Costa Rica.Doubts Cuban Exile's Claim That Fidel Castro Is in Poor Health LADB Staff

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9-3-1998 Costa Rica.Doubts Cuban Exile's Claim that Fidel Castro is in Poor Health LADB Staff

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Recommended Citation LADB Staff. "Costa Rica.Doubts Cuban Exile's Claim that Fidel Castro is in Poor Health." (1998). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ noticen/8456

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in NotiCen by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 54617 ISSN: 1089-1560 Costa Rica.Doubts Cuban Exile's Claim that Fidel Castro is in Poor Health by LADB Staff Category/Department: Costa Rica Published: 1998-09-03

The Costa Rican government said it will deny political asylum to a Cuban woman who claimed she was part of a medical team treating Cuban President Fidel Castro for a potentially fatal brain condition. Authorities in Costa Rica ordered her to submit to a psychiatric examination and may charge her with perjury. Elizabeth Trujillo Izquierdo told the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald that she was a surgeon at Havana's Center for Medical and Surgical Research (CIMEQ) last year when Castro was admitted with symptoms of hypertensive encephalopathy, a traumatic rise in blood pressure that can lead to stroke or death in severe cases.

According to Trujillo, doctors sedated Castro nearly into a comatose state to avert a stroke. She also told the newspaper that she defected from Cuba in April and had been in hiding since Cuban agents tried to kidnap her in June. Castro gives speech in Vatican while supposedly comatose However, inconsistencies in her story led the US and Costa Rican governments to dismiss her claims. US authorities noted that, at the time Trujillo said Castro was in a near- comatose state, he met with Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls for six hours in preparation for the upcoming visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul II (see NotiCen, 01/29/98).

The following day, Castro delivered a five-hour speech. When asked how Castro could function while seriously ill, Trujillo said, "It would be best if you asked Castro's bedside doctor about that." Trujillo is seeking political asylum in Costa Rica and said the Costa Rican government has offered its protection. However, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Rojas said Trujillo at present "cannot receive political asylum." Trujillo's former husband, a Cuban-born doctor working in Colombia, said Trujillo has a history of fabricating stories.

Felix Ochoa said he ended his marriage to Trujillo last year because of her "strange behavior." Ochoa said his former wife was living in Costa Rica at the time she claimed to be working at CIMEQ and that she is neither a doctor nor a nurse. "She never worked at that clinic," Ochoa said. "She studied a few months at a nursing school but didn't graduate. I met her when she worked as a secretary for a paper company in Havana." Other former acquaintances have come forward to say that Trujillo is not a doctor and that she is unreliable.

A psychiatric examination of Trujillo has been completed, and Costa Rican authorities say they will continue to interview people Trujillo said could vouch for her story. Maria Isabel Hernandez, spokeswoman for the Costa Rican judiciary, said that if Trujillo is lying, she will be charged with perjury.

For his part, Castro has denied any illness and Trujillo's claim that he has known her since her childhood. "Every once in a while, they kill me off," Castro said. "The day I die, no one will believe

©2011 The University of New Mexico, Latin American & Iberian Institute All rights reserved. Page 1 of 2 LADB Article Id: 54617 ISSN: 1089-1560 it." [Sources: The Associated Press, 07/19/98; Agence France Presse, 07/27/98; El Nuevo Herald (Miami), 07/19/98, 08/01/98; Notimex, 07/27/98, 08/03/98, 08/17/98]

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