Caribbean government officials and diplomats are outraged over Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s charge that Cuban medical doctors who are deployed to other nations are nothing more than forced labor, abused by its government, and that governments which invite those medical professionals to their nations will be implicated in “human trafficking.” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has introduced legislation to codify Pompeo’s accusations and punish nations which work with the Cubans. (See Morning Briefing for July 4, 2020)
In response to Pompeo, Florida Daily reported June 25, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne stated that “for over 30 years we have been utilizing Cuban specialists.… To suggest … employing the services of Cuban professionals is a form of forced labor and therefore human trafficking, that is not true, we do not accept it.” Sir Ronald Sanders, currently Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the U.S., added, “Caribbean countries have no basis for believing that the medical personnel are `forced labor.’”
