[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 5 (Thursday, January 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S144-S145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

 SENATE RESOLUTION 14--AFFIRMING THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA'S FOREIGN 
             MEDICAL MISSIONS CONSTITUTE HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. Rubio) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                               S. Res. 14

       Whereas, in 2015, the Government of Cuba maintained more 
     than 50,000 Cuban doctors and medical personnel in foreign 
     medical missions in 67 countries under conditions that 
     represent forced labor;
       Whereas the Department of States' 2018 Trafficking in 
     Persons (TIP) report noted that Cuban authorities coerced 
     some participants to remain in the foreign medical missions, 
     including by--
       (1) ``withholding their passports [and] restricting their 
     movement'';
       (2) ``using `minders' to monitor participants outside of 
     work'';
       (3) ``threatening to revoke their medical licenses'';
       (4) ``retaliat[ing] against their family members in Cuba if 
     participants leave the program''; or
       (5) ``impos[ing] exile if participants didn't return to 
     Cuba as directed by government supervisors'';
       Whereas, between 2013 and 2018, more than 20,000 Cuban 
     medical professionals served in Brazil and had their salaries 
     garnished, movement restricted, and family visits limited by 
     the Government of Cuba;
       Whereas investigative reporting by the digital platform 
     Diario de Cuba, through an access to information request, 
     revealed that Brazilian diplomatic cables detailed the terms 
     of the Government of Cuba's medical missions to Brazil;
       Whereas, in early 2012, the Government of Cuba proposed to 
     the Government of Brazil the establishment of a program to 
     send Cuban doctors to geographic regions of Brazil that had 
     an insufficient number of medical personnel;
       Whereas, during subsequent negotiations, the administration 
     of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff proposed an 
     agreement between the two governments to be implemented 
     through coordination with the Pan American Health 
     Organization (PAHO) in order to avoid oversight by the 
     National Congress of Brazil;
       Whereas the Government of Cuba stated that implementing the 
     agreement through

[[Page S145]]

     the United States headquarters of the Pan American Health 
     Organization would present risks for potential violations of 
     United States sanctions;
       Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Cuba, acting 
     through the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading 
     Corporation (Comercializadora de Servicios Medicos Cubanos, 
     Sociedad Anonima, or CMS), signed an agreement with the 
     Brazilian Ministry of Health to formalize a commercial 
     arrangement for Cuban doctors to provide medical services in 
     Brazil;
       Whereas the agreement between the Government of Cuba and 
     the Government of Brazil established--
       (1) that the administration of former Brazilian President 
     Dilma Rousseff would pay the Pan American Health Organization 
     a monthly fee, which would then pay the for-profit Cuban 
     Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS) for the medical 
     services provided by each Cuban doctor serving in Brazil;
       (2) that the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading 
     Corporation (CMS) would pay each Cuban doctor approximately 
     25 percent of the monthly payment received from the Pan 
     American Health Organization;
       (3) that the Government of Cuba, acting through the for-
     profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS), 
     would retain approximately 75 percent of the monthly payment 
     received from the Pan American Health Organization; and
       (4) restrictions preventing participating Cuban doctors 
     from seeking employment in Brazil outside of the formal 
     structure of the program;
       Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Brazil announced 
     the creation of the Mais Medicos program, which included the 
     participation of Cuban doctors and doctors of other 
     nationalities;
       Whereas the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading 
     Corporation (CMS) commenced contracting Cuban doctors for the 
     Mais Medicos program, and the first Cuban medical 
     professionals arrived in Brazil in August 2013;
       Whereas Cuban doctors were the only medical professionals 
     participating in the Mais Medicos program to have their 
     salaries directly garnished by their government, and doctors 
     of other nationalities serving in Brazil received the full 
     amount of their salary;
       Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos 
     program faced severe limitations on their ability to travel 
     inside Brazil and a prohibition on travel to neighboring 
     countries;
       Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos 
     program were prohibited from having their families accompany 
     them while stationed in Brazil;
       Whereas the Cuban doctors frequently had their passports 
     taken by Government of Cuba officials present in Brazil in 
     order to limit their ability to travel;
       Whereas the Department of State's 2018 Trafficking in 
     Persons (TIP) report documented how the Government of Cuba 
     also confiscated Cuban doctors' passports in other countries, 
     and stated that ``the Cuban government acknowledges that it 
     withholds passports of overseas medical personnel in 
     Venezuela'';
       Whereas the Pan American Health Organization's external 
     auditor, the Spanish Court of Audit--
       (1) stated in its January 2018 report that 198 Cuban 
     doctors have presented 159 legal challenges in the Brazilian 
     court system since the start of the program in July 2013 
     demanding extra free time in their contracts and equal 
     working conditions as doctors of other nationalities 
     participating in the Mais Medicos program; and
       (2) stated in its April 2014 report, in recognition of the 
     legal risks associated with the Mais Medicos program, that it 
     would be ``prudent that PAHO set a contingency plan to face 
     possible negative statements of [the] lawsuits'';
       Whereas the Government of Cuba has stated that Cuban 
     doctors unwilling to return to the country after their 
     participation in foreign medical missions will not be 
     permitted to return to their homeland for eight years;
       Whereas the Government of Cuba directly profits from 
     exporting the services of Cuban professionals, having earned 
     more than $8,000,000,000 from their work in 2016, of which 
     foreign medical missions represent the majority of the 
     income; and
       Whereas the term ``severe forms of trafficking in persons'' 
     is defined under section 103(9)(B) of the Trafficking Victims 
     Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(9)(B)) as ``the 
     recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or 
     obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use 
     of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to 
     involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery'': 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the Government of Cuba subjected Cuban doctors and 
     medical professional participating in the Mais Medicos 
     program to state-sponsored human trafficking;
       (2) Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos program 
     should have been permitted to work under the same conditions 
     as all other foreign doctors participating in the program;
       (3) the Government of Cuba should compensate Cuban doctors 
     that participated in the Mais Medicos programs for the full 
     amount of wages that were garnished by the Government of 
     Cuba;
       (4) foreign governments that sign agreements with the 
     Government of Cuba or the for-profit Cuban Medical Services 
     Trading Corporation (CMS) or other companies affiliated with 
     the Government of Cuba to procure the services of Cuban 
     professionals directly assume risks related to participation 
     in forced labor arrangements;
       (5) the Pan American Health Organization must immediately 
     provide greater transparency about its participation in the 
     Mais Medicos program and its agreement with the Government of 
     Cuba and the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading 
     Corporation (CMS);
       (6) the United States Department of State must downgrade 
     Cuba to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 
     report, given new evidence on Cuba's foreign medical missions 
     and the Government of Cuba's longstanding failure to 
     criminalize most forms of forced labor; and
       (7) the Department of State must reestablish the Cuban 
     Medical Professionals Parole (CMPP) program.

                          ____________________