Hundreds of Cuban doctors have delivered new testimonies accusing their government of having put them in "
slavery
" during missions abroad, as part of a complaint filed last year at the International Criminal Court (ICC), associations of plaintiffs announced Tuesday, September 22.
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National pride created after the revolution, Cuban medical missions abroad have also become one of the main sources of revenue for the government of the Caribbean island thanks to thousands of caregivers in dozens of countries.
But a complaint filed in May 2019 at the ICC accuses, in particular, the former president Raul Castro and the current one, Miguel Díaz-Canel, of crimes against humanity for "
slavery, persecution and other inhumane acts
".
The number of testimonies in this case jumped to 622 in August, against 110 when it was filed, announced Tuesday in Madrid Javier Larrondo, founder of the group of Defenders of Cuban prisoners (CPD), holder of the complaint with the political group Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu).
"
622 testimonies which are identical, similar (...) of Cuban doctors all over the world
" who suffered "
from slavery
", denounced Javier Larrondo.
An observation shared by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, who described last year a “
modern system of slavery
”.
"
Tens of thousands of people are forced to live abroad, without knowing their destination, seeing their passports confiscated, controlled by intelligence agents and whose majority of their income is confiscated by the Cuban government
", had accused Luis Almagro.
Cuban authorities prevented one of the victims from seeing her family
One of the alleged victims, doctor Manoreys Rojas, said during the teleconference that since he left his post in Ecuador in 2015, Cuban authorities have not let him visit his family on the island, he even refusing entry after her daughter attempted suicide in 2018. "
I tried to see them in many ways and I couldn't
," said Dr Rojas, with tears in his eyes.
Rejected by the Havana executive, the accusation targets “
internationalization missions
” for which many professionals, including many doctors, are sent for three years to work in different countries that directly pay the Cuban state for the services rendered.
Medical services generated several billion euros in revenue between 2011 and 2015, plus tourism and repatriation of funds, according to official sources.
But this financial windfall has been reduced in recent years because of the crisis in Venezuela, where nearly 20,000 Cuban caregivers work, and because of the end of the "
More doctors
" program in Brazil decided by Havana after criticism of the Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
At the end of 2018, these missions had 34,000 professionals in 66 countries.
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