Rubio Renews Aid Cut Threats Over Cuban Missions
In its 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, released yesterday, the State Department renewed a threat to cut U.S. foreign aid to governments and international organizations that pay Cuba for its medical missions.
Under an appropriations bill signed by Trump in February, countries and international organizations that appear on a State Department list for two consecutive years are barred from receiving certain foreign assistance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio decides who makes the list based on whether he has "credible information" of direct payments to the Cuban government "for coerced and trafficked labor of Cuban medical professionals."
Cuba’s international medical missions generate billions of dollars annually, helping sustain the country’s universal healthcare system and providing hard currency to a state that has been gutted by unprecedented U.S. sanctions and an oil blockade.
According to the report, the number of Cuban workers abroad fell from 24,000 at the beginning of 2025 to less than 18,000 in 2026.
Governments across Central America and the Caribbean have ended or announced plans to phase out their medical cooperation agreements under U.S. pressure, including Jamaica, Honduras, Guyana, Guatemala, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The State Department alleges that the doctors are victims of forced labor and human trafficking.
Belly of the Beast has spoken to dozens of Cuban doctors who served abroad. Every one said they volunteered for their international assignments and were paid significantly more than they would have been working in Cuba.
John Kirk, author of Healthcare Without Borders: Understanding Cuban Medical Internationalism, told us last year that he had interviewed 270 Cuban doctors serving on medical missions.
“I have never met a doctor who said they were exploited,” he said.
In our documentary From Cuba to Calabria, we followed Cuban doctors working in southern Italy, where severe staffing shortages have left communities struggling to access healthcare.
We also interviewed patients and local officials who described how the Cuban medical mission has helped keep the region’s hospitals operating.