US Doctor denies Cuban Colleagues are Victims of Trafficking

A US doctor who graduated in Cuba rejected US government accusations that his colleagues from the island are victims of human trafficking.

It was learned earlier in August that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is offering US$3 million to organizations that 'investigate, collect and analyze information' related to alleged violations of human rights of the Cuban health personnel working in medical missions abroad.

Graham Sowa, who studied at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, dismissed the premise behind the USAID offer, during an interview published Thursday by the Tampa Bay Times.

'That's total bull,' said the 33-year-old doctor, who as an American did not participate in the international medical missions program, but has friends who have taken part in them.

Founded by the Cuban government in 1999 following an initiative of the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, ELAM has graduated more than 29,600 doctors from a hundred countries, among them almost 200 from the United States.

The Cuban government denounced on Thursday the USAID program as another aggression. The program intends to 'hinder, discredit and sabotage' the internationally recognized medical cooperation of the Caribbean nation.

Through a statement, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Washington's allegations that Cuba committed human trafficking or practiced slavery and the claims to denigrate the work of its health professionals and technicians in several countries as 'immoral slander.'

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