Relax Cuban travel rules, former consul asks

Relax Cuban travel rules, former consul asks
Posted on Wed, Apr. 16, 2008
Associated Press

HAVANA --
A former Cuban consul in Mexico who once fled the island using a fake
passport and claims he worked for Cuban intelligence is asking
authorities to let island residents travel abroad without government
approval.

Pedro Anibal Riera Escalante made the request to parliament on Tuesday.
Expectations are high that President Raúl Castro's government may drop
the travel requirements.

Riera in 2000 used a false Mexican passport to board a commercial flight
from Havana to Mexico, but was denied asylum in Mexico, which sent him
back to his homeland. He got a five-year prison sentence and is now free.

Riera claims he was a top anti-CIA intelligence official for Cuba for 25
years. He was consul in Mexico 1986-91.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/497814.html