Florida Republican Rep. María Elvira-Salazar praised the Trump administration as it moves to impose visa restrictions on several government officials complicit in the Cuban regime’s labor export program.
Rep. Salazar has been an outspoken critic of the Cuban regime, calling Cuban doctors involved with the labor export program “Modern-Day Slaves.”
“I’ve been calling this out for a long time, and the Trump Administration gets it: Cuban doctors in the so-called “medical missions” are modern-day slaves of the regime,” she said. “We must keep strangling the regime, because we know exactly who profits from the money each country pays for these doctors: the Castro elite and their repressors.”
The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, released a statement in February where he announced that the U.S. Department of State “has taken steps to restrict visa issuance to Cuban and complicit third-country government officials and individuals responsible for Cuba’s exploitative labor export program.”
Rubio vows to hold the Cuban regime accountable for oppressing the Cuban people.
More recently, the Secretary of State released another statement extending the visa restrictions to “several African, Cuban, and Grenadian government officials complicit in the Cuban regime’s coerced forced labor export scheme.”
Rubio ended his statement by warning those involved in the Cuban labor export program, “We are committed to ending this practice. Countries that are complicit in this exploitative practice should think twice.”
The U.S. Department of State reports that medical professionals make up 75% of Cuba’s exported workforce, and many are sent to the United States. Experts estimate the Cuban government collects $6 billion to $8 billion annually from its export of services, primarily through foreign medical missions programs.
The Department of State also reported that in 2011, 1,111 former labor export program participants filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, claiming the Cuban government exploited them and forced them to work in the labor export program.
