A new law authored by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and passed by Congress in February 2026 targets countries that are complicit in the human trafficking of Cuban doctors by the Castro regime’s medical missions abroad.

Exploitation of Cuban Doctors

For decades, the Cuban dictatorship has made billions by coercing its medical professionals to work in places no one wants to go, under the worst labor conditions. The regime on the island earns an estimated $4-8 billion per year from the program, and regime operatives keep 75-95% of what the doctors are paid.

The U.S. State Department says the regime confiscates the doctors’ passports, forces their families to stay in Cuba as leverage, assigns handlers to watch them and punishes families if a doctor defects. Since 2010, State Department reports have called the program exploitative, labeling it ‘human trafficking’ or ‘forced labor’ run by the Cuban regime in 2020.

Consequences for Complicit Countries

A new provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 targets countries that pay the authoritarian dictatorship for these exploited medical workers. The State Department must now list every country or group that pays for these personnel and notify them they’re on the list. If a country stays on the list for two years in a row, it loses all U.S. foreign aid. Foreign officials involved can be banned from entering the United States, and their finances and property here may also be frozen.

The law is already obtaining results, with Guatemala, Jamaica, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Paraguay, and Honduras reducing or outright ending their use of Cuban doctors. Some, like the Bahamas, are changing terms by trying to pay doctors directly instead of paying the regime – something the dictatorship has rejected before.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.