The courageous Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has had her solicitation for permission to travel abroad denied for the third time. Read about her experience on her blog, which sports excellent English translations.
Her first permit was denied when she wanted to go to Spain to receive the prestigious journalism prize Ortega y Gasset for her work as a chronicler of the million indignities and humiliations that ordinary people suffer in Cuba on a daily basis.
In her recount she includes pictures of her passport, showing that she has the necessary foreign visas in order to enter Europe or the U.S. The tragedy is that her own country imprisons her, although she’s never been tried with any crime. Unfortunately there’s a myth perpetuated by Castro’s fellow travelers that Cubans throw themselves on a raft because they cannot obtain visas to enter the U.S. In fact, there are plenty of cases where demonstratively the Cuban Government is the guilty party.
Also on Yoani’s blog, make sure to read a great interview with a young (30) man who is ready for his third attempt at leaving on a boat. In it he states clearly the things that appeal more than just the prospect of a house and a car in the land of supposed milk and honey 90 miles to the north.
