In Cuba, the prostitution with foreigners in exchange for telephone recharges, affirmed the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MINREX) in its recent National Report on Prevention and Confrontation of Human Trafficking and Victim Protection in 2022.
“The incidence in Cuba of foreigners who interact with young women engaged in prostitution in exchange for gifts and telephone recharges persists, as well as the online promotion and sale of videos and images with sexual content, whose payment is made through bank transfers from abroad and interior of the country”, indicated the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
The phenomen is not new And that is why the Foreign Ministry recognizes the failure of the Cuban regime when it comes to eradicating a degrading form of sexual exploitation in exchange for compensation in kind, an indicator of the massive rates of poverty and social exclusion in Cuba.
Prostitution in exchange for telephone recharges is revealing of the high rates imposed on its users by the monopoly of ETECSAbelonging to the business conglomerate of the Cuban military (GAESA), as well as the negligible income received by Cuban minimum wage workers and pensioners, seven times lower than those computed by international organizations to define the levels of extreme poverty.
He report detected a significant decrease in this criminal activity on the island due to the incidence of COVID-19 and the epidemiological situation unleashed worldwide, which forced the closure of borders and caused a drastic decrease in tourism in Cuba.
“However, the criminal action focused on the recruitment of young women by foreign and Cuban businessmen, to provide services in bars and nightclubs in Russia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Cyprus, context in which 3 foreigners were followed up,” the document indicated.
In mid-July, three men were convicted of smuggling women from Cuba into the United States and make them work in strip clubs in the Houston, Texas area.
The United States Department of Justice reported that Rasiel Gutierrez Moreno (38 years), Hendry Jimenez Milanes (39) and Raphael Mendoza Labrada (29), were sentenced to 210, 120, and 34 months in federal prison, respectively.
“These human traffickers terrorized migrant women, using the clubs of striptease of Houston combined with psychological threats and sexual violence for his personal financial gain,” stated US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
The judge ordered Moreno to pay $451,298 in restitution to the victims, and Milanés to pay $359,108, the statement said.
“The victims came to the United States looking for a new life, they were especially vulnerable, and the defendants took advantage of that,” Hamdani said.
In the Conclusions of its recent report, MINREX underlined its “will to cooperate with all countries and international organizations, far from manipulating such a sensitive issue for political purposes.”
The United States government has repeatedly criticized the Cuban regime for not doing enough to eliminate human trafficking and keep its professionals working abroad under exploitative conditions, similar to forced labor.
“The sending of medical workers and other professionals abroad in conditions similar to forced labor demonstrates that Cuba is not doing enough to eliminate Human Trafficking”, indicated in July 2022 the embassy of that country in Havana in a tweet, in which it also shared a link to a report on these social conditions on the island.
Among other issues, the US government criticized the Cuban regime for not “having made significant efforts” in this area, beyond specific actions.
“However, during the reporting period, there was a government policy or pattern to profit from professional services export programs, with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in its overseas medical missions program,” it noted.
Bruno Rodriguez Parrillahead of MINREX, replied: “Your slander will not tarnish the exemplary work in preventing and combating this scourge or break our commitment to international medical cooperation.”
