TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — More than 150 Cuban medical staff climbed aboard a plane in Honduras on Wednesday, leaving the Central American country after it's newly elected right-wing government abruptly cancelled the agreement.
The departure of the medical staff comes as President Donald Trump has pushed to isolate the Cuban government and openly called for regime change.
Cuba's practice of deploying doctors — often highly skilled in providing care with scarce resources – is often a means of diplomacy, but is heavily criticized by the U.S. government. Just last week Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he the U.S. believed that the Cuban medical program was a "form of human trafficking.”
The 168 medical workers departed from an airport in Honduras' second biggest city, San Pedro Sula, on their way to Havana after the Honduran government said the program did not meet the requirements established by internal regulators. The change comes just two months after President Nasry Asfura, who Trump threw his support behind in last year's elections, was sworn into office.
Honduran officials have previously dismissed claims that Honduras cancelled the program under pressure from the Trump administration.
The Cuban brigade had been in Honduras since 2024, following the signing of a cooperation agreement between the leftist government of former Honduran President Xiomara Castro and her Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Samuel Santos, president of the Honduran Medical Association, said the Cuban doctors, nurses, electricians, and optometrists were paid between $1,600 and $2,500 a month, and were provided housing, paid vacation and plane tickets to Cuba.
"The agreement was suspended after considering what is in Honduras’ best interest, because this was not a solidarity medical brigade, but a business,” Samuel Santos, president of the Honduran Medical Association, told The Associated Press.
Santos said the work of the Cuban medical staff would be taken over by Honduran doctors and that their absence "does not affect the development of health care in Honduras in any way.”
While criticized, Cuban doctors have played an important role in rural areas of Latin America lacking basic medical infrastructure like the Amazon and parts of Central America.
Cuban Ambassador to Honduras Juan Loforte told reporters Wednesday that there had been a possibility of renewing the contract for Cuban medical teams to work in Honduras, but that the Cuban government had not spoken with Asfura since he was elected.
“This is a sovereign decision by the Honduran government; our doctors came because (Honduran authorities) said they were needed, but if they are no longer necessary, the government has every right to dispense with their services,” Loforte said.