Editorial. The Washington Post. Wednesday, June 28, 2000; Page A24
A MONTH AGO, Leonel Cordova Rodriguez and Noris Pena Martinez, two young Cuban doctors serving on a medical mission in Zimbabwe, sought political asylum at Canada's diplomatic mission. "We were sent here under the policies of Fidel Castro so that he can appear to the world as a good man. He
sent us here for his political goals," Dr. Cordova told a Zimbabwe newspaper. On June 2, while waiting to meet with representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, the pair were grabbed in a pre-dawn raid by Zimbabwean police and, with the connivance of Cuban diplomats in
Harare, packed off for Havana via Paris. This violation of international humanitarian law was thwarted during a Johannesburg stopover; Air France refused to board the two when they began loudly protesting their abduction. The doctors then slipped a note to an Air France crew member describing their
plight, which quickly became public. But South Africa inexplicably sent them back to Harare--where they are now in jail. Indeed, they were recently placed with common criminals--though Dr. Cordova was moved again after a prisoner threatened him with rape.
It's pretty obvious what's going on here. The defection of two Cuban health workers, not long after a similar attempt by three Cuban doctors assigned to Venezuela, embarrasses Fidel Castro. So Zimbabwe's own Marxist president, Robert Mugabe, is helping his old Cuban ally mitigate the damage. No
doubt the harsh treatment of Drs. Cordova and Pena is meant to send a message to any other Cuban doctors contemplating departure. But the disgrace in Zimbabwe proves Dr. Cordova's point: Cuba's vaunted program of medical aid is not a purely humanitarian exercise.
The Clinton administration has, appropriately, protested Zimbabwe's illegal conduct and offered the pair asylum in the United States. Mr. Castro retaliated by urging Mr. Mugabe, apparently successfully, not to release them to the United States--where their testimony might interfere with Mr.
Castro's continuing effort to reap propaganda benefits from the Elian Gonzalez case. Indeed, the doctors' plight is a reminder that the real source of family division in Cuba is a dictatorship that is driving more and more people into increasingly desperate attempts to get out. "We love you and
we miss you," Drs. Cordova and Pena wrote their families from jail. Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports that Dr. Cordova's wife and three children have been expelled from their home in Cuba.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
Cuban doctors vanish in Zimbabwe / Miami Herald
Jailed for seeking freedom / Miami Herald
U.N. Visits Two Cubans Detained in Zimbabwe / The Washington Post
Castro Calls Defection of Cuban Doctors 'Shameful' / CNS |