-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. President Biden and Secretary Blinken know that PAHO has cooperated with the communist regime in Cuba to traffic doctors overseas, and they know that there are Cuban doctors who are trying to sue PAHO and hold their traffickers accountable.

Here are the facts: In July 2013, the Cuban Ministry of Health signed an agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to formalize an arrangement for Cuban doctors to provide medical services in Brazil. That agreement required the administration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to transmit a monthly payment through PAHO to the Cuban Ministry of Health for the medical services provided by each Cuban doctor serving in Brazil. It also prevented Cuban doctors from seeking employment in Brazil outside of the formal structure of the agreement.

More than 20,000 Cuban medical professionals serving in Brazil under the Mais Medicos Program had their wages stolen by the Cuban Government and received only a small fraction of what they earned. Their family members were prohibited from accompanying them, and many had their passports confiscated.

Cuban doctors were the only medical professionals participating in the Mais Medicos Program who had their salaries directly garnished by their government. Meanwhile, doctors from other countries serving in Brazil received the full wages for their medical services.

Other Cuban doctors suffered similar abuses in Angola, Guatemala, Mexico, Qatar, and Venezuela. For example, in 2019, a group of Cuban doctors reported that they had been directed and often coerced to use their medical services to influence votes in favor of the Maduro regime, including by denying medical treatment to opposition supporters and by giving precise voting instructions to elderly patients.

This gross program is a huge moneymaker for the communist ruling thugs in Cuba. In 2018 alone, they deposited more than $6.3 billion from exporting Cuban professionals to work overseas, and medical missions by Cuban doctors represent a majority of those profits.

Since I came to the Senate in 2019, I have been fighting for these Cuban doctors and against human trafficking. I know my colleague from New Jersey has also voiced concerns about this issue in the past, but nothing has been done to hold PAHO accountable. PAHO is hiding behind legal immunity. President Biden has the power to lift their immunity, and I have requested this administration to do so multiple times, but they have shamefully declined.

It is wrong. Victims of trafficking deserve to see their alleged abusers in court, and PAHO should never be able to hide behind claims of immunity to avoid accountability for their role in facilitating those abuses.

I have informed Secretary Blinken that until substantial steps toward fulfilling this request are made, I will be blocking all relevant State Department nominees.

Americans deserve qualified and competent people in positions of power who put American interests first. If this administration wants to appease dictators, like they have with the Castro and Diaz-Canal regimes, I am going to hold them accountable.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source