15 January 2013

CUBA / USA : Cubanos Line-up For Foreign Travel Allowed By New Law; Cholera Cases Confirmed In La Habana.

        http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gn9Arfyog9bPhA1xABDGnqc8bQoA?docId=ec6c2d2111f24558aec392c95d99665b

      Cubans flocked to immigration offices on the first day of a new law that allegedly allows them to leave the isla...needing only a valid passport and foreign issued visa.
     This seems to be a drastic change of a 50-year-old regulation that virtually choked-off all foreign travel...and that Cubans have long resented.
     Even notorious dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez was told that she would be issued a passport within 15 'working' days.
     Sanchez...who has been awarded more than $350,000 in awards and stipends from foreign organizations for her opposition blogging...has been denied permission to leave Cuba 20 times.
   'I still don't believe it,' she said. 'I have hope but I'll believe it when I'm sitting in an airplane.'
    Many Cubans...and the USA are still skeptical about the extent...and exceptions...to this reform.
    The law's language allows officials to deny travel in cases of 'national security.'
    Foreign embassies in La Habana reported high telephone traffic.
     AND: It could be a good time to flee Cuba...as officials admitted that at least 51 cases of cholera have been confirmed in La Habana alone...the biggest outbreak in over 6 decades.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262815/Doctors-struggle-contain-cholera-outbreak-Havana-51-people-struck-disease.html