VZCZCXRO0728
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHGE #0324/01 0892056
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 302056Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4984
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GEORGETOWN 000324 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
CA/VO/F/P - PETE MARIGLIANO 
DHS - DONNA PETREE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PHUM CVIS PREL SMIG CU GY
SUBJECT: Cuban Doctors Fearful in Guyana 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Post has interviewed six applicants for 
significant public benefit parole (SPBP) under the Cuban Medical 
Personnel program.  Five came to Guyana as conscripted members of 
the Cuban medical brigade.  As they await a decision on their 
applications, some of these doctors fear that Cuban Embassy 
officials or Guyanese police will find them to deport them back to 
Cuba.  One is already experiencing repercussions and informed the 
ConOff of recent changes to the medical brigade program as a direct 
result of the SPBP program.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Embassy Georgetown Consular Officers have interviewed six 
Cuban doctors who applied for significant public benefit parole 
(SPBP) under the Cuban Medical Personnel program.  Of the six 
applicants, one doctor has been granted parole and departed for the 
U.S.  Two have legal status in Guyana (one married a Guyanese woman, 
another came to Guyana independently).  The three remaining 
applicants completed the medical brigade program and remained in 
Guyana without legal status.  These "illegals" fear that Cuban 
Embassy officials or Guyanese police will find them to deport them 
back to Cuba. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The most recent applicant speculates that someone must have 
informed the Cuban authorities he visited the U.S. Embassy to 
request parole.  The Cuban Embassy assigned him to accompany an 
"ill" Cuban doctor that had to return to Cuba.  The applicant 
refused to board the plane because of a hunch that he was being 
tricked into repatriating himself.  Subsequently, Cuban Embassy 
authorities told him that his passport would be canceled 
immediately.  They also removed him from the medical brigade and 
labeled him a deserter. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The most recent applicant also informed ConOff of recent 
changes to the medical brigade program as a direct result of the 
SPBP program.  He stated that the Cuban Medical Brigade program sent 
a new manager to Guyana in December 2006 whose mandate is to crack 
down on Cuban medical personnel that have intentions to request 
parole or flee Guyana.  Cuban medical personnel who apply for parole 
are ostracized.  Any Cuban medical professional who maintains 
communication with parole applicants is at risk of losing his/her 
legal status in Guyana and job with the medical brigade. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Cuban doctor who was approved for parole was hesitant 
to travel because he feared for the safety of his female colleagues 
whose applications are still pending.  Three of the pending 
applicants are in hiding, reporting that they cannot move freely for 
fear that Guyanese police or Cuban embassy personnel may apprehend 
them and repatriate them to Cuba.  All of the parole applicants 
expect their families in Cuba to be targeted for reprisals because 
of their failure to return to Cuba after the completion of their 
mission. 
 
¶6. (SBU) During their interviews, three of the Cuban applicants 
explained to the ConOff that upon arrival in Guyana, medical 
personnel are forced to surrender their passports to the Cuban 
Embassy.  Their passports are returned to them just as they are 
about to board the plane to return to Cuba after completing their 
two years of service.  The applicants that came to the Embassy with 
their passports risked arrest by fleeing from the airport rather 
than returning to Cuba.  They reported that "official-looking" 
people chased them as they ran to a taxi and drove away from the 
airport.  They went into hiding until they felt safe enough to come 
to the U.S. Embassy to file an application for parole. 
¶7. (U) Cuban medical personnel have meager funds available on which 
to subsist.  They receive very low wages compared to their Guyanese 
counterparts, and their contracts require them to relinquish fifty 
percent of any overtime pay to the Central Unit for Medical 
Cooperation (UCCM) in Havana.  The Cuban doctor's monthly salary is 
equivalent to US$500 from which US$100 is deducted on a monthly 
basis and contractually remitted back to the UCCM.  Overtime is 
accumulated at the rate of US$1.25 per hour, and doctors on the 
overnight shift make US$2.50 per night.  In comparison, Guyanese 
doctors typically make US$1,500 per month.  The final renewal of the 
doctor's visas is done six months prior to the conclusion of their 
medical mission so that the termination of their legal status will 
coincide with their repatriation to Cuba. 
 
¶8. (U) Applicants regularly call consular section for a status 
update on their parole applications.  Post is unable to offer them 
much information other than that they must wait until DHS renders a 
decision.  Local charities can offer very little assistance to 
political refugees.  Moreover, every time the applicants have to 
leave their hiding place to ask for assistance, they risk detention 
and deportation because of their lack of status.  Presently, they 
rely on the assistance that some former colleagues are willing to 
give them at much risk to their own status. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT:  Cuban applicants for SPBP tell us the only reason 
Post does not receive many more parole applications is that 
 
GEORGETOWN 00000324  002 OF 002 
 
 
applicants are terrified of being seen entering the U.S. Embassy. 
ConOffs sense that Cuban medical personnel are willing to take the 
risk of requesting parole; however once they do, they are faced with 
months of delay and uncertainty.  Since many applicants are 
requesting parole after they have completed the medical mission, 
they are no longer legally employed and unable to subsist on their 
meager savings while awaiting a decision from DHS that can take 
months to process.  END COMMENT. 
 
ROBINSON