A little known and quietly signed Executive Order by former President Obama went into effect without much fanfare because it was signed at the last minute. While everyone was focused on the elimination of the wet foot, dry foot policy, Obama slipped in another program to end and its effect sent shock waves throughout the Cuban community in Miami and abroad.
The program is called the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program (CMPP). This program was designed to encourage and expedite Cuban defection to the United States through overseas mission aid. This program fast-tracked residency for Cubans and was brought into place by the George Busch administration as a result of Cold War politics. During the Cold War, Cuba refused to take back those who were to be deported from the United States. At the same time, any who tried to leave Cuba for the United States was treated as a political dissident and traitor which prompted viable asylum claims.
On August 11, 2006, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would allow certain Cuban medical personnel in third countries (that is, not in Cuba or the United States) to apply for parole at a U.S. embassy or consulate. Under the CMPP Program, doctors and other professionals in the health field, sent by the Government of Cuba to work or study in third countries, could request parole into the United States. In addition, the spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21 of individuals meeting the program’s criteria could be included in the parole request. The family members could be present with the medical professional in the third country or could be residing in Cuba.
Cuba’s exportation of skilled medical professionals working in 67 countries has brought in $8.2 billion according to a 2017 article in Granma, the official paper of the Cuban Communist Party as reported by Statnews. This revenue is one of the most importance revenue sources for the country’s stagnated economy. However, the end of this policy has left those skilled workers with no other choice but to continue to work for slave wages while the Cuban government takes 95% of their wages. Furthermore, the Cuban embassy confiscates their passports once they arrive in their mission city so that they do not flee.
Sebastian Arcos, associate director for the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University’s campus in Miami reiterated this fact by stating, “The Castro regime keeps 95% of the doctors’ salaries that are paid for, even by the WHO,” Arcos said. “Then these doctors and nurses work essentially under slave-labor wage conditions. In countries like Brazil and Venezuela, which have very friendly relations with Cuba, those countries pay Cuba directly, sometimes in oil, and often times medical staff working in those countries get nothing.”
Even in Cuba, doctors are paid a mere pittance according to Lancaster Online. “Alejandro Prado, 28, of Columbia, was an oral surgeon in Cuba, earning a meager $35 a month in the Communist system. When the Cuban government sent him on a medical mission to Venezuela, he escaped and went to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.” Doctors in Cuba now are having to perform “side hustles” in order to stay afloat and make up for their measly income of $40 to $67 per month. The pay is so bad that doctors are driving cabs while others are renting out rooms to tourists to make ends meet while servers and tour guides make up to $140 per month thanks to tips from tourists.
In South Florida, Omar Lopez, human rights director with the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami believes the CMPP program is comparable to America’s own Underground Railroad. Unfortunately, the move by former President Obama to nix the medical professional parole program now closes those doors to doctors around the world who are working under these conditions.
Omar Lopez, human rights director with the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami said, “Now Obama has slammed the door shut for the entire Cuban medical community from escaping the Castro regime. The only reason President Obama eliminated the medical parole program was to appease Raul Castro.”
Arcos further believes that all the ruckus over wet foot, dry foot was really a smoke screen Obama used to cover up the fact that he eliminated the medical parole program.
As of 2017 when the policy ended, more than 7,000 Cubans have entered this program according to the New York Times. Under this program there are only 11 cities nationwide who resettle Cuban doctors through the nonprofit Church World Service organization. Even though the program has ended, many more doctors were expected to arrive in 2018 who were already approved.
By September 2017, Cuban doctors realized that their options were quickly diminishing and revolted in Rio De Janeiro collectively defying their government and suing to break ties with the Cuban government. According to the New York Times, they are “demanding to be released from what one judge called a form a slave labor.” In 2018, a group of Cuban doctors filed a lawsuit in Miami federal court and in Brazil against the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) which is a United Nations agency. The doctors are claiming that PAHO, an international public health agency, played a “principal role in the human trafficking of thousands of Cuban doctors and other healthcare professionals” since 2013 to the tune of $75 million dollars.
Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s response (Nov. 2018) ordered Cuba to pay its doctors a fair salary or take them home. Havana responded by immediately ordering the doctors to return home, though many have decided not to do so. Bolsonaro has promised any doctor who wishes to stay in Brazil political asylum from the regime.
According to the Miami Herald, Cuba’s response was police visits to the doctor’s families with news that doctors who accept Brazil’s offer to pay their full salaries will not be able to see their relatives for eight years. They were not allowed to accompany the doctors as a way to discourage defections.
Understandably, the doctors feel like they have been indentured slaves and I would agree. However, Cuba’s response holding their families hostage as a way to ensure the doctors return home was even worse. The Cuban community desperately longs to see their loved ones, but they know it is not possible with the current regime. We’ll have to wait and see what happens either with our government by reinstating the medical professional parole program or a regime change in Cuba.
In the meantime, if what the doctors claim is true that PAHO pocketed $75 million from the deal with Cuba, then it would appear that a U.N. agency has indeed run a for-profit slave trade business. That is criminal in my opinion!
*Photo courtesy of New York Times.
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