Cuba Rejects Arbitrary Inclusion in US Black List of Human Trafficking

On Thursday, the United States included Cuba and Saudi Arabia in their “blacklist” of countries that do not do enough to fight human trafficking, a measure that may lead to the imposition of sanctions. Venezuela, Russia, Iran and North Korea had been already included in that list

The Cuban government today rejected the arbitrary inclusion of island-nation in the worst category (level three) in a report on human trafficking for the year 2019.

More lies and calumnies from #USA when considering #Cuba in the worst category in its report on human trafficking, attacking Cuban medical collaboration, an example of solidarity, humanity and noble and legitimate cooperation among the countries of the South, Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, said through Twitter.

The president denounced this immoral, lying and perverse accusation and said that Cuban internationalist doctors are slaves only of love for others.

Also on Twitter, Bruno Rodriguez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that
this is another slander to justify the new measures of hostility towards Cuba and that the U.S. lacks the moral authority to make neither evaluations nor ratings of countries.

Cuba is distinguished by a policy of zero tolerance and exemplary performance in preventing and combating human trafficking with low incidence of this scourge. These are results associated with our social achievements, citizen security and equal opportunities, added Rodriguez.

He stressed that the U.S., the country that devotes the largest budget to the production and trade of arms, which cause death and pain on a daily basis, attacks Cuban medical collaboration, an example of solidarity and humanity and of the noble and legitimate cooperation that exists among the countries of the South.

Widely criticized for the politicization of its results and its unilateral
character, the U.S. State Department’s report evaluates at three levels the efforts of governments to comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and since 2015 had placed Cuba at level two.

Despite being an illegitimate and manipulative document, it has direct consequences for the countries included in level three, which in the case of Cuba increases the impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade that Washington has imposed on Havana for more than six decades.