As further evidence of the blockade the United States exerts on the Cuban people, the current US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will embark on a tour of the Caribbean this Wednesday to defend the decision to restrict visas for officials linked to Cuban medical missions, which he accuses of "human trafficking," his team announced Tuesday.

As confirmed by the State Department's special envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, in a press conference, this issue "will be on the agenda" for Rubio during his visit to Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname to meet with their leaders and those of Barbados, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago, countries that have criticized the restrictions on Cuban medical missions, which are vital to the region's health systems.

Carone, who like Marco Rubio is also of Cuban origin, acknowledged that Cuban medical missions have historically done "extraordinary" work in Caribbean countries, but accused the "totalitarian regime in Cuba" of trafficking the people who make up those missions.

"What we are asking is that they don’t support human trafficking," said the special envoy.

According to Claver-Carone, the United States hopes to work with Caribbean countries to "guarantee that they can directly hire doctors" and that they work "of their own free will and with freedom of movement and expression."

The latter is part of a false narrative created by the anti-Cuban mafia in Florida to justify the blockade policy against the island, of which Marco Rubio has boasted several times of being its main inspiration.

The paradoxical lie, which contrasts the "extraordinary work" of Cuban doctors, recognized worldwide, with their status as "slaves," seeks to confuse those countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that have criticized the restrictions announced by the United States on Cuban medical missions and reject the notion that benefiting from them could be considered a form of human trafficking.

According to EFE, CARICOM—made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—decided at its last summit to request a dialogue with US President Donald Trump to discuss this controversial issue.

Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados and current president of Caricom, has stated that she is prepared to lose her visa to the United States because, she said, "principles matter."

We already know what the current Secretary of State will say on the subject, a dim-witted one, he will surely repeat the false refrain that Cuba is a threat to humanity in no less countries than those where the presence of Cuban doctors has saved thousands of lives.

An interesting fact: Marco Rubio's Caribbean tour is taking place at a time when his fitness to serve as Secretary of State is being questioned. Experts have highlighted his limited role in the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and he has apparently been relegated to dealing with the only political issue he truly masters: fabricating lies to the detriment of the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff