Havana.- United States confirmed this Wednesday that for reasons of “national security” denied visas to several officials of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) of Cuba who wanted to attend a meeting of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington.
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However, the State Department also specified that “no restriction prevented representatives of the illegitimate Cuban regime working in its embassy (in the United States) from attending the PAHO meeting.” The day before, the Cuban government denounced that Washington had denied visas to a group of Minsap officials who requested them in Havana to participate in a PAHO meeting and the transfer permits to those who were already in New York – on the occasion of the UN General Assembly. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez published statements from the First Deputy Minister of Minsap, Tania Margarita Cruz, who assured that Washington “took advantage of the need for a transfer permit to prevent” her from participating “as head of the Cuban delegation” at the PAHO meeting. “He also prevented the participation of the other members of the delegation who did not receive their visa in Havana,” Cruz said from New York. Cruz indicated that “thousands of Cuban doctors and professionals have provided and provide medical care services in most countries in the area; in addition, thousands of doctors, graduates and health technicians from Latin American and Caribbean nations, as well as from the United States, have been trained in Cuba.” The current US administration considers Cuban doctors’ missions abroad to be “an indisputable case of forced labor.” Therefore, it keeps Cuba on its “blacklist” of countries that do not meet the minimum standards for combating human trafficking. It has also imposed a visa restriction on those involved in the “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad, a category that included medical missions.
