Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning highlighted that over the last 60 years, around 600,000 health professionals have been sent to more than 60 countries, including Caribbean states.

Mao added that these medical brigades have provided care to more than 230 million people, performed more than 17 million surgeries, and saved the lives of more than 12 million patients.

The spokesperson emphasized that Cuban medical cooperation plays a crucial role in the health systems of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, and has therefore been warmly received by the governments and people of the beneficiary nations.

Regarding the US accusations, Mao affirmed that “the so-called ‘forced labor’ has become an excuse and a tool of hegemony to put pressure on other countries.”

She asserted that these actions represent an extension and deepening of the economic blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba for more than six decades, which many leaders and social sectors in the region have rejected.

The statement comes in the context of the US State Department’s announcement of visa restrictions for African countries, Brazil, Cuba, Grenada, and former Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) officials and their families associated with Cuba’s medical services program.

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