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U.S Secretary Talks Cuban Docs, Trade And Crime During Jamaica Visit

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – In a landmark visit, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Kingston to discuss regional matters.

Published

3 days ago

March 26, 2025

Italia Hall

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – In a landmark visit, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Kingston to discuss regional matters.

This visit marks the first by a high-ranking member of President Trump’s cabinet to the Caribbean since the administration’s commencement in January 2025.

The U.S. Secretary of State noted that Jamaica is a great partner with the U.S.

Among the topics discussed were means to attract increased U.S. investment into Jamaica’s emerging sectors, trade, immigration policies, security, crime, and gangs.

Andrew Holness – Prime Minister, Jamaica

“Our travel advisory, we discussed significant progress that we making in bringing down all major crimes, and Jamaica is safer than anytime in the last two decades. In fact, crimes against visitors represent less than 0.01 percent of the more than 3 million visitors to Jamaica annually.”

The U.S. assertion that Cuban medical professionals in the Caribbean are subjected to human trafficking was a question raised by a reporter.

Now, Prime Minister Philip Davis has previously stated that Cuban medical professionals in The Bahamas are working under legal and fair conditions.

Marco Rubio – U.S. Secretary of State

“There are places that have better labor standards. Perhaps Jamaica is one of those, and that’s fine, but I’m describing generally what the program has been. It has operated in that way in many parts of the world and placed these people in tremendous danger. And so we, I think we can all agree that the trafficking and labor, be they doctors or farm workers, is not something that we would want to be supportive of, and we find that to be an egregious practice on the part of the Cuban regime.

Now, every country operates the program differently, and obviously, because of our relationship with Jamaica, we’re going to engage with them on that and talk about it further and have a better understanding.

Perhaps none of this applies in the way it’s handled here, but generally, that’s the problem with the program. It’s not that they’re Cuban doctors. It’s that the regime does not pay these doctors, takes away their passports, and basically, it is in many ways forced labor.”

The leaders also addressed the Haitian migration crisis.

Andrew Holness – Prime Minister, Jamaica

“I think we’re at a phase in Haiti where there has to be a rapid expansion of the Haitian National Police, the HMP, in terms of the manpower and resources, because ultimately, the HMP has to take on the gangs. Their present holding situation that we have is not necessarily moving the situation forward as we would all like. So there will have to be a significant expansion in resources in support of the HLP to enable them to take on the gangs.”