Editorials. Punchlines. Published Wednesday, July 5, 2000, in the Miami Herald
It is past time now that the world stops praising Zimbabwe's strongman president, Robert Mugabe, for allowing relatively fair elections to take place last month and to grab him by the lapels to demand that he honor the request for political asylum from two Cuban doctors who tried to defect
nearly a month ago.
The doctors -- Leonel Córdova Rodríguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martínez, 25 -- have been held in various prison and detention facilities near Harare, the capital of this central African nation, while President Mugabe dithers over their fate. They aren't criminals;
they're freedom seekers.
Until 10 days ago the Mugabe government said it was too busy campaigning for parliamentary seats to tend to the case. That excuse no longer holds. Mr. Mugabe's inaction can only be attributed to his friendship with Fidel Castro, who publicly demanded that they not be granted their request for
asylum in the United States. Castro remains complicit in Zimbabwe's botched attempt to kidnap the two doctors and force them onto a plane back to Cuba last month. Only the doctors' wit in passing a note to an Air France employee thwarted that kidnapping.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has failed so far to win the doctors' release. It's time for that agency -- with a strong and vocal assist from human rights groups and others -- to kick the issue up the ladder to the desk of Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |