Yahoo! August 9, 2000
Cuban Doctors Happy To Be in Miami
By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI (AP) - Two Cuban doctors said Tuesday that they were subjected to grueling conditions when they were jailed for more than a month in Zimbabwe after declaring their intention to defect.
Far from the squalor of southern Africa, in a banquet hall called "The Refuge,'' Leonel Cordova Rodriguez and Noris Pena Martinez told a gathering of jubilant Cuban-Americans and local politicians that they were grateful to be in the United States.
"The jail was very rough,'' Cordova Rodriguez said. "There were 10, 12 people sharing one cell, and they tried to make our lives as miserable as they could. We were afraid for our lives''
After leaving Zimbabwe, they spent two weeks in Sweden on temporary visas until departing Stockholm Monday for a 20-hour journey to Miami.
"We're tired,'' said Cordova Rodriguez. "But happy.''
The doctors said their families may be subject to suffering at the hands of the Cuban government for their defection, Pena Martinez said.
Pena Martinez's father, on another Cuban medical mission, has been sequestered, she said. Cordova Rodriguez said his wife and two children were "taken from their home and told to move.''
The pair detailed how a doctor's life in Cuba differs from that of American doctors. Cordova Rodriguez said his monthly pay was equivalent to $26 to go with a $50-a-month stipend.
Pena Martinez, a dentist, and Cordova Rodriguez, a physician, are hoping to find work as assistants in their fields. Both plan to go through the lengthy process of getting their Cuban degrees revalidated in the United States.
"The first thing we're going to do is try to get our families back from Cuba, where they're not safe,'' said Cordova Rodriguez. "The next thing is we want to develop our professions.''
Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Pena Martinez, 25, were in Zimbabwe on a medical mission when they sought refuge at the Canadian and U.S. embassies in Harare, which referred them to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. But the Cubans disappeared June 2.
The doctors accused Zimbabwean security officers of kidnapping them and helping Cuban diplomats force them on a flight to Havana. Air France refused to let them board during a stopover in South Africa after the doctors slipped a note to a crew member saying they were kidnap victims.
The doctors were returned to Zimbabwe and jailed, while the U.N. refugee agency demanded their release under international law. The pair arrived in Stockholm on July 8 after the U.N. commission negotiated their release.
Cuba said the doctors betrayed the medical mission to aid Zimbabwe's health service but denied any involvement in the alleged kidnapping.
Cuban Defection Doesn't Sour Castro
HAVANA, 8 (AP) - The defection of two Cuban doctors in Zimbabwe hasn't soured President Fidel Castro on a program to send medical workers to developing countries, state media said Tuesday.
Castro called Cuba's international doctors program "a revolution in the medical field'' when he met Monday night with about 70 workers returning from Gambia, the Communist Party daily Granma said.
The program sends hundreds of doctors annually to Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
The two Cuban doctors who defected while working at a mission in Zimbabwe - Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25 - flew to the United States on Monday, where they have been granted political refugee status.
The doctors were in Zimbabwe tried to defect in Harare, Zimbabwe, then disappeared June 2, the day of their hearing before a Zimbabwean asylum committee.
The doctors accused Zimbabwean security officers of kidnapping them and helping Cuban diplomats force them on a flight to Havana. Air France refused to let them board during a stopover in South Africa after the doctors slipped a note to a crew member saying they were kidnap victims.
The pair sought temporary refuge in Sweden until the United States approved their refugee status.
Cuba said the doctors betrayed the medical mission to aid Zimbabwe's health service but denied any involvement in the alleged kidnapping.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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