María Elvira Salazar Calls for Accountability from Mexico Over Hiring Cuban Doctors

Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar (Florida-27) has formally reached out to the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, urging him to demand that Mexico terminate its program involving Cuban doctors. Salazar describes this initiative as a forced labor scheme that contravenes the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Dated October 22 and made public this Friday, the letter highlights that over 3,000 Cuban medical professionals are operating in Mexico under conditions the U.S. State Department has labeled as human trafficking and modern slavery.

“Mexico is flouting the rules and enabling Havana to profit from forced labor,” Salazar stated upon releasing the letter. “The USMCA is not optional. Mexico cannot reap the benefits of free trade with the United States while allowing the Cuban dictatorship to exploit its doctors.”

Within the document, the congresswoman outlines the hardships faced by these professionals: separation from family, travel restrictions, and the seizure of the majority of their earnings by the Cuban regime. In certain instances, the doctors receive a mere 5% of what Mexico pays for their services, with the remainder going to Havana.

Salazar references the State Department’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report, published in September 2025, which placed Cuba in Tier 3—the most severe category—alongside North Korea and Afghanistan, labeling Cuban medical missions as a form of human trafficking.

She also recalls personally warning former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about the repercussions of this program during a congressional visit to Mexico City roughly two years ago, without receiving a response. “They were warned there would be consequences,” she wrote in the letter.

The Cuban doctors program in Mexico began in 2020 under López Obrador’s administration and was later expanded by President Claudia Sheinbaum, reaching about 3,800 professionals across 29 specialties in 23 states via the IMSS-Bienestar system.

Sheinbaum has defended the program, arguing that Cuban doctors provide services in remote areas where Mexican specialists are scarce. In March 2026, the Mexican Embassy in the U.S. refuted the allegations, claiming the agreements uphold the labor rights of these professionals.

Chapter 23 of the USMCA stipulates that member countries “shall prohibit the importation of goods” produced with forced labor and “recognize the objective of eliminating all forms of coercive or compulsory labor.” Salazar argues that Mexico’s program violates these provisions directly.

As an alternative, Salazar suggests Mexico follow Brazil’s example, where former President Jair Bolsonaro chose to pay Cuban doctors directly, prompting the regime to withdraw its professionals from the country in 2018.

“The Mexican government could emulate what Bolsonaro did in Brazil: simply pay the doctors directly, freeing them from the servitude imposed by the Cuban regime,” the letter states.

This initiative is part of a broader legislative campaign Salazar has been championing for years alongside other Cuban-American congress members like Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez. Back in July 2026, this group had already called for sanctions against the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos (CSMC), the state enterprise managing these missions.

The letter to Greer signifies an escalation by linking the issue directly to the USMCA review process, which the Trade Representative’s Office opened for public comments in early October, ahead of the formal proceedings scheduled for 2027.

“Do what no other U.S. presidential administration has done and inform Mexican authorities that their use of Cuban forced labor violates the USMCA, and request that the Mexican government dismantle the program and free these doctors,” Salazar concludes in her letter to Greer.