Cuban doctors sue PAHO, alleging forced labor and trafficking in Brazil missions

Cuban medical professionals who now reside in the United States have filed a federal lawsuit seeking $129 million in compensation, asserting that the Cuban government dispatched about 3,500 doctors to Brazil from 2013 to 2018 and retained the vast majority of their earnings, which exceeded $2.3 billion. The filing contends that the doctors received only a small fraction of their wages, were never told that most of their pay would go to the Cuban state, and were subjected to strict curfews, surveillance by Cuban intelligence, and directives to gather intelligence and sway Brazilian voters toward left-wing candidates.

One plaintiff recounts being threatened for simply buying bread, while another describes being ordered to influence patient voting behavior. The lawsuit names the Pan American Health Organization as the intermediary that managed the program and argues that its actions meet the definition of human trafficking under international and U.S. law. A recent decision by a D.C. federal circuit court dismissed PAHO’s immunity defense, and the organization has failed to produce requested banking records. Attorneys for the doctors say the case highlights a broader pattern of forced labor in Cuba’s overseas medical missions, a practice the U.S. State Department has previously labeled a form of slavery.