Caribbean on tenterhooks over Cuban health missions as Rubio arrives for talks
Published:Wednesday | March 26, 2025 | 12:12 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
The Trump administration has signalled to regional leaders that it has little interest in discussing the Cuban medical mission programme when Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in the Caribbean today.
The stance came hours before Rubio’s expected arrival in Jamaica and just two weeks after regional heads of governments were threatened with visa revocations for them and family if they continued with the programme flagged by the United States for alleged human trafficking.
United States Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone told journalists on Tuesday that the issue does not rank among the top priorities for US President Donald Trump.
“None of us support human trafficking. We all support labour standards, et cetera. If they choose to overshadow this trip with the issue of Cuban doctors, it’ll be a lost opportunity. Because again, the huge opportunity here is energy security, economic development – that has plagued this region – and the biggest challenge that we have is Haiti,” Claver-Carone said during a virtual media briefing.
He said he has told regional leaders that it would be a “huge missed opportunity” for Trump and Rubio to be giving the Caribbean “prevalence, importance, and pre-eminence” and discussions are dominated by Cuban doctors.
Still, the special envoy said it is expected to be on the agenda of Rubio’s two-day tour with stops in Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname.
POSITION DECLARED
Already, several heads of government have declared their country’s position to maintain the decades-old programme that has helped hundreds of thousands of Caribbean nationals.
St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados are among CARICOM states pushing back against the US’ threat.
“I’m sure that’s going to be on the agenda. Obviously, they’ll raise it holistically. Look, we’ve been very clear: The United States stands firmly against human trafficking. The Trump administration and President Trump has been a leader in the fight against human trafficking, whether it’s across the border with Mexico and what we saw, obviously, from the previous administration, with 500,000 children and others that were being trafficked across the border, to white-robe human trafficking by the totalitarian regime in Cuba of doctors that essentially are being trafficked across the world,” Claver-Carone asserted.
“What we are asking is that they not support human trafficking…” he added.
But the Jamaican Government has hailed the programme, noting at the same time Cuban contribution to the country’s health sector.
“It has been a long and cherished relationship and we will do everything to continue this relationship,” Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton said earlier this week.
The Cuban medical mission programme provides doctors, nurses and other medical staff and medical facilities making critical to healthcare systems in the Caribbean and especially in times of crisis.
In 2020, Jamaica welcomed 140 Cuban medical professionals to support the island’s response to COVID-19.
The Trump administration wants regional governments to pay Cuban medics directly, calling the current set-up of the programme “indentured servitude”. Claver-Carone claims that the medics have their salaries and their passports “hijacked” by the Cuban government during their stays in host countries.
“We look forward to working with mechanisms with our Caribbean neighbours to ensure that they’re able to hire directly the doctors, that they feel like doing so on their free will and with their free movement, and their freedom of practice and expression in that regard. And that’s an important conversation that will be had and has begun and surely will be raised for the secretary.”