Laritza Diversent wasn’t sure until the plane took off from Havana that she’d actually make it to South Florida for her first visit ever to the United States.

An independent lawyer, journalist and human rights defender, she drew international attention this year by presenting critical reports to the United Nations on respect for human rights and on the status of women in her communist-led homeland.

On the plane, she worried that the Cuban government might stop her from flying out to attend this year’s Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy conference, held Aug. 1-3 in Miami.

Officials can use provisions under the new migration law that took effect Jan. 14 to deny Cubans exit or entry for reasons of “national security” or “public interest.” And Cubans have no judicial recourse to appeal those decisions that come down from the Interior Ministry, Diversent said.

Yet the 33-year-old mom joined more than a dozen other Cuban residents, mostly critical of their government, at ASCE this year in an appearance that enriched debate over Cuba’s ongoing reforms.

“There’s been a change of make-up, but in essence, it’s the same person,” Diversent said in a presentation on the new migration law. “There’s still no guarantee they won’t take away the law tomorrow. We have no way to defend that right [to freedom of movement.]”

Diversent’s professional experience shows contradictions in Cuba’s reforming economy.

She and three other attorneys work together, but they can’t charge for their legal services. Cuba does not include lawyers (or doctors, accountants or other professions requiring higher education) among the roughly 200 job categories permitted as self-employed.

And the lawyers cannot technically represent clients since they don’t work for a government-backed law office known as a bufete colectivo.

Diversent and her partners run the Cubalex Center for Legal Information, a kind of not-for-profit group started in 2010 that offers free legal advice on issues from housing to inheritance to political rights. Last year, the Center responded to more than 570 requests for services, including about 300 new cases.

The bulk of requests came from political dissidents, some from inmates and many from Cubans with no political motivation. The lawyers respond with a memo analyzing each case, recommendations on how to proceed, and if needed, help out with letters and other paperwork, she has told the foreign press. The partners work from the living room of Diversent’s home in a predominantly Afro-Cuban neighborhood of Havana. They share one personal computer in their office, with no access to the Internet.

When they need to surf online, they can go to a public booth which can cost $15 per hour or more often, tap the generosity of embassies. Diversent often takes three buses to get to an embassy to download laws onto a flash drive to later add to the group’s archive.

In order to pay the bills, the group gets help from overseas. They write articles as independent journalists for Cubanet, a website supported by the National Endowment for Democracy. Each article pays about $25.

They also get funds from People in Need, a non-governmental organization based in the Czech Republic. And their blog has helped build awareness of their activities, sparking individuals abroad to pay for minutes on their cellphones or give other small donations.

“There are Spaniards, Swedes, Czechs, Norwegians, so many people who help us,” she said.

It’s a shoestring operation. Diversent said the group is lucky to get $200 to $300 per month to cover office expenses and salaries. They have children to support, and cash doesn’t go very far, since the amount of subsidized food the government offers on ration cards is steadily diminishing, she said.

Fellow Cubalex attorney Veizant Boloy recalled that he used to earn about $40 per month working at a government-backed law office, attending to cases and state enterprises. He prefers human rights law, though the pay may be lower and political risks higher. He’s been arrested, as have his law partners.

Diversent said she believes the government approved the new migration law “to improve its image abroad. “Cuba had been one of the few in the world that required an exit visa for its citizens to travel.

“It had to change,” she said. “Enough already.”

Yet far more needs to be done in the areas of civil and political rights, said Diversent. Her group’s report to the UN on women, for example, decries widespread prostitution, lack of attention to the needs of blacks and labor laws banning women from hundreds of jobs such as driving heavy equipment.

Boloy said he believes Cuba is letting dissidents to travel abroad, partly in hopes that critics will opt to stay overseas. But he said the Cubalex group plans to stay in Cuba and looks forward to the day when independent attorneys can defend clients in human rights cases before an independent judiciary.

In her first trip to Miami, Diversent said she marvels to see so many signs for independent law offices. “Seeing those signs,” she told us, “makes me incredibly envious.”