Yahoo! July 10, 2000
Cuba, U.S. Olympic Panels Sign Pact
HAVANA, 9 (AP) - Cuba and the United States have agreed to improve sports relations, the first arrangement of this kind between the nations since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
The agreement was signed Saturday by the heads of the two Olympics committees - William Hybl of the United States and Jose Ramon Fernandez of Cuba.
Cuba's Prensa Latina news service said the accord is aimed at promoting training and competition while attempting to combat the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Hybl, who visited the island in 1991 for the Pan American Games, was in Cuba at the invitation of the country's sports authorities. He also met with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.
The United States will send nearly 600 athletes to the Sydney Olympics in September. Cuba will send about 250.
Cuban Defectors Fly To Sweden
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden 08 (AP) - Two Cuban doctors jailed for more than a month by Zimbabwean authorities after they sought political asylum have been released and flown to Sweden, officials and relatives said Saturday.
Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25, who defected from a Cuban medical mission in Zimbabwe, flew out of the Zimbabwean capital late Friday headed for Scandinavia, said Dominik Bartsch of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in neighboring Zambia.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed that immigration authorities had issued the pair temporary visas, but said they had no information about their present location and that the next step was up to them.
"The UNHCR has asked Sweden for assistance and the Swedish immigration service has granted them temporary visiting visas,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Helena Gustavsson said.
In interviews last month, the Cubans said they tried to seek political asylum, but were kidnapped by Zimbabwean security officers who, along with Cuban officials, tried to force them onto a plane to Cuba. After that attempt failed, U.N. officials intervened and demanded their release under
international law.
The two doctors were freed Wednesday and UNHCR kept them at a secret location until their departure, Bartsch said, adding that the two were in good health and high spirits.
``They were obviously very relieved. As far as we're concerned, the matter is now closed,'' he said. He said U.N. rules did not permit him to reveal the Cubans' final destination.
The doctors' whereabouts could not be confirmed Saturday afternoon, but relatives said they arrived in Stockholm on Friday.
In Havana, Cordova Rodriguez's wife, Rosalba Gonzalez, said her husband had called his mother Saturday morning from Stockholm to say he was fine.
Mina Fernandez, Pena Martinez's cousin in Miami, said that U.S. congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen had told her that Pena Martinez had arrived safely in Sweden on Friday.
From Sweden they would be able to go anywhere, including the United States, which offered to take the doctors shortly after Zimbabwe attempted to deport them.
Officials at the U.S. embassy in Stockholm said they were pleased the situation was resolved, but cited long-standing policy not to comment on cases that may eventually fall under the U.S. refugee program.
After the doctors sought asylum, both the Canadian and U.S. embassies referred them to the U.N.'s refugee agency, which helps asylum-seekers find countries who will accept them.
But after leaving a Zimbabwean refugee center to stay with a friend, the Cubans disappeared June 2, the same day of their hearing before a Zimbabwean asylum committee.
The doctors were flown to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Cuban diplomats and Zimbabwean security agents tried to force them aboard a Paris-bound Air France flight with a connection to Havana.
Air France crew members refused to allow the doctors to board after the pair wrote a note saying they were being ``kidnapped.'' South African authorities sent them back to Zimbabwe.
Cuba denounced the defectors, saying they betrayed the medical mission to aid Zimbabwe's health service, but denied any involvement in the kidnapping.
Mina Fernandez said she expects her cousin to join her in Miami within two months.
``They have to wait for some documents, but she is coming to live with me,'' Fernandez said in a phone interview from her bridal shop in Coral Gables, Florida.
Bartsch said the Zimbabwe government failed to explain why the two were detained through June to July 5 despite their refugee status under international rules.
Cuba Fights U.S. Migration Policies
HAVANA, 8 (AP) - Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday against American immigration policies as their government pressed the United States for detailed information about recent arrivals of Cuban migrants in South Florida.
Nearly 40,000 people attended the rally, led by Gen. Raul Castro, Cuba's Defense Minister and Fidel Castro's younger brother.
Although 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba on June 28 following a protracted custody fight between his father and their Miami relatives, the communist government has promised a rally in a different provincial city every Saturday. The idea is to draw attention to American migration and
other policies Havana considers unfair.
A primary target is the Cuban Adjustment Act, a 1966 law that allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to apply for permanent residency. Havana maintains the law encourages Cubans, such as Elian's late mother, to emigrate illegally to the United States.
Elian's mother and 10 others perished in the sea journey from Cuba when their boat sank off the coast of Florida.
``We will fight against the diabolical Cuban Adjustment Act until it is no more than an unhappy memory,'' student speaker Anabel Yanes said at the morning rally in the central town of Yaguajal, about 250 miles east of Havana.
Havana has told Washington it wants more ``precise information'' about the case of two boatloads of illegal migrants who landed last week in South Florida.
Cuba's Prensa Latina news service reported Friday night that the Foreign Ministry sent its request in a diplomatic note delivered to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the American mission here.
The first group was comprised of 25 people, including 10 children. It landed Wednesday in Marathon. All claimed to have been smuggled into the country.
The second group - 25 men, 11 women and seven children - was spotted at sea by authorities Thursday. Their 32-foot boat rammed the federal boat three times, the U.S. Border Patrol said. No agents were injured.
In that second case, two suspected smugglers jumped overboard and were picked up by the Coast Guard. The smugglers' boat ran aground near Islamorada and the Cuban migrants were apprehended.
The 68 migrants are likely to be allowed to stay in the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act because they made it to shore. Under 1994 and 1995 migration accords between Cuba and the United States, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriates virtually all Cubans picked up on the high sea.
The number of Cubans who attempt the sea journey always rises over the summer, when sea conditions are optimal for crossing the Florida Straits.
So far this year, 1,205 Cubans have entered the United States under the act.
Zimbabwe Releases Cuban Defectors
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden 08 (AP) - Two Cuban doctors who were held for more than a month by Zimbabwean authorities after seeking political asylum have been released, officials from the United Nations and the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.
Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25, who defected from a Cuban medical mission in Zimbabwe, flew out of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare late Friday headed for Scandinavia, said Dominic Bartsch of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in neighboring Zambia.
The two doctors were freed Wednesday and UNHCR kept them at a secret location until their departure, he said, adding that the two were in good health and high spirits.
``They were obviously very relieved. As far as we're concerned, the matter is now closed,'' he said.
He said U.N. rules did not permit him to reveal the Cubans' final destination.
It wasn't immediately clear where the physicians were, but The Miami Herald, citing unnamed sources, reported Saturday that the doctors were headed to Sweden. They had been granted a two-month tourist visa by the government there, the Herald reported.
``We understand that they have been released after negotiations between the UNHCR and the Zimbabwean officials,'' said Viktor Sidabras, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Stockholm.
From Sweden they would be able to go anywhere, including the United States, which offered to take the doctors shortly after Zimbabwe attempted to deport them.
After the doctors sought asylum, both the Canadian and U.S. embassies referred them to the U.N.'s refugee agency, which helps asylum-seekers find countries who will accept them.
But after leaving a Zimbabwean refugee center to stay with a friend, the Cubans disappeared June 2, the same day of their hearing before a Zimbabwean committee that hears asylum claims.
The doctors were flown to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Cuban diplomats and Zimbabwean security agents tried to force them aboard a Paris-bound Air France flight with a connection to Havana.
Air France crew members refused to board the doctors after the pair managed to write a note saying they were being ``kidnapped.'' South African authorities sent them back to Zimbabwe.
Cuba denounced the defectors, saying they betrayed the medical mission to aid Zimbabwe's health service, but denied any involvement in the kidnapping.
In Miami, Mina Fernandez, a cousin of Pena, said she expects the doctors to join her here within a week.
``I feel very emotional and happy because now she is finally coming to a free country,'' said Fernandez, owner of a bridal shop in Coral Gables, Fla.
Bartsch said the Zimbabwe government failed to explain why the two were detained through June to July 5 despite their refugee status under international rules.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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