Johana Tablada Acknowledges Cuban Government's Salary Deductions from Doctors on International Missions

Johana Tablada, the Deputy Director of the U.S. General Directorate in Cuba, has conceded that the Cuban government withholds a portion of the salaries of doctors participating in international "missions." She emphasized that these professionals are aware of this arrangement from the outset, as it is stipulated in their contracts.

During a conference titled "Cuba Facing Extermination: A Hope that Must Not Die. Update on the Impact of the Blockade and its Relations with the U.S.," Tablada explained that doctors are informed of the destination country, contract duration, and foreign currency compensation. Meanwhile, their full salary is "maintained" in Cuba to ensure their families are not financially strained. "Yes, it's true that part of that contract... goes to Cuba's Public Health," she confirmed.

Tablada argued that the withheld portion of the doctors' income supports the Cuban people through the national Public Health System, not private clinics. She refuted claims that these agreements amount to human trafficking or forced labor, asserting that the medical collaborators can "move freely" in their host countries.

The official framed her defense within the context of South-South cooperation, comparing the deductions to practices by foreign institutions, including the Mayo Clinic, to illustrate that various systems involve contractual income not directly paid to professionals. She also maintained that these Cuban collaboration agreements lack the criteria to be classified as trafficking.

At the same event, Tablada blamed the U.S. "economic warfare" for the crisis in Cuba and denied the presence of Chinese espionage bases on the island, highlighting that the only foreign military base is the Guantanamo Naval Station.

Tablada's remarks represent an explicit acknowledgment of the Cuban state's partial salary confiscation from medical cooperatives—an issue central to international criticism of these programs—and reinforce that this condition is set forth during contract signing.

This year, the U.S. Department of State once again placed Cuba in Tier 3 of its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the most severe category, which includes countries that do not meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and are not making significant efforts to do so. The 2025 document warns that the Cuban regime maintains a "policy or pattern" of state-sponsored human trafficking, particularly through the export of medical services, which is considered the country's main source of income, generating $4.9 billion in 2022, the last year with available data.

The report indicates that the so-called Cuban medical missions, presented as solidarity programs, conceal labor exploitation practices bordering on modern slavery. The workers sent abroad, mostly healthcare professionals, are recruited under deceit and threats of reprisals.