U.S. Revokes Visas of Brazilian Officials Over Cuban Medical Mission

The U.S. State Department on 13 August revoked visas and imposed new visa restrictions on multiple foreign officials, citing their involvement in what Washington describes as the Cuban government’s forced-labor export scheme. The measures target two former Brazilian health-ministry officials—Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and Alberto Kleiman—who helped run Brazil’s Mais Médicos programme, as well as unnamed ex-staff of the Pan American Health Organization. Officials from Cuba, Grenada and several African countries were also barred. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the officials “used PAHO as an intermediary” to channel payments to Havana while depriving Cuban doctors of fair wages, calling the programme “a diplomatic fraud.” The State Department accused the scheme of enriching the Cuban regime and limiting domestic access to medical care on the island. Brazil’s government condemned the decision as a disproportionate punishment, while Cuba vowed to continue deploying medical brigades abroad. The action extends a series of Trump-era sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on Havana and its partners and follows earlier Magnitsky-style penalties against Cuban and Brazilian figures.