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Different spokespersons from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba vehemently attacked the accusations from the United States government against the island on Thursday, following a report that analyzes Cuba's medical cooperation programs in other countries as part of human trafficking.
"The Cuban government has financially benefited from medical missions abroad by sending its medical personnel overseas, without informing them of the terms of their contracts, confiscating their documents, and threatening their families if they attempt to escape from the mission," said Blinken while presenting the annual report during a press conference in Washington.
Hours after those statements, the head of the United States Department at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, asserted on his Twitter account that the North American administration "is deliberately lying on the subject, which makes its slanderous behavior all the more shameful."
"They shamelessly repeat the lies manufactured during the Trump administration to justify the aggression. It is a testament to political corruption," said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, also on Twitter.
According to the director of Latin America and the Caribbean at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Eugenio Martínez, Blinken is lying when he accuses several countries of allowing health workers who have been forced by the government of the Caribbean nation to practice their professions.
For her part, Johana Tablada, deputy director of the United States division, mentioned on the same social network that her country has a zero-tolerance policy against any form of human trafficking, and Washington is aware of it.
"They lie out of political blackmail," he stated, adding that the slander against health collaboration programs promoted from the White House "has already cost lives" in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The diplomat accused the Biden administration of yielding to the pressures of "corrupt politicians" like Cuban-American senators Bob Menéndez and Marco Rubio, whom she deemed "political heirs of the bloody tyranny of [Fulgencio] Batista."
On Thursday, the United States identified Cuba among the countries that do not cooperate in the elimination of human trafficking and called for the doctors sent on missions abroad to receive fair wages without the control imposed on them by the Cuban regime.
The U.S. report states that the Cuban government "is not making significant efforts" to eliminate this modern form of labor slavery, manifested through its international health collaboration programs.
Cuba once again appears at level 3 of non-compliance with regard to human trafficking, due to the arbitrary actions taken concerning Cuban medical missions abroad.
Among the recommendations made in the report, there is a call to ensure that medical missions abroad adhere to international labor standards as a condition for remaining in effect, and to guarantee that their participants receive fair wages, fully paid into bank accounts that they can personally control, while retaining control of their passports, contracts, and academic credentials.
The document also calls for "ensuring a work environment free from violence, harassment, and intrusive surveillance" and for Cuban professionals to have freedom of movement to consider leaving the program or rejecting an assignment without facing sanctions such as threats, imprisonment, or being banned from returning to Cuba.
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