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Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Safety Agrees to Review Forced

Labor Claims of Cuban Medical Professionals in Brazil

(Alexandria, Virginia) On Wednesday, August 26, Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public
Safety, Mr. André Mendonça, agreed to review the forced labor claims of 100 Cuban medical
workers seeking political asylum in Brazil.

“We are grateful Minister Mendonça met with Brazilian counsel for the 100 Cuban
health workers. Minister Mendonça expressed his concern when presented with evidence
alleging human rights abuses stemming from Mais Médicos Program contracts with Brazil,”
said Jason Poblete, Global Liberty Alliance President. In addition to his meeting with Brazilian
counsel for the Cuban workers, Minister Mendonça committed to mobilizing Ministry resources
to investigate the alleged abuses. “This is an important step in seeking justice and exposing
forced labor practices by Cuba and others. We look forward to assisting our colleagues in Brazil
seek justice for the workers,” added Poblete.

During the past two years, the Global Liberty Alliance (GLA) has collaborated closely
with Brazilian lawyers to unmask Cuba’s Medical Brigade program in Brazil, known as Mais
Médicos. In addition to advising Cuban workers who are adjusting life outside of Cuba, the
defense teams seek to expose the financial connections between Cuba state-owned companies,
Brazil’s public health ministry, and other actors. Similar steps are underway in other Latin
American nations to call attention to forced labor practices using Cuban medical workers and to
expose the illicit networks and financing practices that made trafficking possible. The network
is also urging governments to reject illegal labor contracts with Cuba and Cuban state-owned
enterprises.

Background

In November 2018, Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro announced he would

modify the agreement with Cuba for contracting Cuban medical brigade personnel (known as
the “Mais Médicos” or “More Doctors” Program). Bolsonaro insisted Cuba transfer the full
salary amount to Cuban doctors, that professionals be subjected to Brazilian medical certificate
revalidation testing, and be allowed to bring their family along with them. When Cuba rejected
these terms for the program renewal, Bolsonaro said that any Cuban doctor who wanted to
break from the control of the Cuban Communist Party could remain in Brazil and apply for
political asylum.

Since the 1960s, with the funding and other support of Russia and other foreign powers,
Communist Cuba has repurposed the practice of medicine for political, ideological, and

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economic purposes. The Cuban Medical Brigades are espionage rings disguised as
humanitarian missions. Today, they have become the Communist Party’s primary source of
income and a foreign policy weapon of choice to evangelize socialism abroad.

While some Brigade members provide medical care to foreign patients, the brigades also
include spies and Communist Party members who are tasked with spreading socialism and
obtaining intelligence. Brigade members who decide to break with the Communist system pay
a very high price professionally and personally.

According to work done by the Brazilian legal team in defense of the 100 Cuban medical
workers, and other experts on the subject, the Brigades Program exploits the labor rights of
Cuban workers, signs agreements with foreign governments that usually violate procurement
laws and regulations of the host nation, and undermines the security in host countries by
conducting espionage operations. Some of the ways these “medical missions” manipulate and
abuse workers include:

• Withholding pay;
• Blocking their return to Cuba for up to 8 years if they refuse to obey orders or
abandon the Brigade;
• Restricting movement while deployed in the foreign country (via curfews, bans
on driving and inter-regional travel, taking away their passports);
• Sending team members unprepared to unsafe, crime-ridden areas and failing to
provide security;
• Requiring team members to falsify program data and inform on colleagues;
• Requiring attendance at socialist indoctrination programs and recruitment of
fellow socialists in the host country;
• Constantly surveilling team members (done by minders or “Juridicos” who are
embedded in every Brigade); and
• Restricting freedom of speech by banning all contact with non-Cuban media
sources.

For more information on Cuba’s Medical Brigades, see Cuba Salud, an informational
website with more information about this program.

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You can find more information about the work that GLA is doing to uphold freedom from coercion and
the rule of law on the GLA news blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account.

A part of The Global Rule of Law & Liberty Legal Defense Fund

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