Dictatorship from Cuba repeats human trafficking practices by giving combatants to Russia to fight against Ukraine and Europe

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 14/09/2023

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Human trafficking, or the selling of people, is a crime against humanity that violates human rights and is also the most important business of Cuba’s dictatorship that offers and provides “internationalist services” to governments and organizations. The Cuban regime traffics with its people in the areas of medicine, education, security, and other services with public contracts and in covert operations that today abounds evidence of the repetition of this system of “slavery of the 21st century” giving combatants to Russia in the invasion of Ukraine that is also an attack against Europe.

The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, AKA The Palermo Convention, has in its Annex 2 the “Protocol to prevent, repress and sanction human trafficking, especially women and children” and establishes:

“Article 3.a. By “human trafficking” it shall be understood as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.”

The “internationalism” as part of Cuba’s dictatorship’s narrative, is defined by the regime’s “Raul Roa Garcia” Superior Institute of International Affairs, as “the participation of Cubans comprising military contingents in the processes of the people’s liberation, or rendering of services in health and education that make it evident the existence of an internationalist culture and vocation amongst ample sectors of society, that is kept even if the geopolitical context that birthed its existence has changed.”

Cuba’s dictatorship has proven its operations of human trafficking with the so-called; “mais medicos” (more physicians) program subscribed with Brazil through the Pan-American Health Organization; “Barrio Adentro” (Deep Within the Barrio) in Venezuela subscribed with dictator Hugo Chavez in Venezuela; the physicians and education program in Bolivia subscribed with Evo Morales and replicated by Luis Arce; “Medicos” (physicians) program in Argentina promoted by the Fernandez/Kirchner government; the program of Lopez Obrador in Mexico and more.

The “Report of Cuban Physician Teams in Argentina” indicates “the Cuban health services cooperation has been denounced as human trafficking by the Cubans who have gone on internationalist missions and by human rights organizations. Their grievances include the seizure of a greater part of salaries, in percentages, that vary according to the agreement and the country, usually between 80% to 95% of what is paid…”

Prisoner Defenders has proven that Cuba’s dictatorship’s “internationalist” system is slavery that beyond keeping the family of the slave as a hostage in the island and subjecting them to a regime of control and suppression of their passports and multiple violations of human rights that include, sexual subjection, it has “despicable laws” such as Cuba’s Penal Code which in its Article 176.1 states “A public servant or employee trusted to fulfill any mission in another country that defects, or having fulfilled the mission, or required at any time to return, and does not want do so, either expressly or tacitly, incurs in a sanction of deprivation of his/her freedom from 3 to 8 years.”

With the headline “How Russia recruited Cuban mercenaries to combat in Ukraine” Infobae has proved and documented “the evidence from the passports of 189 Cuban citizens who were enrolled in the Russian army by Major Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov with the complicity of Colonel Milian Gomez, Military Attache of the Cuban embassy in Moscow.” All things prove “fraud, deception, abuse of power, a situation of vulnerability or the concession or reception of payments or other benefits to obtain the consent of a person who has authority over one other person, with the aim of exploitation…” This is exactly the cataloging of “human trafficking” that the Palermo Convention indicates to the Cuban regime.

In an attempt to have an alibi for their direct involvement, the dictatorship through Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced “the breaking up of a network to recruit mercenaries for Russia” with the detention of 17 persons in Cuba, “indicating that the network was directed from outside” but with such ambiguity and little clarity that only further confirms that the Cuban Dictatorship is the author and responsible for the sending of Cubans to Russia to sustain the invasion to Ukraine.

Cuba’s dictatorship has been discovered in its play of getting assistance and financial aid from Europe while it attacks it with Russia, backing their invasion to Ukraine through diplomatic channels, publicity, intelligence, and now with “internationalist slaved combatants.” The Cuban dictatorship -in order to disassociate itself- now calls these people “mercenaries.” Surely, escape goats will be tried and some will -eventually- be sentenced to death by firing squads so that the international accomplices continue helping their enemy and give him impunity.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas

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