How Developed Nations Hire Cuba’s Slaves

This investigation explains how developed countries—in addition to Third-World countries—uphold the communist regime’s modern slavery. With multiple first-hand testimonies, we share the conditions and abuses Cubans have experienced on the missions.

For this, the Impunity Observer interviewed:

• Javier Larrondo, founder and president of Prisoners Defenders, a Spanish NGO that monitors civil rights across the world;

• Arisleydi López, a Cuban medical worker now in Colombia;

• Three other Cuban medical workers who have participated in five different missions.

Key Findings

• Developed nations and private businesses have for six decades hired Cuban sailors, athletes, and medical workers. These Cuban citizens receive 10–25 percent of what the countries and companies pay for them. The communist regime receives the rest by selling the labor through state-owned companies.

• During the Cuban workers’ time abroad, mission chiefs and locals take advantage of and abuse them beyond confiscatory taxes. Since the workers are not entitled to quit or choose from competing employers they are frequently subject to sexual harassment, restricted movement and speech, and a lack of privacy. Workers have also had to live in dangerous conditions with gang violence and subsistence levels of medicine and food.

• With annual income of $8.5 billion, these international missions are the regime’s largest revenue source. This surpasses income from remittances and tourism, which generate $4 and $2.9 billion, respectively.