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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Cuba to lift exit-visa requirement
HAVANA, Cuba -- The Cuban government announced Tuesday it will eliminate a half-century-old restriction that requires citizens to get an exit visa to leave the country.
The decree that takes effect Jan. 14 will eliminate a much-loathed bureaucratic procedure that has kept many Cubans from travelling or moving abroad.
"These measures are truly substantial and profound," said Col. Lamberto Fraga, Cuba's deputy chief of immigration. "What we are doing is not just cosmetic."
Under the new measure announced in the Communist Party daily Granma, islanders will only have to show their passport and a visa from the country they are travelling to.
It is the most significant advance this year in President Raul Castro's five-year plan of reforms that has already seen the legalization of home and car sales and a big increase in the number of Cubans owning private businesses.
Under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, the United States allows nearly all Cubans who reach its territory to remain. Granma published an editorial blaming the travel restrictions imposed in 1961 on U.S. attempts to topple the island's government, plant spies and recruit its best-educated citizens.
The decree still imposes limits on travel by many Cubans.
People cannot obtain a passport or travel abroad without permission if they face criminal charges, if the trip affects national security or if their departure would affect efforts to keep qualified labour in the country.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 17, 2012 A11
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