Cuban doctors fleeing Venezuela find themselves in limbo

Working in Venezuela, a country where they often had to wait in line for hours to buy food, even small gestures were welcome. So Félix Pérez, his daughter and two colleagues — all Cuban health workers sent there as part of the island’s foreign-aid program — jumped at the chance when they were invited to a neighbor’s house for lunch. Later that day, however, their supervisors accused them of breaking bread with a member of Venezuela’s opposition. “They took away our cellphones and our passports — they essentially took everything so we wouldn’t be able to communicate,” recalls Pérez, a 50-year-old rehabilitation specialist. “We knew they were going to end our mission and send us back to Cuba, so we decided to flee to Colombia.”More…