Photo: Ministry of Culture.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla warned Tuesday that the US government lacks moral authority Lies about Cuba’s anti-trafficking policies
“Your defamation will not tarnish the exemplary work done to prevent and combat this scourge or weaken our commitment to international medical cooperation,” the island’s foreign minister wrote on his Twitter account.
The Cuban Foreign Minister’s tweet alludes to the 2022 Annual Human Trafficking Report presented this Tuesday by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken adds Cuba to the list of countries that do not comply with international standards to combat this crime.
Washington points in the text to 11 governments that allegedly have documented “policies or patterns” of human trafficking, trafficking in government-funded programs, forced labor in government-affiliated medical services, or other sectors, among others.
The US government lacks moral authority and deliberately lies about the performance of #Cuba against human trafficking. Your slander will not tarnish the exemplary work done to prevent and combat this scourge, nor weaken our commitment to international medical collaboration.
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) July 19, 2022
The headline rejected the unjustified and discriminatory inclusion of the Caribbean country in this text unilaterally issued by the US State Department for purely political reasons.
On the subject, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío commented on Twitter that by attacking Cuba’s international medical cooperation and fabricating the human trafficking defamation “The United States seeks to tarnish a solidarity ministry that has benefited millions of humble people across multiple continents, marginalized by the market and capitalism”.
The current Joe Biden administration, on the other hand, is failing to meet its obligation to issue 20,000 visas to Cubans annually, leaving them in a vulnerable position at the mercy of human traffickers and coyotes.
Cuba has repeatedly affirmed its zero-tolerance policy on human trafficking.
Likewise, the largest of the Antilles, as a party to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, is firmly committed to preventing and combating this crime.
(With information from Prensa Latina and ACN)