Cuban doctors stranded in Colombia stage protest for U.S. visas

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
As many as 100 Cuban doctors were forced to abandon a medical mission in Venezuela because of alleged untenable conditions. As a result, they fled to Colombia where conditions were more bearable, but still not ideal and are now seeking urgent assistance from the United States by staging a protest to draw attention to their dilemma in order to gain entry visas to that country.
The doctors say they fear the delays in processing their visa applications under a 2006 program aimed at luring Cuba’s medical talent could be an omen that President Barack Obama could be seeking to end the incentive as part of his campaign to stabilize relations with Cuba.
Outfitted in white doctor’s coats and wielding their diplomas, the Cuban medical workers assembled in a plaza in Kennedy, which is a working-class neighbourhood built in the 1960s. Some of the doctors explained how widespread shortages and mistreatment in Venezuela is leading many to sneak across the border pursuing a new start in the United States. Though they say conditions in Colombia are better, the cost of living is higher and many say they’ve had to borrow money from strangers and survive on minimal food each day.
A 25-year-old dentist, Ailen Garcia, said she fled to Colombia expecting to get a visa to enter the U.S. in a matter of weeks. Instead, she and her spouse have been waiting more than six months for a reply. In the interim, they are renting a small room in a working-class neighbourhood of Bogota for $200 a month, while preparing for the birth of their first child in a few months. She stressed: “I’m worried about my baby. Where am I going to give birth and in what conditions? We’re in a state of limbo: without work, with little money and time running out.”
Colombia’s immigration authority said that 117 doctors are currently in the country processing visa requests with the U.S. A total of 720 have arrived this year; however, 603 have been deported because they exceeded the 90-day safe-conduct granted by Colombian authorities so they could be granted a U.S. visa.
More than 50,000 Cuban health care professionals are working in some 66 nations as part of an international outreach program which was started in the 1960s.