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*Photo: Cuban Medical Brigade returns from fighting COVID in United Arab Emirates 2021; Cuban News Agency (ACN)

We, the undersigned, celebrate Cuba’s international medical brigades and reject the U.S. government’s lies about those brigades which falsely label them as human trafficking. Additionally, we condemn the U.S. government’s efforts to coerce other countries to reject the services of Cuba’s healthcare personnel and refuse their help, to their own detriment.

We call upon U.S. officials and citizens to take a stand against the U.S. slander campaign against Cuba’s medical brigades and advocate for an end to U.S. imposed visa restrictions on countries that contract with the brigades for much-needed healthcare services.  All countries need to resist U.S. pressures and continue to welcome Cuban medical personnel.

Since 1960 Cuba’s international medical brigades have saved countless lives in numerous countries facing health emergencies. Cuba has sent over 100,000 health professionals to more than 70 countries to provide critical medical care. Currently, Cuba has more than 22,000 doctors working in over 50 countries, that is more doctors than those deployed by the World Health Organization. Cuban health workers serve in rural and marginalized urban areas in these countries, locations where the population generally does not have access to any other healthcare services.

In 2005, Cuba named its international medical brigades the Henry Reeves Brigades, in honor a U.S. citizen who fought in Cuba’s war of independence against Spain in 1868. The brigades have served people facing natural disasters, such as earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan, or epidemics, such as Ebola in West Africa. During COVID, Cuba sent 3,700 health workers to 39 countries, including Italy.

Many of the missions are provided at no cost to the host country and its citizens. Other missions are in countries, which can afford to compensate Cuba for the service, helping Cuba cover the costs of its own free public healthcare system as well as its entirely free and renowned medical education system serving Cuban and international students.

Cuban health personnel volunteer for these international missions. While on missions they maintain their normal salaries but also receive additional compensation.

Among the many attacks that the Trump administration has launched against Cuba, is its effort to undermine the global prestige of the brigades and the income which Cuba rightfully derives from the delivery of crucial medical services to other countries. In February 2025. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime hardliner against Cuba, falsely claimed that the medical missions

constitute human trafficking and announced visa restrictions for Cuban or foreign government officials involved in these solidarity missions. He called them “forced labor” and falsely claimed that medical care in Cuba was being adversely impacted by the medical brigade’s international missions. Furthermore, countries hosting Cuban medical personnel are being threatened with sanctions unless they expel them. 

In March 2025, the vast majority of countries in CELAC (Community of States in Latin American and the Caribbean) voted to reject this blatant mischaracterization of Cuba’s international solidarity. It is painfully ironic that the U.S. administration should pretend to be concerned about forced labor and health care at a time when – without any hesitation – it is gutting jobs and medical care for poor and working people in the U.S. and causing illness, starvation and death by gutting international assistance (i.e., USAID) programs.

We applaud the countries that resist coercive U.S. government pressures, and we commit to supporting and publicizing Cuba’s beautiful example international solidarity that aids the health and saves lives of global communities as well as benefits the Cuban people.

CELEBRATE THE MEDICAL BRIGADES! LET CUBA LIVE AND SERVE THE HEALTHCARE NEEDS OF THE WORLD!