In 2006, The Bahamas received a blunt message, which was published in the Miami Herald newspaper.
The Bahamas was not too subtly asked to consider several factors when deciding between Cuba and the United States. “With one neighbor the Bahamas shares a common language, heritage, culture, destiny, economic interests and, most important, democratic values. With the other, it shares little more than close proximity in a vast ocean. From where we sit, the choice should be an easy one. But the Bahamas must make its own decision. We hope the lessons that this story teaches haven’t been lost—again.”
The Miami Herald’s opinion piece was in reference to an incident involving two Cuban dentists caught in a turbulent situation between their native country and the one they yearned to move to. Little island nation Bahamas, found itself caught in the middle.
In April 2005, two Cuban dentists were detained in the Bahamas after they attempted to flee Cuba. This incident occurred in the context of the ongoing Cuban medical missions abroad program, which sends healthcare professionals to various countries.
Dentists David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darius-Mesa and 16 other Cuban nationals, were attempting to flee Cuba, when the engine of their boat stalled out in Bahamian waters.
They were picked up by United States Coast Guard officials and handed over to Bahamian authorities who, as was protocol, brought them to Nassau for immigration processing. The group were detained at the Carmichael Road detention centre in Nassau.
By February 2006, almost a year later, David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darius-Mesa were still being held at the Carmichael Road detention centre.
Mejias and Mesa’s situation was not a straightforward case of illegal migration.
Three years prior, David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darius-Mesa had managed to secure permission to emigrate to the United States. They had been granted visas enabling them to join their families in Florida. Cuban officials however had refused them exit visas. Without permission to leave, they had no way of legally emigrating out of Cuba.
As time passed, their visa permits to enter the United States expired. A certain desperation had set in.
Cuba, for many years, at that time, had refused exit visas for health professionals who otherwise could migrate legally to the United States.
It is the first major retreat in Cuba’s policy of allowing unrestricted travel for its citizens, put in place in 2013 as President Raul Castro allowed new freedoms as part of a broad set of social and economic reforms.”
https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/01/cuba-doctors-travel-permit/
Bahamas threatened with sanctions
This case highlighted the complex issues surrounding Cuban medical missions, including allegations about working conditions, restrictions on freedom of movement, and the percentage of wages retained by the Cuban government. The detention also raised questions about the Bahamas’ immigration policies and its relationship with both Cuba and the United States.
Under a then treaty between Cuba and The Bahamas regarding repatriation of Cuban citizens, it gave Cuba 15 days to decide whether to demand return of any of their citizens detained in Bahamian territory.
In this case, both Cuba and the United States were claiming rights to David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darius-Mesa. Their families had been waiting for years and wanted them in the United States. Cuba said these were their doctors and wanted them back.
By February 2006, some ten months after it all began, the optics of this ongoing saga could not have been worse. The Bahamas government was being accused of stonewalling, illegal detention, callous indifference and abuses in the detention centre which made front page headlines across the world.
Perhaps, the most significant accusation was to be strongly asserted that The Bahamas was forgetting who their real friends were.
“The fact is that the Bahamas are trying to juggle the competing and conflicting interests of its colossal neighbor with those of a smaller neighbor burdened by a failed socialist experiment. With one neighbor the Bahamas shares a common language, heritage, culture, destiny, economic interests and, most important, democratic values. With the other, it shares little more than close proximity in a vast ocean. From where we sit, the choice should be an easy one. But the Bahamas must make its own decision. We hope the lessons that this story teaches haven’t been lost—again.”
Bahamian officials claimed that after extensively reviewing the case, they found no reason why the dentists should not be returned back to Cuba. Officials said they found no evidence that their claim of persecution, should they be returned, was a credible one. Bahamians officials used a report from the United Nations High Commission to bolster their determination.
Accessed Friday 14th March 2025
The incident received attention from human rights organizations concerned about the treatment of the dentists and their right to seek asylum. The ultimate fate of these dentists depended on diplomatic negotiations between the countries involved and the application of relevant immigration laws.
Bahamas walking a tightrope between U.S. and Cuba
“The Cuban president has courted his mostly English-speaking Caribbean neighbors with doctors, teachers and free trade in rum, coffee and cement.
“Why shouldn’t we trade with Cuba?” said Arthur Foulkes, a founding member of the opposition Free National Movement political party.”
Florida Governor Jeb Bush calls Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie
Bahamian officials indicated that a significant factor contributing to their hesitation in making a decision regarding the fate of the two dentists was their apprehension about the potential influx of an undetermined number of Cuban and Haitian individuals who are also utilising The Bahamas as a means of reaching the United States.
Perhaps it was the prolonged reluctance which prompted a telephone call to then Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie from Florida’s Governor Jeb Bush.
Governor Bush’s brother just happened to be George W. Bush then President of the United States.
Finally Free
On Thursday 10th March 2006, David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darius-Mesa were released from Bahamas immigration detention, to continue their journey to the United States, almost a year after their perilous journey began.
