Defecting Cubans stranded in Colombia

At least 38 Cuban doctors who defected from a mission in Venezuela have been stranded for months in Colombia, where they have been refused refugee status as they await word on possible asylum in the United States, according to a relief organization.

The doctors are stranded despite a shift in U.S. policy, announced in August, that Cuban medical personnel working abroad would be allowed into the United States once routine background checks were made.

But most of the defecting doctors who reached Colombia have been waiting as long as six months for a response, according to an advocacy group in Miami and several doctors who spoke to The Associated Press. At least two have been rejected by U.S. officials.

Physician Jorge Toledo, 39, and his ophthalmologist wife Leticia Viamonte were notified on Dec. 27 that their request to enter the United States under the Cuban Medical Professional Parole program was denied.

The AP obtained a copy of the letter on the decision _ which can not be appealed _ that was signed by Barbara Strack, chief of the refugee affairs division at the Department of Homeland Security.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Bogota said he could not comment on specific asylum cases. And Colombia's Foreign Ministry did not return repeated phone calls and e-mails seeking comment about the Cubans' legal status.

Joanna Gonzalez, a Homeland Security spokeswoman in Washington, would also not comment on the Cuban doctors marooned in Colombia, but she said that any applicants under the program "must pass a background check" like any others wanting to enter the United States.

Julio Cesar Alfonso, president of the Miami-based relief organization Solidarity Without Borders, said his three-year-old organization has provided economic and legal assistance to 38 Cuban doctors trying to leave Colombia. He estimates the overall number of defected doctors here could exceed 100.

"There's no explanation for the delay _ these applications should've taken a maximum two or three months," said Alfonso, a Cuban-trained physician who himself immigrated to the United States seven years ago.

Cuban officials last year said they had 31,000 doctors serving in humanitarian missions in 68 countries around the world _ a major point of pride for the communist nation.

More than 20,000 are on loan to Venezuela and another 1,700 are based in Bolivia, whose leftist President Evo Morales is a frequent visitor to Havana.

Prior to the policy shift, which occurred two weeks after ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed power to his brother Raul, U.S. officials considered the doctors to be residents of the country where they defected _ which meant they were often expected to stay there.

More than 500 doctors are believed to have fled the two missions in recent years, most from Venezuela, Alfonso said.

Like Toledo and Viamonte, who live in a tiny apartment where even the plates and dish towels are on loan, the majority of asylum-seeking Cuban doctors are living in precarious tenements because they are unable to work in Colombia without refugee status.

The couple said they applied for refugee status at the U.S. Embassy on Aug. 11, the same day the new program was announced in Washington. Only one of eight other doctors who applied the same day has so far been granted entry to the U.S., they said.

Toledo and Viamonte said they sneaked into Colombia in December 2005, switching taxis five times while driving from town to town and slipping across the border from Venezuela at night.

A friend later smuggled out of Cuba their university diplomas and other government records accrediting them as doctors.

Toledo and Viamonte were assigned to Venezuela in mid-2003 as part of the Miracle Mission in which Cuba and Venezuela have provided free eye surgery to more than 375,000 poor Latin Americans.

The couple said they were forced to work seven days a week for little pay in the countryside near Caracas, and their relations with Venezuelans were tightly controlled.

"We couldn't call our families or go out after 5 p.m. The Venezuelan national guard and Cuban authorities watched our every move," Viamonte said. "We never planned on abandoning our duty, but we got tired of being treated like slaves."

The couple planned their escape over a year, even keeping their plans secret from their 12-year old son, who lives with Viamonte's parents, when they returned to Cuba for a vacation in July 2005.

Alfonso said Colombia's government _ Washington's closest ally in Latin America _ has so far only given the Cuban doctors a pass of safe-conduct that is renewable every three months.

Toledo and Viamonte say they live in fear of being deported to Cuba.

"We didn't ask for this law _ we thought it was a miracle when this program was announced because it was so explicit and clear," said Toledo, fighting back tears and anger. "Not even for a second did we think we or anyone else would be turned back."