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El American had an opportunity to talk with María Werlau, a human rights scholar and activist, about Cuba’s medical sector labor leasing scheme which constitutes, in practice, a functional human trafficking operation, in addition to it consummating a host of human rights and international labor violations of established norms, agreements, and protocols.
The interview focuses on this most misunderstood phenomenon which often lends an appearance of perceived “humanitarian” and benevolent international cooperation by Cuban communism.
Werlau offers solid testimony contradicting the propaganda which the Castro regime seeks to propagate. This “industry”, cites the director of Cuba Archive, represents the biggest source of hard currency income for Cuba. Facts like the Cuban dictatorship’s appropriation of between 75-90 % of the pay the medical servants, the virtual hostage state of family members left behind, the penalties for desertion, and comparisons with North Korea’s labor lease system are made.
Perhaps most uniquely in the Cuban case, is the role that organizations like the Pan American Health Organization, an extension of the United Nations, and governments play in accommodating this 21st century version of slave labor being carried out between governments and international entities.
This interview offers the audience a simplified and condensed mode of understanding the perplexing system that affords Cuban communism an enormous amount of capital, promotes a totally false benevolent imagery and takes advantage of the complicity of highly reputable regional and international health organizations, as well as governments in this tragic human abuse.
Julio M Shiling, political scientist, writer, director of Patria de Martí and The Cuban American Voice, lecturer and media commentator. A native of Cuba, he currently lives in the United States. Twitter: @JulioMShiling // Julio es politólogo, escritor, director de Patria de Martí y The Cuban American Voice. Conferenciante y comentarista en los medios. Natural de Cuba, vive actualmente en EE UU.