By DAVID CÁZARES The
Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 9:43 p.m. Jan. 9, 2001
Five years and seven months ago, Cuban government officials told David
Cohen that even though he had a visa to go to the Dominican Republic, they
wouldn't permit him to leave Cuba.
Ever since that day, on June 1, 1995, Cohen, 30, has anxiously waited for
the opportunity to slip off the island without the coveted exit permit, known as
a "white card."
That chance finally came on Sunday, when Cohen and nine other Cubans
hopped aboard a waiting speedboat and headed for South Florida, dodging and
outrunning the Cuban government boats that pursued them.
"A government speedboat followed us for about 10 miles but they
didn't fire," Cohen said. "They just shouted every type of insult."
Cohen, a doctor, was long part of a special class of frustrated Cubans
with visas from other countries, but no Cuban government permit to allow them to
leave the island. That is especially true for Cubans who obtain U.S. visas,
their relatives say.
Many have been fired from their jobs, according to U.S. officials, only
to find that the Cuban government will not let them legally leave the country.
Others cannot afford to pay about $850 in medical and administrative fees
required by Cuba. The Cuban government's policies have separated Cubans from
their families in the United States, according to New Generation Cuba, a group
David Cohen's brother José Cohen co-founded to reunite families.
José Cohen, who gathered information on potential investors for
the Cuban government, arrived by raft with his brother Isaac in 1994. Ever
since, he has fought to bring his own relatives, including David, to the United
States, contending that they are being forced to live in Cuba against their will
and without the right to work.
Their parents remain on the island, along with José Cohen's wife,
Lazara Brito, and their three children.
Since José Cohen left Cuba, Cuban officials have repeatedly
searched his wife's house and arrested her with no explanation or warrant, the
family said. Yanelis, the couple's oldest child, has been told she cannot attend
Cuba's schools.
Faced with the Cuban government's persistent denials, José and
Isaac Cohen said they knew there was only one option for their brother.
"My brother and I did everything possible to get him out of Cuba,"
José Cohen said, adding quickly that he couldn't detail how the trip was
arranged. "It's sad that a family that has a visa to leave legally has to
leave in a boat."
Of his preparations, David Cohen will only say that he went to an area
where boats frequently arrive and waited on the beach.
Although he has already obtained a work permit from the INS and is
virtually guaranteed U.S. residency after one year because of the Cuban
Adjustment Act, Cohen said he doesn't yet know what job immediately awaits him.
He said he hopes to become a doctor in Miami, particularly because he ability to
practice his profession in Cuba was limited.
Several years ago, Cohen said, he lost his job as a doctor in a military
clinic after a government doctor publicly ridiculed him for wearing a star of
David.
"It was a case of anti-Semitism," he said.
Cohen said he was transferred to a job as a family practitioner.
Now that he's in Miami, David Cohen, who is unmarried, he hopes to begin
the life he has long put on hold while trying to leave Cuba. He purposely
avoided settling down in Cuba because he didn't want to raise a family there.
"He didn't want to risk it," José Cohen said. "He
had already been punished by the regime."
David Cohen concedes that he has long been consumed by one goal. "I
always wanted to leave," he said.
Cohen is glad that he finally has, but like his brothers, he worries
about those he left behind.
"I feel good, but at the same time in agony to know that the rest of
my family is still in Cuba."
David Cázares can be reached at dcazares@sun-sentinel.com or
305-810-5012.
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