Jesse Scheckner
U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez is pressing President Donald Trump to curb the protections of a World Health Organization affiliate accused of facilitating human trafficking and forced labor in Brazil.
Giménez, a Miami Republican, is urging Trump to issue an executive order revoking safeguards the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has under the International Organizations Immunities Act, citing its role in the controversial Mais Médiscos program.
The request comes a week after the Trump administration restricted or revoked the visas of several Brazilian officials, former PAHO members and their families for “complicity with the Cuban regime’s labor export scheme in the Mais Médicos program.”
In a Tuesday letter, Giménez said PAHO has enabled human rights abuses by serving as a financial go-between for Cuba’s export of forced medical labor.
“Between 2013 and 2018, PAHO orchestrated and profited from a scheme in which well over 10,000 Cuban doctors were forced to work in Brazil under conditions that met the U.S. government’s own definition of human trafficking and forced labor,” Giménez wrote.
“These doctors were stripped of the vast majority of their wages, had their travel documents confiscated, and were placed under constant surveillance by Cuban intelligence operatives.”
Brazil launched its Mais Médicos program in 2013, promising to bring doctors to underserved regions of the large South American nation. But Cuban participants have alleged abusive, inhumane and exploitative practices.
Giménez said PAHO has transferred more than $2.3 billion from Brazil to the Cuban government while keeping at least $129 million for itself. PAHO, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has received millions in U.S. tax dollars while claiming immunity in U.S. courts, frustrating those bringing legal action, including former Cuban doctors.
PAHO, Giménez wrote, “has defied multiple federal court orders, refused to produce key financial documents, and failed to deliver the independent review it promised your administration in 2019.”
“Its actions are an affront to U.S. law, our commitment to human rights, and the values we champion throughout the Western Hemisphere,” the letter said.
“Continued immunity sends the wrong signal to foreign governments and international organizations that traffic in forced labor with impunity.”
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly classified Cuba’s overseas medical missions as a form of human trafficking. There have also been court cases like Matos Rodriguez v. PAHO that delved into the issue, but they’ve failed to pierce PAHO’s immunity under exceptions for commercial activity.
Giménez, Congress’ only Cuban-born member, stressed he isn’t seeking a “blanket revocation” of PAHO’s status, but a “targeted” order stripping the organization of immunity for its Mais Médicos activities. Such a move, he said, would preserve PAHO’s “legitimate public health operations” while allowing trafficked doctors to pursue claims in U.S. courts.
“Now is the time to send a clear message to organizations that use U.S. taxpayer dollars to commit human trafficking: you will face severe consequences,” Giménez wrote.
Whether Trump acts on Giménez’s request remains to be seen, but the President has taken a harder-line approach to Cuba than his Democratic predecessors. During his first term, Trump restricted travel and financial transactions between the U.S. and Cuba, and added the island nation back to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list in January 2021, citing the harboring of American fugitives and support for illicit groups.
After retaking office this year, Trump quickly placed Cuba back on the list, revoked foreign aid to Cuba-focused media groups and imposed new visa restrictions related to Cuba’s labor exportation program. In June, he signed a national security presidential memorandum reimposing full travel and commerce restrictions, expanding embargo controls and blacklisting Cuban military-linked entities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the highest-ranking U.S. official of Cuban descent in history, also announced last month that the Trump administration was sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other top officials for human rights violations.
Those followed the sanctions Rubio announced in February, levied against anyone from Cuba who helps to facilitate the forced export of medical care to other nations.
Founded in 1902, PAHO is the world’s oldest continuously functioning international public health agency. It occupies a unique dual role, serving as both the regional office of the Americas of the World Health Organization within the United Nations system and a specialized health agency of the Organization of American States.
