Cuba regulates invitations to travel abroad

To all those who say that the U.S. travel restrictions are heartless and cause painful family separations; I say that it's the castro regime that is heartless and responsible for the family separations, not the United States. Cubans do not have freedom to travel without permission, not within Cuba or abroad, especially abroad.

An already cumbersome process to get permission for family in Cuba to come for a visit just became much more difficult. My heart breaks for anyone who tried to get their stubborn elderly parents to stay during that last visit and they refused. "Maybe the next visit" they said. Perhaps there are others they can't bear to leave behind, "La tía will come with us the next visit" they said. "Then we'll stay."

Effective today, Resolution 87/2007, issued by the Foreign Ministry.

From the Miami Herald:

A new Cuban government regulation that took effect Wednesday will make it more difficult for some Cubans abroad to invite relatives and friends on the island to visit them.
Resolution 87/2007, issued by the Foreign Ministry, requires such invitations to be submitted through Cuban consulates abroad, notarized and in accordance with the laws of the country where they are requested.

But the consulates will ''have the authority to reject the invitation when there are elements that recommend that,'' added the resolution, published in the official gazette.

Many Cubans have long used such invitations as a way of obtaining Cuban government permission to leave the island and remain abroad.

Before the new regulation, the invitations could be certified in Cuba at the International Legal Consultancy, a quasi-government agency with branches in Havana and other parts of Cuba. That option could speed up the process and make it cheaper, but was open to corruption.

The regulation will affect Cuban Americans who used the Consultancy to certify their invitations, but not those who use U.S.-based travel agencies to handle their invitations. Those agencies already process their invitations through the Cuban consulate in Washington, agency officials said.

''I believe this measure was conceived to rationalize and guarantee the consular work on a process that was totally out of control,'' said Armando García, president of the Marazul travel agency in Miami.

Posted by Ziva at May 2, 2007 10:50 PM

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Posted by: CubaWatch at May 3, 2007 10:35 AM

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