Cuba’s Neoslave Trade: A Conversation with María Werlau.
El American had an opportunity to talk with María Werlau, a human rights scholar and activist, about Cuba’s medical sector labor leasing scheme which constitutes, in practice, a functional human trafficking operation, in addition to it consummating a host of human rights and international labor violations of established norms, agreements, and protocols.
The interview focuses on this most misunderstood phenomenon which often lends an appearance of perceived “humanitarian” and benevolent international cooperation by Cuban communism.
Werlau offers solid testimony contradicting the propaganda which the Castro regime seeks to propagate. This “industry”, cites the director of Cuba Archive, represents the biggest source of hard currency income for Cuba. Facts like the Cuban dictatorship’s appropriation of between 75-90 % of the pay the medical servants, the virtual hostage state of family members left behind, the penalties for desertion, and comparisons with North Korea’s labor lease system are made.
Perhaps most uniquely in the Cuban case, is the role that organizations like the Pan American Health Organization, an extension of the United Nations, and governments play in accommodating this 21st century version of slave labor being carried out between governments and international entities.
This interview offers the audience a simplified and condensed mode of understanding the perplexing system that affords Cuban communism an enormous amount of capital, promotes a totally false benevolent imagery and takes advantage of the complicity of highly reputable regional and international health organizations, as well as governments in this tragic human abuse.
©The Cuban American Voice. Originally published in @El American. All rights reserved.
🖋️Author Julio M. Shiling
Julio M. Shiling is a political scientist, writer, columnist, lecturer, media commentator, and director of Patria de Martí and The CubanAmerican Voice. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. He is a member of The American Political Science Association, The PEN Club (Cuban Writers in Exile Chapter) and the Academy of Cuban History in Exile.
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