the trafficking of Cuban medical professionals, first addressing the PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa personally in April 2023, calling for accountability.
In September 2024, Salazar and Gimenez introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the practice, with the latter saying, "Cuban doctors are trafficking like modern-day slaves, their wages are garnished, and they are exploited in the most inhumane conditions imaginable."
Most recently, Salazar urged investigations into South Florida businesses supposedly linked to officials in the Cuban regime set up to dodge U.S. sanctions.
