Grenada foreign minister rejects US claims that Cuba’s medical missions are ‘forced labor’

Grenada’s foreign minister is pushing back on the U.S. State Department’s assertions that the eastern Caribbean nation, which has had a long-standing relationship with Cuba, is exploiting Cuban doctors and other medical professionals in order to enrich the communist regime.

The English-speaking nation, which is still struggling to recover from last year’s Category 4 Hurricane Beryl, is among several countries that were singled out this week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio for visa restrictions due to what he called officials’ “complicity in the Cuban regime’s medical mission scheme in which medical professionals are ‘rented’ by other countries at high prices and most of the revenue is kept by the Cuban authorities.”

Grenada Foreign Minister Joseph Andall rejected the idea that Grenada is taking advantage of doctors who are part of Cuba’s foreign medical brigades.

“Regarding the charges of so-called forced labor and human trafficking, we will never be party to anything of that nature,” Andall said. “Grenada respects all international conventions and protocols regarding the protection of human dignity, and we are quite satisfied that the Cuban medical program with us is totally above board and in compliance with our international labor and human rights standards. So we have no qualms about being able to defend them.”

Rubio announced that the State Department had taken steps to impose visa restrictions on unidentified officials in Grenada as well as Cuba and unspecified African nations. U.S. visas were also revoked for several Brazilian government officials and former Pan American Health Organization officials and their family members for what the State Department called “complicity” in the Mais Médicos program in Brazil.

The announcement comes five months after Grenada Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall was quoted in March as saying he and other ministers were willing to give up their U.S. visas in support of the people of Cuba.

Andall said neither he nor his government has received “any official notification from any branch of the U.S. government about visa suspension or anything of that nature. We have been seeing things on social media.”

In a statement, the Grenada government said it has taken note of the State Department statement and “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively engaged with the authorities of the United States, through established diplomatic channels, in addressing this matter. We assure the people of Grenada that your Government is attending this situation with the utmost responsibility and in the best interests of our nation.”

Andall couldn’t say off-hand how many Cuban medical professionals are currently working in Grenada. But they include specialists such as psychiatrists and radiologists, he said.

“The Cuban medical brigade is at this point, and for the past two years, has been indispensable toward our health infrastructure, not only in Grenada, but throughout the Caribbean and in other parts of the world,” he said. “In fact, Cuban doctors have been known to render services in countries as far away as Italy during the COVID pandemic.”

Like other Caribbean nations that employ Cuba medical professionals, Grenada is in need of doctors, Andall said. But in addition to “a significant number of the medical specialists that we have in Grenada that are supplied by Cuba,” a significant percentage of the country’s own medical doctors are also trained in Cuba, he added, at no cost to the government of Grenada.

In a note last year, Grenada’s foreign ministry said that since the establishment of diplomatic and bilateral relations between Grenada and Cuba, more than 400 professionals have benefited from training in Cuba.

“Without the input of the Cuban Medical Brigade, there is no question that our health system will collapse,” Andall said.

For months, governments of the Caribbean have engaged in discussions with the State Department after Rubio warned of expanded visa restrictions on foreign government officials involved in the Cuban medical missions overseas, one of the largest sources of foreign revenues for the Cuban regime. The State Department has described the arrangements as “forced labor” due to accusations that the Cuban government keeps most of the salaries foreign governments pay for the missions.

The State Department has said that the Cuban regime pockets more than $4.9 billion a year from the labor of more than 26,000 doctors and nurses working in 55 countries.

Other Caribbean governments have been quietly redoing their contracts with Cuba. For example, after one of its contracts was leaked, Bahamian Health Minister Michael Darville, in address to Parliament in June, announced the termination of existing contracts with Cuban health professionals following discussions with the U.S. He also said that they would put on hold for the time being the hiring of additional Cuban doctors until those talks conclude.

The details of Grenada’s contracts have not been made public. Andall said he doesn’t know the Cubans’ salaries, but he’s been told by his ministry of health that “the salaries are paid directly into accounts that are totally managed and controlled by the individual worker.”

The State Department has not publicly identified Grenadian officials whose visas have been revoked. But the announcement on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly, which takes place next month, is creating consternation in the Caribbean region.

Grenaday was left out of discussions earlier this year over a possible travel ban targeting Caribbean nations with Citizenships by Investment programs, where foreign investors can purchase a passport. The other four countries offering the so-called ‘golden passports,’ are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia.

Grenada’s original exclusion from the threats led some diplomats to think that perhaps some of its leaders’ past relationships with Republicans in the United States had provided a reprieve.

“I won’t be speculating,” Andall said “Our relationship with the United States, as with all of our friends, continues to be cordial, respectful, we hope mutually so.”

In 1983, the United States invaded the island after its young socialist leader, Maurice Bishop was assassinated, along with a dozen others, by his own comrades. Washington justified its invasion on the basis of internal turmoil and to curtail Cuba’s influence.

After the collapse of Bishop’s People’s Revolutionary Government, Grenada broke diplomatic relations with Cuba, which resumed them in 1994.

Andall himself, in a debate before Parliament earlier this year, defended the relationship with Cuba, telling lawmakers the island-nation “continues to be a trustworthy friend and partner not only of Grenada, not only of the Caribbean but of people the world over.”

“We have not just a legal obligation, a moral and ethical obligation to stand by the people of Cuba,” he said. “Our health infrastructure will collapse without the generous intervention of Cuba and for that we must always take a principle stand.”