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Monday, November 21, 2005

Asylum-seeking Cuban doctor claims TT$

Asylum-seeking Cuban doctor claims TT$
Louis B Homer South Bureau
Monday, November 21st 2005

The Cuban medical doctor who fled Trinidad three weeks ago to the United States has contacted the Ministry of Health in Port of Spain for outstanding money owed to her.
Dr Alina Valbivia-Garcia was hired by the Ministry on a government to government arrangement with Cuba.
She is now based in Miami under the protective custody of a group of Cubans who are opposed to the Castro regime.
Now she is asking the Ministry to settle the balance of money due to her without advising the Cuban embassy about her whereabouts.
Valbivia- Garcia is claiming some $20,000 for vacation and other benefits for working in Trinidad.
A source at the ministry confirmed that Valbivia- Garcia had communicated with the ministry and her claim was being examined in the light of her contract.
"Yes she has communicated with us and she has promised to speak to us in a few days,"said the source.
Valbivia-Garcia is the second Cuban medical officer to have fled Trinidad and sought asylum in Miami..
Last year nurse Jannet Eve Perez-Cardinas disappeared from the flat she occupied in Port of Spain and illegally went to the US where she was given asylum.
Valbivia-Garcia, 40, used an unusual technique to get out of Trinidad, without the knowledge of the Cuban authorities and it worked.
There are now 70 Cuban nationals working with the Ministry of Health either as nurses or as doctors.
Valbivia-Garcia while in Trinidad had developed a romance, through the internet, with a male Cuban national based in New York. He encouraged her to go to the US and seek refugee status against the Castro regime.
The Daily Express learned that after several weeks of communicating on the internet, her male partner came to Trinidad to finalise arrangements for her to flee to the States.
 

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