Cubans living abroad are invited to Havana

IMMIGRATION
Cubans living abroad are invited to Havana
Cuban expatriates from Miami among 100 expected to attend a conference
in Havana.
Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2008
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

More than 100 Cubans living abroad, including some from Miami, will be
in Havana Wednesday for a three-day meeting with Cuban officials, and
some participants say Cuba's migration policy may be up for discussion.

The gathering comes on the heels of the fifth anniversary of Cuba's
''black spring,'' a crackdown on 75 dissidents, independent journalists
and librarians. Fifty-five remain in Cuban prisons, and the Cuban
government is not expected to address the issue of dissidents during the
meeting -- a sore point for exiles and activists on the communist island.

MIAMI PARTICIPANTS

Although Miami participants have not publicly acknowledged invitations
to the Havana conference, at least two controversial South Florida
Cuban-American broadcasters, Francisco Aruca and Max Lesnik, said they
were traveling to Cuba to cover the event.

Aruca and Lesnik said they expect the meeting to deal with a hot topic
on both sides of the Florida Straits: Cuban migration.

''The meeting is expected to involve an exchange, opinions from Cubans
living abroad, and the views of Cuban officials as what to do toward the
future,'' said Lesnik.

There's speculation among Cuba experts in South Florida that the
government could use the meeting to announce new measures related to
emigration.

One of the measures, Aruca and Lesnik said, might be the elimination of
exit permits that Cubans are required to obtain before they can travel
abroad legally.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said that if indeed Cuba announces the
elimination of exit permits, it may be a tactical move to attempt to put
the United States on the defensive.

''The government may relax some of the requirements for Cubans to travel
abroad and then throw it in the lap of the Americans, make it an
American problem if they don't let them into the United States,'' said
Suchlicki. ``It's a way for Cuba to use this as pressure on the United
States.''

EXIT PERMITS

Exit permits are issued to Cubans who have visas from foreign countries
to visit or legally stay. Without exit permits, Cubans cannot legally
leave their country -- even if they have secured a foreign visa.

The exit permit requirement is galling for talented young artists and
athletes who want to expand their horizons abroad.

Cubans who don't have exit permits or visas often leave by boat and, if
not intercepted by the Coast Guard, can stay in the United States under
the wet-foot/dry-foot policy and the Cuban Adjustment Act.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/461909.html