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The administration of President Donald Trump has taken its offensive against the Cuban government all the way to southern Italy, where it aims to persuade the Calabria region to end the program that keeps over 400 doctors from the island working in local hospitals.
According to Bloomberg, the top American diplomat in Havana, Mike Hammer, traveled to Italy to directly pressure regional authorities against the hiring of Cuban healthcare personnel. The outlet cited sources familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for the State Department confirmed Washington's position and stated that the United States condemns "the forced labor and human trafficking involved in the Cuban regime's labor export program, especially its medical missions abroad."
Hammer's visit would include meetings with the president of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, who has acknowledged that, under the current U.S. administration, requests to cancel the program have become more pressing.
The pressure is part of a broader strategy led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to isolate the Cuban government. Bloomberg noted that after the capture of Havana's main ally in Caracas at the beginning of the year, Washington halted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba and has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that supply crude oil to the island.
Rubio recently stated to legislators that the Trump administration “would love to see” the Cuban government fall after more than six decades of a one-party regime.
In this context, medical missions, which generate significant foreign income for the Cuban state, have become a key target of U.S. foreign policy. While the economic impact of these programs on Havana is substantial, Washington argues that the scheme constitutes a form of labor exploitation.
The pressure has already yielded results in other countries. Earlier this month, Guatemala announced that it would stop using Cuban medical brigades, joining several Caribbean nations that have abandoned the program amid U.S. diplomatic efforts. Italy is currently the only country in the European Union that maintains this type of health cooperation with Cuba.
However, Calabria has shown resistance. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Governor Occhiuto defended the presence of doctors by stating that they are essential to prevent the closure of hospitals and emergency rooms in one of the regions with the greatest healthcare shortages in the country.
"My top priority is to ensure the right to healthcare for the citizens of Calabria," Occhiuto stated after meeting with Hammer. The governor even suggested that his region would need up to 600 additional doctors, "Cuban or of any other nationality," as long as they can fill the staff shortages.
The dispute places Calabria at the center of a geopolitical confrontation that transcends the healthcare sector. While Washington intensifies its campaign to cut one of the main sources of income for the Cuban regime, the Italian region faces the dilemma of either aligning with U.S. pressure or maintaining a program that, according to its officials, keeps hospitals open that would otherwise have to shut down.
The diplomatic pulse reveals that Cuban medical missions are no longer merely a tool for health cooperation, but a strategic front in the confrontation between the United States and Havana, with repercussions that now directly reach Europe.
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