Guillermo I. Martinez | Columnist
January 3, 2008
In this holiday season, South Floridians have read about numerous
defectors from Cuba. Three abandoned the Cuban National Ballet in
Canada, where a few days earlier one of Cuba's most famous television
personalities did the same with his family. We have seen acrobats leave
the Cuban circus, and musicians and artists seek political asylum.
There are so many, and it appears to be so easy.
Yet half a world away in Timor-Leste, a country of less than a million
people, on an island off the coast of Indonesia, three Cuban doctors
have been in hiding for two months. They have been investigated by the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security and have parolee visas to come to
the United States. But the government of Timor-Leste have not given them
permission to leave.
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In effect, Miriela Llanes Martínez, Reidén López Carrillo and Irina
Valdés are in limbo, with the possibility of capture by government
authorities and deportation back to Cuba.
Their story is told by another Cuban doctor, Boris Rodríguez, who lived
the Timor-Leste experience and was fortunate to get out before officials
decided to make it difficult for others to leave. Rodríguez is one of
three who was able to abandon Timor-Leste and enter the United States
under an August 2006 law that grants visas to Cuban doctors working in
third countries who want to defect.
Rodríguez knows the three doctors in Timor-Leste well. They arrived
there together on Dec. 29, 2005. They were part of a brigade of 200
Cuban doctors who were to serve in that country for two years. For their
work, the Cuban government paid them $200 monthly, and Timor-Leste gave
them $45.50 to pay for gas and water. They all worked in the emergency
room of the hospital in Dili, the nation's capital.
"Conditions were horrible," Rodríguez explained. "For 14 months we had
no electricity. Sanitary conditions were no better. Several of the
doctors in service returned to Cuba after repeatedly coming down with
malaria and dengue fever."
Rodríguez said that when he decided to defect, things were much easier
for him. He went to the U.S. embassy, where "in seven minutes" someone
was helping fill the paperwork needed. Seven days later, his parolee
visa was approved.
The difficult part was getting permission to leave the country. When the
doctors landed in Timor-Leste, the Cuban government took away their
passports. So in order to leave, he had to get permission from both
governments.
After days of haggling, Cuban officials agreed to give him his passport
and an airplane ticket in case he wanted to return to Cuba, and
Timor-Leste's officials gave him permission to leave their country.
Still, to make certain that he encountered no problems, U.S. officials
accompanied him on the first leg of his trip to Australia, and another
official then made sure he was on the plane from Melbourne to Los Angeles.
His friends have not been as lucky. U.S. officials have done all they
can. The three doctors have legal visas to enter the United States. What
they lack are the papers to leave Timor-Leste.
This has been going on for two months. Humanitarian organizations have
tried to intercede by talking to his government officials in Dili.
Government officials say they have a difficult situation. Cuba has 200
doctors in Timor-Leste, and they have 300 students in Cuba studying
medicine. They are not willing to risk the program to help three defectors.
At the same time, Timor-Leste does not want to hinder relations with the
United States. And this, Rodríguez says, may explain why his friends
have not been captured. But there are no guarantees.
This week, a Cuban government official in Mozambique defected and is
seeking political asylum in Madrid, Spain. He had to leave when other
embassy officials learned that he had helped a Cuban doctor in that
African nation defect and leave the country.
In Miami, Reinier López speaks by telephone often to his brother Raiden
in Timor-Leste. He says the conversations make him very sad. "He tells
me how desperate they are," Reinier said. "It has been two months since
they went into hiding, and they still do not see any possibility of
leaving the country."
Their only hope is that international humanitarian organizations will
intercede on their behalf. If not, sooner or later, a rather unpleasant
forced return trip to Cuba awaits them.
This case shows that appearances can be deceiving. Defecting from Cuba
is often difficult and risky, in a myriad of ways.
Guillermo I. Martínez resides in South Florida. His e-mail address is:
Guimar123@gmail.com.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-gmcol03sbjan03,0,6329778.column
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