Dissident Cuban doctor sees family after 15 years

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A Cuban neurosurgeon arrived in Argentina on Sunday to visit relatives, 15 years after she broke ranks with former leader Fidel Castro over the healthcare system on the communist-ruled island.

Hilda Molina, 66, was given permission to leave Cuba last week after complaining publicly for years about being denied the right to travel to visit her aging mother, son and grandchildren in Argentina.

"Thanks to everyone who helped," Molina said after arriving at the international airport in Buenos Aires, where her son and two grandsons were waiting to greet her.

Molina said on Friday she believed Cuban authorities had finally agreed to give her a travel permit only because of her 90-year-old mother's deteriorating health.

Molina said she had been given permission to leave Cuba for three months. She said she wanted to live in Cuba and planned to return after looking after her mother in Argentina.

Molina, who founded Havana's prestigious International Center for Neurological Rehabilitation (Ciren), was elected to the Cuban parliament in 1993.

But she fell out with Fidel Castro and quit the party in 1994 after asserting that Cuba was eroding its principle of free, quality healthcare for all by selling medical services to foreigners to meet its pressing needs for foreign currency.

Fidel Castro has said Molina was forced out of the government for seeking to take over the state-run neurology center that she once headed.

In the prologue to a book last year, he said Molina's case provided "excellent material for imperialist blackmail against Cuba."