Cubans should be free to travel, says (Raul) Castro daughter

[Bacchus39]

Source: AFP

MADRID (AFP) - The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro said in an interview published in a Spanish newspaper on Saturday that Cubans should be free to leave the country as they wish.


The communist authorities in Havana prevented Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez from travelling to Madrid this week to receive a top journalism prize from Spain's El Pais daily.

"It is not necessary to deprive people of their right to leave. I think we should grant permission to all those who want to leave," Mariela Castro said in reply to a question about the desire for Cubans to be allowed to travel freely.

Cubans who want to travel abroad have to seek authorisation in advance.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080510/wl_afp/cubapoliticstravelspain_080510185942

---

interesting about Yoani Sanchez too. Deserves its own story. She founded a blog in Cuba. She keeps it going by sometimes sneaking into tourist hotels to use the internet. her site is Generacion Y.

[ben_meyers]

1. I thought they already could travel.

MIAMI - Cuban migrants fashioned a boat out of a 1951 Chevy pickup truck and “drove” it to within 40 miles of the United States before they were spotted and returned to the island, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.


http://havanajournal.com/culture/entry/cubans_found_at_sea_on_pickup_truck_converted_to_motor_raft/

[ohio2007]

4. Welcome to Hotel California. You can check out anytime you like but

you can never leave.

The US Coastguard sunk thier relic while the Cuban govt reassigned the yachtsman to the Isle of Youth........

[Mika]

14. Bullshit. They got to the front of the legal visa line - and failed a US criminal background check.

All Cubans returned to Cuba by the US are monitored by the US interests section. None are jailed or punished as per a US/Cuba migration accord made in the late 90's by the Clinton admin. The Cubans who used the converted truck were given special access to a US immigration application (they were moved to the front of the line of the 20,000 immigration visas the US offers to Cubans).

They were denied a legal immigration visa by the US INS because they had criminal records (the veracity of which are checked by the US interests section in Cuba).

Knowing that they would be denied a legal visa, they decided to try to take advantage of the US's 'wet foot/dry foot' policy for Cubans only - a policy that grants entry to any and all Cubans who touch US shores, no matter what their criminal background that prevented them from legal entry.

Interesting that contingent of DU's anti Cuba "experts*" support Cuban illegal migration by persons with (un)known criminal backgrounds while ignoring the 20,000+ legal avenues Cubans have - provided they pass a background check required of all applicants seeking a US immigration visa.

I live in Miami and I REALLY don't want more rapists, violent felons, child molesters, or undocumented criminals of any type released into the general population in my hometown!


* - who've never set foot on the island nor done any research other than anti Cuba US government and Miami-Cuban exile propaganda.



-

[hack89]

2. Why was there a ban in the first place?

what was its purpose?

[robcon]

3. The purpose of the ban is to reduce/eliminate defections.

It's the same reason why East Germany put up the Berlin Wall. People flee from horrific totalitarian states like Cuba, and the government tries to prevent that.

The Cuban government knows that many of its citizens, if given the chance, will leave the country.

[ohio2007]

5. ask your doctor

;)

[hack89]

6. I did - he said it was because the country would empty

he wasn't lying was he?;-)

[ohio2007]

12. Was you doctor one of those sent overseas by Fidel ?

Cuban doctors defect from Venezuela posts
Castro's program to aid Chavez opens way for 'desertions'
Juan Forero, Washington Post

Sunday, February 25, 2007
snip


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/25/MNGN4O8FAC1.DTL


diagnosis;
internal bleeding

[Mika]

21. What's the percentage of "defections" for Cuban doctors in other countries?

A dozen or so out of many tens of thousands.

A 0.2 percent "defection" rate, and your diagnosis is internal bleeding? :rofl: You're not much of a diagnostician if that's your finding.

[Mika]

22. Needed to add, but too late to edit above post...

My estimate might be a little low.

Probably several dozen or so. But still, less than 1 percent.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Ala. House panel urges president Bush to open travel to Cuba

Associated Press
Ala. House panel urges president Bush to open travel to Cuba
Associated Press 05.08.08, 12:48 PM ET

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A House committee has approved a resolution urging President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Congress to open up travel between the United States and Cuba.

The resolution by the House Tourism and Travel Committee specifically asks the president to allow travel between Alabama and Cuba.

Committee chairman Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, said allowing travel to the communist island off the southern coast of Florida would mean millions in tourism dollars for Alabama. State Agriculture Secretary Ron Sparks said much of the benefit would come from cruise ships traveling between Havana and Mobile.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/05/08/ap4986794.html

~~~~~~~~~~~
Who's this good for? Alabama, U.S. and Cuba
In our opinion
05-10-2008

~snip~
Thus, it makes perfect sense for the Alabama House Committee on Tourism and Travel to pass a resolution urging the state's congressional delegation to press the Bush administration to remove the "outdated and unnecessary" travel and trade restrictions between our country and Cuba.

Historically, that island nation has been our close friend. Mobile and Havana are sister cities. Once out of Mobile Bay, a ship loaded with Alabama goods can be in Cuban waters in less than 48 hours. For years the wharfs of Mobile rang with the lilt of Spanish spoken with a Cuban accent. It was a profitable connection — economically and culturally — and it should be restored.

Speculation is that it will take another president to do the job. The south Florida vote is too critical to both parties for either to risk alienating the Cuban expatriate vote. However, that vote is aging, and among younger Cuban-Americans the anti-Castro passion has lost much of its fire.

Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industry Ron Sparks has gone the extra mile (and taken trips to the island) in order to put Alabama in a good position to make the most of the embargo's end. In addition to becoming the export center (and import destination) for trade with Cuba, Mobile is poised to become the point of departure for cruise ships bound for Havana. Cuba has become a popular vacation spot for people from other countries, and Americans should be allowed to visit Alabama, depart from Mobile, and enjoy the same.

http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2008/as-editorials-0510-editorial-8e09r4814.htm

[baldguy]

10. Americans should be free to travel, too.

[hack89]

13. We are

with one or two exceptions. I don't recall asking the US government for permission to travel on my last dozen or so trips out of the country. Why don't Cubans have the same right?

[baldguy]

15. Have you been to Cuba?

[hack89]

16. No - but the comparison is ludicrous

we are banned from a single country because of ridiculous law. That leaves most of the rest of the world we can travel to without government permission. Cubans have no freedom to travel at all.

Answer the question - why does the Cuban government need to control the travels of their citizens so completely? What purpose does it serve? Fear?

[Mika]

17. Lots of countries require exit visas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_(document)

-


The Bush junta says that I can't go to Cuba to visit my family there. Period.

[hack89]

18. The ban on travel to Cuba is wrong

but it equally wrong for Cuba to ban their citizens from traveling.

Yes, there are such things as exit visas. Look at the countries that apply them to their own citizens and try to point out any real democracies if you can.

[Mika]

20. I know plenty of Cubans who travel to Canada, Mexico, Latin Americas, France, Spain, then go home.

Some other countries with exit visa requirements...

India, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Dominican Republic, Yemen, Australia, and more.

You can pick and choose which ones are or aren't democracies.

[Dreamer Tatum]

19. Can Cubans travel anywhere by simply going to Mexico/Canada first?

Nope. False comparison.

I'd love to see all restrictions lifted in both directions...Cuba is a wonderful place.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Cuba scorns anti-Castro exile honored in Miami

Cuba scorns anti-Castro exile honored in Miami
Wed May 7, 2008 7:36pm EDT
By Jeff Franks

HAVANA (Reuters) - Days after he was feted in Miami as a freedom fighter for his anti-Castro activities, Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles was scorned on Wednesday in Havana as a "terrorist" given haven by the Bush administration.

The two events showed that, nearly 50 years after their bitter parting, the gulf between the Cuban government and the Cuban American exile community remains as wide as the Florida Straits that separate them.

Posada Carriles, 80, is accused of masterminding the 1976 explosion of a Cubana Airlines jet in which 73 people died and 1990s hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist.

The former CIA operative, who was involved in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to topple Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1961, was jailed for two years in Texas on immigration charges but released on May 8, 2007, and now lives in Miami.

At a press conference to mark the one-year anniversary of his release, relatives of bombing victims denounced Posada Carriles' decades-long campaign against the Castro government and accused the Bush administration of protecting him.

"As a nation, Cuba has not had a moment's rest in over half a century, shaken by the constant fear of enduring new acts of terrorism," they said in a statement read at the International Press Center in Havana.

"The monster, responsible for the deaths of citizens in three different continents, is named Luis Posada Carriles. On May 8th, it will be a year since he was set free in the United States, a country that claims to be the leader of a crusade against terrorism," they said.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0736189420080507

[hack89]

9. Does this mean you support the lifting of the ban? nt

[ohio2007]

11. ?

must consult the crystal ball of truth for proper instructions on making that decision.

;)

[Zorro]

23. I'll tell you what it means

It's just another lame attempt to hijack the thread whenever there's a whiff of criticism of the worker's paradise that is Cuba today.

[Better Believe It]

24. Not A Single Supporter Of Cuba Has Claimed Cuba Is Paradise

But don't let that stop some from parroting the right-wing attacks against Cuba.