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FROM
CUBA
Well known doctor among those drowned trying
to flee Cuba
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, August 31 (Guillermo
Fariñas, Cubanacán Press /
www.cubanet.org) - One of 31 Cubans who
drowned last week while trying to join his
wife in the United States was a well-known
doctor, Pablo Ruiz Porra, who died on his
sixth attempt to flee the country.
Porra, 56, was an ear, eye and throat specialist
of such renown that the official newspaper,
Granma, mentioned his death. It did not
say, however, that the police had prevented
him on five previous occasions from embarking
for the United States.
He used to tell this reporter, who as a
young medical graduate used to work alongside
him, that he just wanted to join his wife,
who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. "The
slaves of the Castro empire are us, the
doctors," he once said.
Porra had a visa to emigrate to the United
States but the Cuban government would not
give him an exit visa.
He lived in Santa Clara and was on staff
of the Arnaldo Milián Castro Hospital.
However, his services were often requested
in other parts of Cuba.
There were only three survivors of the
boat carrying Porra that capsized 60 miles
off the Cuban coast.
Cuban President Fidel Castro said last
week on television that U.S. law which gives
residence to Cubans who reach land encouraged
them to leave the island.
Versión
original en español
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