Castros’ Trafficking of Doctors is Gross Violation of International Labor Standards

WASHINGTON— Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) released the following statement after reports that the Castro regime has been paid over a billion dollars from the Brazilian government in exchange for trafficking medical doctors.

"It is disgraceful and a gross violation of international labor standards that the Castro regime continues to lease human beings to foreign investors and governments. Incredibly, the Castro regime touts its sale of cheap medical labor as a noble enterprise, but it is hardly charity.  Despite denouncements of the Cuban regime's use of physicians as slave labor, Brazil has provided over a billion dollars to the Castro dictatorship in exchange for Cuban physicians who have no say in their salaries or working conditions.”  

"There are thousands of Cuban doctors working against their will in Brazil, and thousands more in places such as Venezuela and Africa.  As Dr. Ramona Matos Rodriguez's case revealed earlier this year, the contract between the Castro regime and the government of Brazil provides a lucrative source of revenue to the dictatorship which confiscates as much as almost ninety percent of physicians' wages.  As usual, it is the Cuban worker who suffers the consequences of abhorrent working conditions, lack of independent contracts, and abysmal salaries.  I commend physicians such as Dr. Matos for the courage of bringing attention to the egregious lack of worker freedoms in Cuba, and urge others to condemn the Castro regime's sale of forced labor."

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