Donlad Trump, 47th US President
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 27, 2025
On Tuesday, February 25, the US Department of State announced the expansion of an existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy that targets forced labor linked to the Cuban labor export program.
This policy applies to current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labor export program, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions.
“Cuba continues to profit from the forced labor of its workers and the regime’s abusive and coercive labor practices are well documented,” they said. “Cuba’s labor export programs, which include the medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime, and in the case of Cuba’s overseas medical missions, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country,” it added.
The Department expresses that they have already taken steps to impose visa restrictions on several individuals, including Venezuelans, who are under the expanded policy. Since Donald Trump, the 47th US President took office on January 20, the decision to restrict visas for those involved with Cuban medical missions has risen.
Cuba has denied the accusation called forth by the US, as they have been sending doctors to disaster sites and wherever there are disease outbreaks around the world in the name of solidarity since 1959. The US has a not too friendly relationship with Cuba since Fidel Castro took leadership of Cuba after the 1959 revolution. In 1962 the US declared an embargo on trade between the US and Cuba that continues to the present day.
Cuba has been sending medical doctors to Belize since the early 1990s.