The Organization of American States (OAS) hosted a conference on Wednesday denouncing Cuba’s use of international slave doctors that continue to form an integral part of the communist regime’s foreign policy.
Cuba has for decades used “medical diplomacy” to develop and maintain ties with countries around the world, including its closest ally, Venezuela. Since the Castro regime came to power in 1957, tens of thousands of Cuban doctors have also been sent on humanitarian missions to over 90 countries.
After being forced to travel abroad, most doctors do not get to keep most of their salaries, with the communist regime skimming off millions of dollars in profits to help maintain their repressive military state and offering a tiny “living stipend” to those who do the work.
According to the anti-slavery charity Unseen, human trafficking is defined as the “movement of people by means such as force, fraud, coercion or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” This is noted by the OAS, which notes in its summary of the event that the regime is accused of “exploiting thousands of its citizens [by] forcing their participation in the program in a manner consistent with human trafficking.”
The event, which was held in coordination with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, featured speakers from both respective organizations, as well as the testimony of Javier Larrondo of the Cuban Prisoners Defenders and the former slave worker Dr. Dania Quintero.
Thousands of Cuban doctors still work in Venezuela as part of a deal between the two countries agreed to under the late Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Venezuela typically repays its debt by sending Cuba oil, a resource much needed on the island, in an initiative that still continues to this day.
However, the OAS notes that there have recently been “allegations of the program being used for more disruptive activities, including involvement in protests and activities with a destabilizing impact on governments in the region or even countries not aligned with the Cuban Regime’s way of thinking.” Mass left-wing and often violent demonstrations have broken out across Latin America this year, particularly in countries with conservative governments including, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia.
Widespread protests also broke out in Ecuador over their center-left President Lenin Moreno’s pro-market reforms, while supporters of former Bolivian leader Evo Morales turned violent following his resignation in October. In many of these cases, Cuban agents have been accused of participating in the protest with the explicit aim of inciting violence and promoting civil unrest.
In September, doctors who defected from the medical slave labor program revealed how the regime coerced them into falsifying the number of patients they had treated and even “prescribe” medicine to non-existent individuals to give a greater impression of productivity.
A report in May by the OAS and the Cuban Prisoner Defenders found that the regime has deployed “close to one million” Cubans including doctors, musicians, professors, engineers, athletes, and other professionals on international missions around the world in what the organizations described as “crimes against humanity.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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