By Vanessa Bauzá Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 11:34 p.m. Aug. 8, 2000
MIAMI -- Asked how he spent his first day in Miami, Leonel Córdova Rodriguez didn't skip a beat: "Breathing freedom," he said in English.
Córdova and Noris Peña Martínez, the two Cuban doctors who arrived in Miami on Monday night after defecting in Zimbabwe, roundly denounced Cuba's health-care system and blasted medical missions such as the one they were on as mere propaganda for Cuban President Fidel
Castro.
Now that they have been granted refugee status, both doctors vowed to turn their attention to bringing their families to the United States, they said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Praising their courage, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo presented Peña and Córdova with the keys to the city "on behalf of all the freedom-loving residents of Miami."
The doctors described their two months on a medical mission in remote hospitals of Zimbabwe as a farce. They said they were not allowed to treat patients.
Their only purpose there, they said, was to support Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe, a former leading Marxist, who counts Castro among his closest political allies.
"According to Fidel Castro, the reason for sending doctors outside the country is to help the neediest people," Peña said. "Mugabe only wanted us to promote his policies."
Peña and Córdova said they did not have the necessary permits to work as doctors in Zimbabwe.
"I didn't touch a single patient," Córdova added. "We were not allowed to."
The doctors 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 kidnapped.
They spent a month in jail in Zimbabwe, where they described the conditions as "miserable." The pair then sought, and got, temporary refuge in Sweden until the United States approved their refugee status.
After he declared his intent to defect, Córdova said his wife, 3-year-old daughter and 10-year-old stepson were evicted from their home on the second floor of the medical office where Córdova once worked in Cuba.
"They were immediately told they had to leave, it didn't matter where," he said.
Córdova said he fears for their safety as long as they remain in Cuba.
Peña said her parents, who are both doctors, may not be allowed to leave Cuba despite being granted two of the 20,000 visas the U.S. government randomly grants in Cuba every year.
"Like my parents, there are many doctors who are prevented from leaving for 5 or 6 years," she said.
"It is not fair that a doctor who has sacrificed so much and saved lives does not have the opportunity for freedom," she said.
The Cuban government had denied rejecting doctors' requests to leave the country.
The government sends hundreds of doctors annually to Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
The defection of the two doctors hasn't soured Castro on the missions, state media said Tuesday. Castro called them "a revolution in the medical field" when he met Monday night with about 70 workers returning from Gambia, the Communist Party daily Granma said.
Sun-Sentinel wire services contributed to this report.
Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at vbauza@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.
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