Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Monday denounced what he characterized as relentless pressure and blackmail by the United States government against countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at persuading them to discontinue the services of Cuban Medical Brigades.

In a post on X, the minister warned that this pressure from the Oval Office is not only intended to undermine the humanitarian and solidarity program established by Cuba and Fidel Castro, but also to further cut off sources of revenue for the island's economy.

Rodríguez also cautioned that such actions "punish the most disadvantaged communities and peoples of the region, who for decades have received Cuban medical care." The Cuban foreign minister further exposed what he described as Washington's hollow incentives, noting that the United States "in exchange promises resources that we know will never arrive or benefit those populations."

Against this backdrop, the Government of Jamaica announced on March 4 its unilateral decision to terminate its health cooperation agreement with Cuba — a partnership under which more than 8,176,000 patients were treated and approximately 90,000 lives were saved, according to official figures.

Cuban Medical Brigade professionals in Honduras also returned home following the termination of that country's agreement, by decision of the Tegucigalpa government. In Honduras, Cuban healthcare workers had operated across 17 of the country's 18 departments within the public health system, conducting more than 30 million consultations and nearly 900,000 surgical procedures.

Guatemala likewise announced the gradual withdrawal of Cuban professionals, who had been working in rural areas of the country since 1998.