New US sanctions target Cuban international medical missions

HAVANA

An elderly woman walks in a street of Havana, on June 3, 2025

New U.S. sanctions announced on July 23 targeted Cuba’s decades-old international medical missions program, which sends doctors to dozens of countries and earns the island billions in revenue.

The sanctions targeted government enterprises associated with the program as well as Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda.

The move is the latest by U.S. President Donald Trump’s government to tighten a stranglehold on the communist-run island in recent months.

Washington has also imposed a blockade on vital fuel and other supplies, with Trump threatening to “take over” the island after he ousted Venezuela’s leader in January.

In a statement on July 23, the State Department said Cuba’s overseas medical missions program amounted to “forced labor” and “human trafficking.”

“Cuban officials exploit inherently coercive laws and economic conditions to manipulate or compel workers to join and remain in labor export programs, while confiscating between 50 and 95 percent of the wages paid by receiving countries,” the statement said.

According to official figures, around 24,000 Cuban doctors and other healthcare professionals were deployed in 56 countries in 2025.

Most are sent to remote areas, with Havana touting the program as offering aid to less developed countries in the Global South.

The program was projected to generate $7 billion in earnings for the cash-strapped island last year.