Cuba makes changes to exit visa policy

[tempbond]

Cubans won't have to ask for a visa to leave the country anymore. Seems like there's already people in line to ask for passports and at travel agencies.

http://www.cbc.ca/quebecam/2012/10/18/cuba-makes-changes-to-exit-visa-policy/

In french : http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2013/01/14/004-cuba-reforme-voyage.shtml

Translation :

Cubans over 18 years can now leave the country if they have a passport. Children under 18 must bring a notarized parental authorization.

Before this reform, Cubans had to obtain a "carte blanche", a kind of exit permits in the country, with a letter of invitation from their destination. They could not stay outside the country for more than 11 months, under penalty of not being able to return.

This reform could enable millions of Cubans expatriates the opportunity to visit their country of origin.

[tempbond]

Good for them !!!

[mk05]

Continuation of this: http://www.cubaheadl...rn_to_cuba.html

This is great news for FoH's extended family down in Cuba. However, I don't see where on this reform that illegal expatriates may return. Maybe further on?

One question is why is Raul doing this? Does he really want a more liberal system? Doesn't he lose control if there's more money in Cuba? Or is it more so a darker path, that there are too many people in Cuba? Are the state benefits program running at high deficit? What better way to decrease population than to give them the choice to leave, now that relatives can give Cubans money to get out? Legal to leave, put the burden on other countries (per say)?

I really don't know, would love to hear some perspectives on this.

[thechenman]

Either way this is a benefit to the Cuban people. If they can leave more readily they can work overseas, visiting home each year to bring money to their family and maintain their good citizenship standing. This is a huge plus for the Cuban people.

[Troels]

I guess Raul might have good intentions, wanting to do good for the nation - why should he not.

I guess most of the severe restrictions have seemed as the only way for the regime, if they didnt want to give in and risk things going back to what they were before the revolution.

I have an idea that a welfare state like in Scandinavia is the goal, and not so much a regime like i former soviet

[canadianbeaver]

If you plan a trip to Cuba soon :-(

Cholera cases reported in Cuba, health officials say

By Patrick Oppmann, CNN

updated 11:36 AM EST, Tue January 15, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Health authorities have closed down food stands in the capital's affected areas
  
• The last cholera outbreak ended in August, officials said
  
• Before then, the bacterial infection hadn't been seen for more than 100 years in Cuba
  

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban authorities said Tuesday the infectious and sometimes deadly disease cholera had struck in Havana, after declaring in August that an earlier cholera outbreak had been wiped out.

A statement from the Cuban Health Ministry said so far there were 51 confirmed cases in the new outbreak. The statement did not say if anyone had died from the disease, a bacterial infection of the small intestine, which causes severe diarrhea and vomiting in infected people.

The Health Ministry statement Tuesday said the latest outbreak appeared to be caused by a food vendor who had not followed proper sanitary procedures.

Residents in some of the neighborhoods where the outbreak occurred told CNN that food stands had been closed down and stations set up at the entrances to buildings for people to disinfect their shoes.

2012: Cuba deals with cholera

The statement said that health workers were in the "extermination phase" of fighting the disease in the Cuban capital, which has a population of 2 million people.

Cholera, according to the World Health Organization, still infects between 3 million and 5 million people each year, killing between 100,000 and 120,000.

But until 2012, Cuba had not seen a cholera outbreak for more than 100 years. It is still not clear how the disease was reintroduced to the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/health/cuba-cholera-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2