MEXICO CITY, March 25 (Reuters) – President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday Mexico will maintain its agreement with Havana to have Cuban doctors working in the country, after a handful of nearby nations pulled out of such arrangements amid pressure from the United States.
“We have a very good agreement that’s also been a great help to us. It’s a bilateral agreement that’s been very beneficial for Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning press conference.
Mexico has become a major host for Cuban medical personnel, with thousands of doctors and specialists deployed to the country since 2022 to work in under-served, rural areas.
The medical mission program is one of the largest single sources of foreign income for the Cuban government, which has accused countries that decided to do away with the programs of caving in to pressure from Washington.
The U.S. has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba since 1960, and this year the Trump administration escalated by threatening tariffs on countries that ship oil to Cuba, where fuel shortages have caused worsening blackouts and battered key services.
Mexico, which halted its own oil shipments to the Caribbean’s largest island, is among several countries that have sent humanitarian aid to Cuba.
The Bahamas, Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica and Guyana have announced plans to end agreements with Cuba under the program which the U.S. says is exploitative and amounts to forced labor.
Host countries, where rural communities rely on services provided by Cuban doctors and nurses, reject this claim. Officials say the medics’ salaries and labor standards comply with local and international law.
Though countries in the region have long opposed the U.S. embargo on Cuba, a wave of right-wing-aligned governments has shifted allegiances.
Last year, Argentina and Paraguay joined a handful of nations worldwide that opposed the end of the U.S. embargo. Costa Rica broke relations with Cuba earlier this month and Ecuador has expelled diplomatic staff in its capital.
After Trump said last week he could do “anything I want” with Cuba, Cuban officials said they were prepared for the unlikely possibility of a military engagement.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes and Iñigo Alexander; Editing by Sarah Morland, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Sharon Singleton)
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