Guyana wary of offending US on Cuban Medical Brigade issue- GHRA

Last Updated on Sunday, 16 March 2025, 13:43 by Writer

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) says Guyana is careful not to offend the United States (US) over concerns that Cuban healthcare workers were being subjected to forced labour because of Washington’s unequivocal support against a Venezuelan invasion over the Essequibo Region.

“Guyana faces a greater risk than other Caribbean territories of offending the US due to the importance of US support over the threat of invasion from Venezuela,” the association said in a statement.

President Irfaan Ali on Saturday said every country was developing its own policy and that Guyana has asked the US to provide proof that Cuban workers were being exploited in Guyana. The President also said that Guyana told the US that the labour rights of Cuban, Indian and African healthcare workers in Guyana were not being violated.

Noting that Guyana had benefitted the most from the “Cuban largesse” through medical volunteers and training the bulk of Guyana’s medical practitioners, the GHRA said the de facto ownership and control of Guyana’s oil industry by the US-based giant, ExxonMobil, further restricts its ability to distance itself from the US.

Though the GHRA did not directly call on Guyana to join several sister CARICOM nations in virtually denouncing the US’ decision to cancel American visas to government officials and their immediate families for continuing to accept Cuban workers under forced labour conditions, the association cautioned against being unprincipled and transactional. “Being allowed to live in peace, both for Guyana along with the rest of the world, depends on finding ways to ensure principled politics can be protected and flourish in the domestic realm. The alternative, namely, going along with disreputable solutions is to join a game which the current US administration is far better placed to win,” the GHRA said.

The association also recommended that Guyana engage in oil diplomacy. “Regionally, using our oil resources to assist our Caricom partners on the range of climate and financial issues confronting them would be conducive to solidarity with Guyana,” the GHRA said.

The US State Department’s 2024 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report on Guyana states that the Guyana government previously reported most Cuban workers in the country were medical doctors who were paid by the Cuban government while the Guyanese government provided housing and airfare. “Cuban government-affiliated medical professionals working in Guyana may have been forced to work by the Cuban government,” the report states.

The President did not say definitively whether Guyana would continue to hire Cuban healthcare workers after the existing contract expires. “I haven’t seen the contract to see when that’s up but what I can say is that whoever is working here now from the Cuban medical workers, that they fall under our local laws and international laws,” he said.

The leaders of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago are on record as saying that they were prepared to lose their American visas rather than give up the employment of Cuban Medical Brigade workers in their countries. Similar sentiments were echoed by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica.

In its 2024 TIP Report on Cuba, the US State Department states that Cuban authorities employ workers through contracts with foreign governments and, in some countries, international organizations serve as intermediaries or provide funds for their work. However, the US says the Cuban government confiscates between 75 and 95 percent of each worker’s salary, leaving government-affiliated workers with compensation that in many places is an inadequate living wage. Officials retain a portion of each worker’s salary in Cuban bank accounts, and funds can only be paid to the workers when the mission has been successfully completed and the workers have returned to Cuba.