The 89-year-old Hilda Morejon Serantes " the mother of renowned brain surgeon Hilda Molina, whom Cuba has prohibited from leaving the communist island " arrived in Buenos Aires late Saturday accompanied by her granddaughter-in-law.

Sitting in a wheelchair and clutching a rosary, Morejon was surrounded by family members and journalists.

"My great-grandchildren are as lovely as I imagined," she said, visibly emotional.

She said she planned to rest and seek medical treatment for heart and leg difficulties, and thanked the governments of Argentina and Cuba for allowing her to travel.

Molina is a highly regarded neurosurgeon and researcher whose son Roberto Quinones left Cuba in 1994 along with his pregnant wife. Quinones has lobbied the Cuban government for years to let his mother and grandmother come to Argentina to meet his children.

Cuba refused his requests under former leader Fidel Castro, but changed its mind after Castro was replaced earlier this year by his younger brother, Raul.

Molina told an Argentine radio station on Friday that she is confident she, too, will gain permission to travel.

Molina worked for Cuba's government-sponsored International Center for Neurological Restoration until 1994, when she resigned after raising ethical questions about embryonic stem cell research.


(Herald Tribune)