At least half a dozen Cuban activists are now crisscrossing the globe,
more or less at the same time, publicly airing their grievances against the
Cuban government and meeting with high-level officials and politicians abroad.
What gives? Many Cuba watchers are wondering why a society and government that
has been closed for so many years is now allowing opposing voices to speak so
freely abroad and collect awards _ some with significant amounts of money
attached.
In the past, Havana sporadically granted an exit visa allowing a human rights
activist to travel, but a reform instituted in January swept away the need for
the reviled tarjeta blanca, or exit visa. Dissidents and opposition bloggers
quickly began testing the waters, requesting their passports and accepting
international invitations that in some cases had been stacking up for years.
Some say money _ or lack of it _ is the motivating factor in Cuba's decision to
institute economic and migration reforms. With Cubans freer to come and go, they
can work abroad and make international contacts.
But the big question Cuba analysts are asking is: Is Cuba truly opening up _ or
just trying to burnish its image at a critical time when the future of its main
benefactor, Venezuela, is uncertain and it needs to reach out to the world?
"Cuba has taken some modest steps towards opening up. Easing up on travel
restrictions has been one key area," said Michael Shifter, president of the
Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy analysis center. "Cuban
authorities can say that it is easier now for Cubans to travel to the U.S. than
for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba."
Regardless of the dissidents' critical messages abroad, their travel gives the
Cuban government the opportunity to appear less restrictive. "Every time they
take a plane and travel they are proving this point," said Domingo Amuchastegui,
a former Cuban intelligence analyst who now lives in Miami.
But Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, an
exile organization, says that rather than giving more legitimacy to Havana, the
trips are more advantageous to the dissidents and their views.
"They are giving a face to Cuban reality that is different from what the
government is putting out. I think this will change the world's view of the
internal situation in Cuba," he said. "We also have an opportunity to relate
more personally with these people that we have been helping for quite some
time."
Another benefit for the dissidents, he said, is "when they return, they will be
protected by the knowledge and the contacts they're collected outside." And some
will return with additional monetary support, he said, from the prizes they've
received and the contacts they've made.
But he worries that with all the focus on the world travelers, no one is paying
much attention to the repression and continuing arrests of dissidents on the
island.
Amuchastegui said the new travel policy also is a response to a changing world.
"The rules of the game have changed ... and Cuba is trying to respond to these
new rules."
In the end what prevailed among the Cuban leadership is the idea that "we have
to deal with these people (dissidents) in a different way," he said.
But Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of Oswaldo Paya, perhaps Cuba's most
