Miam lawmakers target Cuban regime’s 'medical missions' with new sanctions push
By Sergio R. Bustos
July 11, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
A group of lawmakers led by Miami’s Cuban-American congressional delegation is calling on the federal government to level new sanctions against a key economic lifeline of the Cuban regime, labeling its state-run overseas medical program a "system of modern day slavery."
U.S. Rep.'s María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, Mario Díaz-Balart R-Miami, Carlos A. Giménez, R-Miami, and Christopher H. Smith, R-New Jersey, sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent demanding immediate action against the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos (CSMC).
Cuba’s doctors for decades have worked in developing nations such as Gambia and Venezuela, skilled in providing care with scarce resources.
READ MORE: An Italian region defies US pressure to end a Cuban doctors program
Italy’s southern Calabria region is a rare place in Europe where Cuba sends medical professionals. Over 200 staff remote hospitals across Calabria, Italy’s poorest region in the tip of the country’s boot. A shortage of homegrown healthcare workers had forced some hospital departments to close.
“It was a disaster. I was keeping the emergency room open all by myself,” the chief physician of Polistena hospital, Francesco Moschella, told The Associated Press, recalling the days before the Cubans arrived in January 2023.
The U.S. has long criticized the Cuban program and called it a moneymaker for the socialist government that the Trump administration has isolated, sanctioned and wants to see changed. Facing U.S. pressure, some Caribbean and Central American countries have canceled Cuban missions.
'State-sponsored forced labor schemes'
In their letter, the lawmakers argue that CSMC — the state-run entity managing Cuba's international medical missions — has become a primary tool for both human rights abuses and regime survival as traditional Cuban industries crumble. By dispatching doctors globally, the lawmakers say, the dictatorship generates massive revenues that directly fund its internal repressive forces.
"Today's Cuba is a failed state that survives by exploiting its own people," Salazar said in a statement accompanying the letter. "The dictatorship no longer creates prosperity. It exports forced labor. Cuban doctors are stripped of their wages, denied their freedom, and forced to bankroll the very system that oppresses them.
"This is one of the world's largest state-sponsored forced labor schemes, and it is long past time to sanction those responsible."
The lawmakers are urging both the State and Treasury Departments to use their agencies to choke off CSMC's access to the international financial system. They are also asking the administration to evaluate additional penalties against foreign governments and third-party individuals who facilitate the medical missions.
Giménez said the program takes a deep personal toll on the medical professionals themselves, who are often deployed abroad under strict surveillance and restricted freedoms.
“The Cuban regime has built a system of modern day slavery, exploiting its doctors and healthcare workers to enrich the dictatorship while stripping them of their freedom and separating them from their families,” Giménez said. “The Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos is a key instrument of that exploitation."
Said Smith in a statement: “The brutal, communist Cuban dictatorship continues to exploit and take advantage of Cuban medical professionals through the so-called Comercializadora de Servicios Medicos Cubanos."
U.S. Rep.'s María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, Mario Díaz-Balart R-Miami, Carlos A. Giménez, R-Miami, and Christopher H. Smith, R-New Jersey, sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent demanding immediate action against the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos (CSMC).
Cuba’s doctors for decades have worked in developing nations such as Gambia and Venezuela, skilled in providing care with scarce resources.
READ MORE: An Italian region defies US pressure to end a Cuban doctors program
Italy’s southern Calabria region is a rare place in Europe where Cuba sends medical professionals. Over 200 staff remote hospitals across Calabria, Italy’s poorest region in the tip of the country’s boot. A shortage of homegrown healthcare workers had forced some hospital departments to close.
“It was a disaster. I was keeping the emergency room open all by myself,” the chief physician of Polistena hospital, Francesco Moschella, told The Associated Press, recalling the days before the Cubans arrived in January 2023.
The U.S. has long criticized the Cuban program and called it a moneymaker for the socialist government that the Trump administration has isolated, sanctioned and wants to see changed. Facing U.S. pressure, some Caribbean and Central American countries have canceled Cuban missions.
'State-sponsored forced labor schemes'
In their letter, the lawmakers argue that CSMC — the state-run entity managing Cuba's international medical missions — has become a primary tool for both human rights abuses and regime survival as traditional Cuban industries crumble. By dispatching doctors globally, the lawmakers say, the dictatorship generates massive revenues that directly fund its internal repressive forces.
"Today's Cuba is a failed state that survives by exploiting its own people," Salazar said in a statement accompanying the letter. "The dictatorship no longer creates prosperity. It exports forced labor. Cuban doctors are stripped of their wages, denied their freedom, and forced to bankroll the very system that oppresses them.
"This is one of the world's largest state-sponsored forced labor schemes, and it is long past time to sanction those responsible."
The lawmakers are urging both the State and Treasury Departments to use their agencies to choke off CSMC's access to the international financial system. They are also asking the administration to evaluate additional penalties against foreign governments and third-party individuals who facilitate the medical missions.
Giménez said the program takes a deep personal toll on the medical professionals themselves, who are often deployed abroad under strict surveillance and restricted freedoms.
“The Cuban regime has built a system of modern day slavery, exploiting its doctors and healthcare workers to enrich the dictatorship while stripping them of their freedom and separating them from their families,” Giménez said. “The Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos is a key instrument of that exploitation."
Said Smith in a statement: “The brutal, communist Cuban dictatorship continues to exploit and take advantage of Cuban medical professionals through the so-called Comercializadora de Servicios Medicos Cubanos."