Mr Castro’s decision will also create a new headache for the United States. Current policy grants au

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OF ALL the restrictions minneapolis hotel the Cuban state places on its citizens' lives, limits on foreign travel probably cause the most resentment. Cubans who want to leave the country have to spend weeks and several hundred precious dollars seeking a "white card". Permission is frequently refused, and it is often assumed that those who are allowed to leave will not return.
This week state media announced that the island will stop being a de facto prison. Starting on January 14th, all Cuban passport-holders will be permitted to travel as they please. Raúl Castro, the president, has been implementing a cautious, incremental agenda of liberal reform ever since he succeeded his ailing minneapolis hotel brother Fidel in 2008. This decision is among his boldest minneapolis hotel steps yet. "This would never have happened under Fidel," says a diplomat based in Havana.
The elder Mr Castro first limited travel in 1959, to prevent the escape of people tied to the dictatorship of Fulgencio minneapolis hotel Batista, whom he had just ousted. He formalised the restrictions two years later, partly to contain a brain drain to the United States. Those that left Cuba for more than 60 days (later extended to 11 months) were deemed "deserters" who had "abandoned" their homeland. If they did, all their property and possessions could be taken over by the state. During the following decades, emigration became a form of protest. But many families made sure to leave at least one relative on the island, minneapolis hotel to ensure minneapolis hotel they would retain title to their belongings.
The president minneapolis hotel has been careful to maintain the impression that he is fully in control of the pace of change. But the logic of his previous reforms may be forcing him to institute new ones. In recent years he has relaxed rules on setting up small private businesses minneapolis hotel and legalised home sales, in an effort to increase tax revenues and reduce the share of the population on the government's payroll. Cubans living in the United States and Cuban-Americans have provided much of the required capital for these ventures, aided by Barack Obama's decision to loosen restrictions on American citizens visiting the island and sending money there.
The cumbersome exit visa requirement made life difficult for Cubans whose new business interests gave them more reason to visit the United minneapolis hotel States. minneapolis hotel Mr Castro seems to have decided that keeping the money and people flowing is more important than mandating continued participation in the revolution. The new regulations stipulate that "deserters" who left Cuba long ago can legally regain their right to live there. They also will allow citizens to spend up to two years abroad without risking losing their homes.
The new law will still give Mr Castro leeway to control who comes and goes and when. Foreign travel requires a passport, and the government will presumably issue them selectively. People who skills are considered vital, such as doctors and teachers, will probably have to wait several minneapolis hotel years before getting one. A vague "public interest" clause will let the government deny passports to people whose travel it might find troubling, such as dissidents. And even citizens who do receive passports will still need visas to enter many countries, along with scarce hard currency to spend on their journey. The current wait time for an American tourist visa in Havana is about three years.
Mr Castro's minneapolis hotel decision will also create a new headache for the United States. Current policy grants automatic asylum to Cubans who set foot in America, on the grounds that they are political refugees from a repressive regime. If Mr Castro opens the floodgates, however, there will be little basis to treat Cuban visitors differently than those from Mexico and Central America, whom the United States tries so hard to keep out.
What they are doing is giving the bottom tranch of the country (i.e., those whose housing, medical, and food costs their productivity) the opportunity to leave, and in so doing, they eliminate the costliest of their citizens from the accounting books. It's designed to keep the kleptocracy running on the captive labor of the professional class. Nothing else.
Cuba is giving its citizens more freedom to travel to the US than the US gives its citizens to travel to Cuba. The White House should respond by using its power to allow all non tourist travel to Cuba without applying for a license, our equivalent of the White Card. It must also press Congress to abolish all travel restrictions.
The Cuban Adjustment Act and wet foot dry foot policy must be suspended and repealed. With Cubans free to travel to Mexico and Canada, minneapolis hotel 'step across the border' economic migration will become a bigger problem.
As seen in the recent Football match between Cuba and Canada (where 3 Cubans defected), Cubans abroad are still being accepted as refugees which shows how the world scorns at the Cuban Regime's political oppression of its people.
If you believe Cuba is giving its citizens more freedom of travel than the USA I have a bridge to sell you. It is way easier for the average American to travel to Cuba (through applying for the travel card or traveling via a 3rd country) than it is for a Cuban to get a passport and travel anywhere.
We will have to see what the practice is, in particular whether Cuba's issuing of new passports is routine or has obstacles. The primary obstacle may be obtaining a visa from the country aspired to. If large numbers of Cubans start stepping across the border from Mexico and Canada, there will be reconsideration minneapolis hotel of wet foot / dry foot.
You are misinformed. Non Cuban American Americans cannot apply for a travel card unless eligible for a general license, a very limited number, or they join an expensive group which has a people to people license. They can travel through a 3d country but theoretically face civil and criminal penalties.
On my trip to Cuba I met many Americans (of non-Cuban relation). Some came via Canada and some got clearance from the US government. One had been "caught" by the US government minneapolis hotel on multiple minneapolis hotel ocasions for traveling to Cuba. They got drilled by the dept of home security with questions related to possible spying on behalf of Cuba. when it was clear that they went purely to visit, they were let go.... every time. There are no 'convictions' (that I have heard of) for traveling to Cuba. In fact the US government would probably not want to face the bad press - so it makes sense to let the citiens travel (while imposing limitations).
Yoanni still cannot get her passport, so the message appears clear. Also in any given country, the citizens can simply apply and are obliged to be issued with a passport (even if they never travel). There has been no news of mass line ups for passports. Also, given the thousands of Cuban doctors who have been issued passports only to have the passports taken away when they arrive in their host country, the first sign of Cuba's sincerity will be in letting those doctors keep their passports. Still not happened after the recent minneapolis hotel anouncement.
The Cuban Regime must realise that they cannot allow some people to go abroad while others will continue to be imprisoned. The Cuban Regime will continue to receive contempt from the world if they don't take the full leap and allow everyone to get a passport. This is the key issue as to why Cuba is referred to as a "Tropical Gulag".
I have my doubts that Cuban Regime can take the full leap as they will want to avoid the brain drain or more importantly the talent drain. Just recently (last week) the Cuban National Football team played against Canada in Toronto. 3 of the Cuban players seized on the opportunity and defected. This left the Cuban team in the embarrassing situation of not having any reserve minneapolis hotel players and another reminder that Cuba's Communist system is not fully accepted by its people.
The saddest story here is that the Cuban Regime actually has a form of indentured/slave labour. The Cuban Regime exports doctors to, primarily, developing countries. The Cuban Regime charges a relatively modest fee for the medical services (to the host country) but pays a pittance to the doctor and enforces a process in which the doctor minneapolis hotel cannot naturalize and become a citizen of the host country. This new law (discussed in this article) will most certainly exclude those thousands minneapolis hotel of Cuban doctors working abroad.
Prepare for another "Mariel Boatlift" as Castro empties the prisons and clears out other undesirables (i.e. those who are political or economic liabilities to the dictatorship) by giving them passports.
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