Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports
& articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Cuba.htm
Cuba is principally
a source of women and children trafficked within the country for the purpose
of commercial sexual exploitation. Some Cuban children are reportedly pushed
into prostitution by their families, exchanging sex for money, food, or
gifts. Cuban nationals voluntarily migrate illegally to the United States,
and there have been reports that some are subjected to forced labor or forced
prostitution by their smugglers. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June,
2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Book Review by Russell
L. Blaylock, MD -- Source: NewsMax.com, Jan. 11, 2002 www.haciendapub.com/articles/book-review-cuba-revolution-%E2%80%94-escape-lost-paradise-reviewed-russell-l-blaylock-md [accessed 17 July
2013] The stories of immense
human courage, while bringing you to tears, also fills you with hope for the
world, knowing that there are still men left in the world of such a caliber.
Particularly touching was the story of the young Pedro Luis Boitel thrown in a prison where he was starved, beaten
daily and tortured beyond human endurance for the crime of disagreeing with
the supreme leader. During imprisonment his legs became infected secondary to
the torture wounds. At that point he weighed a mere eighty pounds. He was
denied medical attention and eventually both of his legs had to be amputated.
He still refused to yield to his torturers. Not satisfied, Castro ordered him
thrown in an even worse dungeon where he soon died. This story was to be
repeated thousands of times. As proclaimed by
Hillary Clinton in her book, It Takes a
Village, Castro also boldly stated that the children belong to the State.
Forced labor and indoctrination disguised as education was enforced with a
gun. Children were forcibly taken away from their parents at a tender age and
made to do hard labor in the cane and tobacco fields. The American media saw
it as Cuban patriotism, as did the useful idiot American students who travel
to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigades. ***
ARCHIVES *** Cuban Ambassador
reacts to US human trafficking allegations [Cstegory
– Contesting the TIP Report ] Sharefil Gaillard, Caribbean
News, 6 July 2020 www.loopslu.com/content/cuban-ambassador-reacts-human-trafficking-allegations [accessed 9 July
2020] Cuban ambassador to
Saint Lucia, Alejandro Simancas Martin, has responded to allegations that the
nation is using its medical missions programme as a
form of human trafficking. According to the US
State Department: "The Cuban government keeps most of the wages earned
by its doctors and nurses while serving on its international medical missions
and exposes them to atrocious working conditions. Cuban doctors were
sent to several countries around the world to assist in the fight against the
coronavirus. Saint Lucia was among
these countries and received 100 medical personnel from Cuba. According to the Cuban ambassador, the
accusations seem to be a political stunt by the United States. U.S. human
trafficking report: China, Iran, N. Korea worst offenders Nicholas Sakelaris,
United Press International UPI, 20 June 2019 [accessed 20 June
2019] U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo said Thursday human trafficking is a strain on humanity that
violates basic human rights. He named China, Iran, North Korea, Syria,
Venezuela and Cuba among the worst
offenders. Those countries all
scored the lowest on the 2019 Trafficking in Person report released by the
U.S. State Department. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Cuba U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/
[accessed 1 June 1,
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Medical workers formed
the largest sector of the government’s labor exports. The NGO Cuban Prisoners
Defenders collected testimony from 622 former medical workers that documented
the country’s coercive and abusive labor practices within this sector. The
workers described how they were forced to join the program and were prevented
from leaving it, despite being overworked and not earning enough to support
their families. Former participants described human trafficking indicators,
including coercion, nonpayment of wages, withholding of their passports and
academic credentials, and restriction on their movement. The government
denied all of these allegations. Similar practices occurred in the tourism
sector. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government used
some high school students in rural areas in the Escuela
al Campo (school to countryside) plan to harvest crops on government farms
during peak harvest time. Student participants were not paid but as
compensation received school credit and favorable recommendations for
university admission. Ministry of Education officials used the Escuela al Campo plan to make students ages 11 to 17 work
in the agricultural sector with no pay. Students were expected to work 45
days during the first academic quarter. Failure to participate or obtain an
excused absence reportedly could result in unfavorable grades or poor
university recommendations, although students were reportedly able to
participate in other activities (instead of the harvest) to support their application
for university admission. Children who performed agricultural work under the Escuela al Campo plan were not given proper tools,
clothing, footwear, or food. Deficient and unsanitary living conditions,
coupled with poor infrastructure, exposed them to diseases such as dengue
fever, zika, and chikungunya. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 26 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Average official
salaries remain extremely low. The national currency is very weak,
encouraging an exodus of trained personnel into the private and tourism
sectors, where the convertible peso—pegged to the US dollar—is used. Cubans
employed by foreign firms are often much better remunerated than their fellow
citizens, even though most are contracted through a state employment agency
that siphons off the bulk of their wages and uses political criteria in
screening applicants. Rights &
Wrongs: Nigerian Justice, Gender Violence, UAE and Cuba Juliette Terzieff, World Politics Review, 03 Mar 2008 [partially accessed
30 January 2011 - access restricted] Refugee Admissions
Program for Latin America and the Caribbean 2001-2009.state.gov/g/prm/refadm/rls/fs/2008/100946.htm [accessed 17 July
2013] CUBAN
PROGRAM
- At present, the bulk of
Cubans outside Cuba may be considered for
resettlement if referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) or a U.S. Embassy Human
Rights www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-02.htm [accessed 30 January
2011] ARBITRARY ARREST, DETENTION,
AND EXILE
- ============== Trafficking in
Persons Report 2003: Country Narratives U.S. Department of
State, Office To Monitor And Combat Trafficking In Persons, June 11, 2003 www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2003/21275.htm [accessed 17 July
2013] gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Cuba-2.htm [accessed 26 April
2020] CUBA (TIER 3) - Cuba is a country of internal trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Minors are victimized in sexual exploitation connected to the state-run tourism industry. Despite occasional measures by the Government of Cuba to crack down on prostitution, state-controlled tourism establishments and independent operators facilitate and even encourage the sexual exploitation of minors by foreign tourists. Government authorities turn a blind eye to this exploitation because such activity helps to win hard currency for state-run enterprises. Opponents of the Cuban government, often arrested under the crime of "dangerousness," are forced to carry out state-run construction and agricultural labor that profit the state. Laborers are coerced to work on foreign investment or government priority projects without adequate compensation, which is retained by the state. Children are coerced to perform agricultural work. Letter about R. Perez [accessed 30 January
2011] The Cuban
government is one of the most represive regimes in modern
history. You are right that Cubans are very friendly and social people, but
their spirit today is not the same. One of Fidel's first tasks when he came
to power was to install block leaders whose task it was to spy on their
fellow citizens and report to the government. I remember a small Cuban boy
who came to my house after Mariel and we asked him about conditions on the
Island. Crying he told us that he could not say anything bad about the
government because the "walls had ears." Cubans on the island are
afraid to tell you what is truly going on. New threat of
sanctions against Nancy San Martin,
The www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y03/sep03/12e6.htm [accessed 3
September 2014] A Bush
administration announcement that Cuba will face economic sanctions for
failing to curtail the sexual exploitation and forced labor of Cuban minors
will have little impact beyond public humiliation, several experts say. ''Leverage is minimal,'' said DamiᮠFernᮤez, director of the Cuban Research
Institute at Florida International University. ``This really is more symbolic
than anything else.''. A Criticism of
FIU’s "Humanities in Laida A. Carro, President of the Coalition of Cuban-American
Women, 2004 www.neoliberalismo.com/criticsims-fiu.htm [accessed 31 January
2011] As thousands of
Cuban artists have paid a very high personal and professional price for
choosing not to become instruments of an official "political
culture," other Cuban artists, used as spokesmen of the regime, create
their work in an atmosphere of double standard and self-censorship, given
that "privileges" such as publishing a book or traveling abroad are
granted only to those who obey and applaud "the Revolution." Will the course
discuss those artists subjected to forced labor for their
"anti-social" behavior at the infamous UMAP Cuban prison
camps? Will the FIU course mention the
book "Out of the Game" by the Cuban poet Heberto
Padilla, imprisoned and subjected to a "Stalinist" trial in 1970
for questioning Cuban society through his verse? Just last March and April, seventy-five
peaceful Cuban citizens, among them writers and poets, were arrested, tried
summarily, and condemned to prison sentences of up to 28 years. Will this FIU
course mention two of these poets, Raul Rivero and
Manuel Vazquez Portal, serving prison sentences of twenty and eighteen years,
respectively, for publishing dissenting views of the government? Fidel’s The One Who
Owes Reparations Jamie Glazov - FrontPageMagazine.com - September 6, 2001 www.davidstuff.com/political/reparationsfidel.htm [accessed 31 January
2011] Ever since Castro
came to power in 1959, Cubans have been denied the right to travel freely in
and out of their country. They have not had the right of free association,
nor of forming political parties, independent unions, or any religious and
cultural organizations. Freedom of expression has been
non-existent, and the regime has consistently controlled and censored the
means of publications, radio, television, and film. Since 1959, more
than 100,000 Cubans have experienced life in Cuba’s prisons or forced labor
camps for their political beliefs. More than 15,000 have been executed for
the same reason. Torture has been institutionalized. This reality is best
epitomized by the Camilo-Cienfuegos plan, a forced labor camp program that
was founded in 1964 on the Isle of Pines. Working conditions there were
barbaric. Prisoners had to work almost naked. They were forced to cut grass
with their teeth or to sit in latrine trenches for long periods of time.
Torture was routine. Forced Labor
Continues To Make History With Cuban Tobacco Orestes Martín
Pérez, www.cubafreepress.org/art2/cubap000317g.html [accessed 31 January
2011] So that the
injustice is made feasible, a legal mechanism exists that can be deemed
diabolical. There is only one buyer inside Cuba: the government, with the
prerogative, moreover, of establishing an absolute price for the farmers. Other regulations
exist which place today's harvesters in a condition not far removed from that
of forced-labor slaves. One example is the fines that can be levied if the
planting schemes imposed by the government are not fulfilled. Another is that
if a farmer does not fulfill his duties as prescribed by government, it will
take back land that had been "loaned" for his use. Sending Boy Back To
John C. Eastman, Center
for Constitutional Jurisprudence, The Claremont Institute, May 1, 2000 www.claremont.org/projects/pageID.1806/default.asp [accessed 31 January
2011] www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/28/qanda.usa [accessed 22 January
2018] The argument for
not returning Elian to Cuba is grounded in the contention that, as a
totalitarian communist regime, we would be returning Elian to a life that is
tantamount to slavery. In Cuba, as in other communist regimes, property is
owned by the state. You work for the state and keep only what the state
allows you to keep. You speak what the state tells you to speak. You do what
the state tells you to do. If you try to leave that condition of virtual slavery,
you do so at great peril, as those gunned down in 1994 by Fidel Castro's
police while trying to leave discovered. The victims' families were not even
allowed to bury the bodies. Political
Prisoners' Forced Labor Seven Days a Week Héctor Trujillo Pis, www.cubafreepress.org/art/cubap981109f.html [accessed 31 January
2011] The forced labor
plantation managed by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) along the highway
to Maleza is obliging the political prisoners to
work without hourly limits seven days a week, according to Danilo Santos
Méndez, member of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba. This group is
affiliated with the Andrei Sakharov Foundation. Legal Changes in
the Area of Labor Relations Efrén Córdova,
Florida International University, Miami, Florida -- "Legal Changes in
the Area of Labor Relations", CUBA IN TRANSITION: Volume 3 - Proceedings
of the Third Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban
Economy (ASCE), held at Florida International University Miami, FL. on August
12-14, 1993 www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume3/cordova.asp [accessed 20 April
2012] ascecuba.org//c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v03-cordova.pdf [accessed 22 January
2018] I. THE PRESENT
SYSTEM
- Any discussions of the labor law and labor relations problems that may
arise in Castro's According to the
Stalinist model, the actors of industrial relations, i.e. the employers and
the workers organizations, lose their autonomy and become entirely
subordinated to the State and the communist party. Employers are nothing more
than subservient bureaucrats who adhere to government policies and follow the
instructions of the planning agency. Labor unions are deprived of the right
to draw up their by laws and programs of action and
become organs of the state and transmission belts of the communist party. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 1997 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/cuba1997.html [accessed 30 January
2011] [23] With regard to
the issues of drug abuse and trafficking, child labor, child prostitution and
suicide, the Committee takes note of the information provided by the State
party that cases involving children are few and isolated. Nonetheless, it
wishes to express its concern that, in light of the considerable social and
economic problems facing the country, insufficient efforts are being taken by
the State party to devise preventive strategies to ensure that such problems
do not become more prevalent, thereby endangering future generations of
children. Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 30 January
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 26 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? State salaries
remain extremely low at about $27 per month, and the national currency is
very weak, encouraging an exodus of trained personnel into the private and
tourism sectors, where the convertible peso—pegged to the U.S. dollar—is
used. Cubans employed by foreign firms are often much better remunerated than
their fellow citizens, even though most are contracted through a state
employment agency that siphons off the bulk of their wages and uses political
criteria in screening applicants. Economic opportunity in general is severely
constrained by the inefficient and unproductive state sector. State employees who
express political dissent or disagreement with the authorities often face
harassment or dismissal. Professionals dismissed from their jobs in the state
sector have difficulty continuing their careers, as licenses for professions
are not available in the private sector. 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/wha/277323.htm
[accessed 20 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/
[accessed 25 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The law does not
prohibit forced labor explicitly. It prohibits unlawful imprisonment, coercion,
and extortion, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment, but there
was no evidence that these provisions were used to prosecute forced labor
cases. The use of minors in forced labor, drug trafficking, prostitution,
pornography, or organ trade is punishable by seven to 15 years’
incarceration. The government enforced the laws, and the penalties appeared
sufficient to deter violations. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61723.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Trafficking victims came from all over the country, and most worked in the
major cities and tourist resort areas. Anecdotal information indicated that
victims came from poor families; in many cases, families encouraged victims
to enter into prostitution. There was
no information available regarding traffickers and their methods. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof.
Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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