Brazil: Cuban Doctor Seeks Asylum

A Cuban doctor working in Brazil sought asylum on Wednesday, complaining that Cuba’s communist government takes too big a slice of her pay, the authorities said. Ramona Rodríguez, 51, sought refuge on Tuesday in the office of a congressman. She is one of 7,378 Cubans who are in Brazil as part of a program that hires foreign doctors to tend the sick in slums and remote rural locations where there are no Brazilian doctors. Under an agreement signed last year with Cuba, the doctors get one-fifth of the $4,100 a month that Brazil pays each doctor in the program. The rest goes to the Cuban state. Ms. Rodríguez is the first Cuban doctor to defect since 5,378 started working in Brazil last year.