DR HILDA MOLINA AND THE VISIT OF ARGENTINE

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000016 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2014 TAGS: AR CU PHUM PREL SUBJECT: DR HILDA MOLINA AND THE VISIT OF ARGENTINE PRESIDENT FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER REF: BUENOS AIRES 25 Classified By: COM Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Though she would dearly like to travel to Argentina to visit her family, Dr Hilda Molina says she has little real hope that anything will come out of the upcoming visit to Cuba of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK). End Summary. ¶2. (C) Dissident neurosurgeon Dr Hilda Molina told PolEcon chief she plans to keep pushing for permission to travel to Argentina to visit her family, even though she holds out little hope of that happening. Having joined a special pantheon of enemies of the revolution (together with Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez and a Brazilian salsa singer) by being cited by former president Fidel Castro last year in the forward to a book called "Fidel, Bolivia, and Something More," Molina believes she will not get an exit permit as long as Fidel lives. Nevertheless, she said she greatly desires to see her son again (she has not seen him since he left Cuba for a conference in Japan in 1994, and at her request did not return),and her grandchildren for the first time. She also would like to see her mother, Hilda Morejon, for whom she had been caring for several years until the latter received permission to travel in June of 2008. Consistent with her comments to the media, she stressed that she has no desire or intent to go to Argentina as a dissident or an immigrant, but simply as a tourist visiting family temporarily. ¶3. (C) Over the past two years Molina had become a virtual recluse while caring for her ailing mother, but she has begun to move about and become more involved in dissident activities. With the help of the Argentine NGO CADAL she has set up a blog (hildamolina.blogspot.com),which she accesses using USINT's internet center. She plans to use the blog as a vehicle to publish her essays on issues such as deficiencies in the vaunted Cuban health system. Though she is definitely persona non grata in the hierarchy of the official Cuban health system, she says she still has extensive contacts with practicing doctors who provide her with current insights into the problems facing the Cuban health profession and its long-suffering patients. She also accompanied fellow dissident Vladimiro Roca to the Argentine Embassy where they presented separate letters addressed to President Fernandez de Kirchner. Molina's letter was devoted to her desire to visit her family and requested CFK's assistance in convincing the GOC to grant her an exit permit (tarjeta blanca). Roca delivered a letter from the dissident umbrella organization Agenda para la Transicion requesting that CFK meet with some of its members during her visit. ¶4. (C) While sticking to a public line emphasizing her desire simply to be a grandmother and visit her family, which she hopes will play well with the public in Argentina, Molina acknowledges that she does not mind causing difficulties for the Cuban government and its relations with Argentina in the process. With the scheduled visit of President Fernandez de Kirchner focusing greater public attention on her request to travel, she is concerned, however, that her insistence may cause domestic political problems for the Kirchners too, which in turn could in some way threaten her son and his family in Argentina. Nevertheless, that concern has not induced her to back down. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: The GOC has no interest in letting Dr. Molina travel, and it is almost unthinkable that they would agree to such a request from the Argentine president even if one were forthcoming. It is worth noting that, while Dr. Molina's campaign has generated considerable interest in the international press, ordinary Cubans have no idea that a visit by President Fernandez de Kirchner is even in the works. The Cuban official press, which is all that is available to most Cubans, is discussing only the just completed visits of Panamanian President Torrijos, Ecuadorian President Correa, and a special envoy from Iran. Any media coverage of a CFK visit locally will come only after it has been successfully completed (in Cuban eyes at any rate),and it will most definitely not include any mention of Hilda Molina. FARRAR