Cuba eyes travel freedoms that would test red-carpet US welcome
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| Published on Thursday, April 17, 2008 |
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By Isabel Sanchez
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba is weighing ending wildly unpopular policies requiring its citizens to get costly exit and reentry permits, even as the United States grants automatic residency to all Cubans who reach US soil.
The permits and a passport can add up to expenses in the hundreds of dollars in a country where most workers make under 20 dollars a month. Some critics see the regulations as just short of an effective travel ban for Cuban nationals.
Tuesday, former diplomat and ex-intelligence official Pedro Riera Escalante submitted to the National Assembly a petition for President Raul Castro's government to consider eliminating the permits.
Riera Escalante told AFP his initiative would "eliminate any and all restrictions on entry to and departure from the country in all (migratory) categories, and end the confiscation of the property of those who emigrate indefinitely."
"It also asks for the vote to be granted to Cuban citizens living overseas, and for them to be allowed to invest in the island," the former diplomat said.
For the petition to be considered as a bill by the assembly, it first has to be signed by 10,000 Cuban citizens. Riera Escalante said he asked the assembly to publicize the effort and help gather the signatures.
The assembly officially received the paperwork, he said. It has 60 days to issue a response.
"This is a problem that is weighing down heavily on Cuba," he said. "There is a general underlying feeling among the people that it is necessary to end these restrictions."
Riera Escalante, who himself was jailed in Cuba from 2000-2003 after traveling to Mexico with falsified documents, stressed that his plan did not arise from dissident circles that communist Havana firmly rejects. "I am not a member of any opposition group," he underscored.
He said he saw the prospects for his initiative as good, given that Raul Castro, at Cuba's helm as president since February, has embarked on a string of changes in restrictions that rankle Cubans.
They are acutely resentful of restrictions surrounding the so-called "white card" or exit visa. Rumors have been rife in recent days that the government might soon announce migratory reforms.
Far from tapering off, what often is described as a "silent exodus" has actually picked up since Raul Castro took the reins of government -- officially as president in February, and for over a year as interim leader before then -- despite the modest reforms unveiled.
Raul Castro recently lifted a series of bans on Cubans renting cars and hotel rooms and purchasing goods such as pressure cookers, DVD's, electric bikes and cell phones. He is also considering agriculture reforms that include opening up the sector to greater foreign investment and closing down farming cooperatives that have proven to be inefficient.
Still Cubans are voting with their feet in their thousands -- even while travel is officially not an option. If more than 11 million gain travel freedom, the United States likely would have to review its policies on Cuban immigration.
US authorities estimate that some 35,000 Cubans will arrive to stay this year in the United States, which grants them immediate residency and working rights for fleeing communism. It does not do the same for Chinese or Vietnamese immigrants.
Havana charges that the US policy granting Cubans special benefits encourages dangerous and potentially deadly illegal migration.
Cuba watchers say the government could be using the change, or potential change, to pressure the United States to alter its policy.
They also say that while there is likely a short-term political benefit of allowing greater economic openness, many reforms by Cuba's centrally-controlled, one-party regime could build pressure for more change than the government is prepared to allow. |
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