Search Results for: cuba

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.

Download the English and Spanish versions.

This investigation explains why Cubans resort to prostitution and the situation for prostitutes trying to make a living. The Impunity Observer spoke with four Cubans on the island, three of them working in prostitution. One works in tourism where she can witness interaction with locals. Due to fears of identification and reprisal, they all requested anonymity.

Key Findings:

• Despite the regime’s ban and never-ending efforts to end prostitution, it is a common practice for Cubans. They continue to resist prohibition to survive amid scarce opportunities, food, and medicine.

• Prostitutes (commonly known as jineteros) and pimps offer their services chiefly to tourists, who are able to spend more on sexual services. Therefore, sex workers usually wander tourist plazas, bars, and streets. A Cuban hotel worker told the Impunity Observer.

  “There are plenty of jineteros in Havana because it is the easiest alternative to make money and buy stuff such as groceries.”

• There is no established price for sexual services, as jineteros and customers reach an agreement before proceeding to have intercourse. Prostitutes, if they work with pimps, must pay them fees for help getting customers.

• Prostitutes and pimps face multiple challenges and dangers such as getting arrested or scammed or contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The scarcity of protection implements such as condoms is a factor that exacerbates the dangers.